What hardware to get?

[grouparchive]

We are upgrading our SQL Server hardware because we need more CPU
power. The current server is a P4 3.2 GHz with HT.

The system we have been looking at is a dual Opteron, and the questions
is: will two Opteron 244 (1.8GHz) give considerably more CPU power than
a single P4 3.2 GHz? Or would we need to get two Opteron 250 (2.4 GHz)
to really get a notable increase in CPU power?

The plan is to get single core Operons first and then plug in two dual
core opterons later on if needed when they are available and maybe a
little bit cheaper.

-Jack

[Erland Sommarskog]

(gr**********@gmail.com) writes:

We are upgrading our SQL Server hardware because we need more CPU
power. The current server is a P4 3.2 GHz with HT.

The system we have been looking at is a dual Opteron, and the questions
is: will two Opteron 244 (1.8GHz) give considerably more CPU power than
a single P4 3.2 GHz? Or would we need to get two Opteron 250 (2.4 GHz)
to really get a notable increase in CPU power?

The plan is to get single core Operons first and then plug in two dual
core opterons later on if needed when they are available and maybe a
little bit cheaper.

Opteron is a 64-bit processor, isn't it? I believe that currently the
only 64-bit processor which there is a 64-bit version of SQL Server
is Itanium.

And while you can run 32-bit software on 64-bit hardware, this is not
a very good idea if it's performance you are looking for.
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp

[Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)]

"Erland Sommarskog" <es****@sommarskog.se> wrote in message
news:Xn**********************@127.0.0.1...

(gr**********@gmail.com) writes:

We are upgrading our SQL Server hardware because we need more CPU
power. The current server is a P4 3.2 GHz with HT.

The system we have been looking at is a dual Opteron, and the questions
is: will two Opteron 244 (1.8GHz) give considerably more CPU power than
a single P4 3.2 GHz? Or would we need to get two Opteron 250 (2.4 GHz)
to really get a notable increase in CPU power?

The plan is to get single core Operons first and then plug in two dual
core opterons later on if needed when they are available and maybe a
little bit cheaper.
Opteron is a 64-bit processor, isn't it? I believe that currently the
only 64-bit processor which there is a 64-bit version of SQL Server
is Itanium.

And while you can run 32-bit software on 64-bit hardware, this is not
a very good idea if it's performance you are looking for.

Actually, with the Opteron design, I don't believe there's any loss in
performance, unlike the Itanium.

Having said that, my first real question would be:

Are you (the original poster :-) absolutely sure you need more CPU power? I
find memory and I/O tend to be the first physical bottleneck.

But often poor programming (such as cursors) tends to dominate.

Also, rather than just raw CPU power, I'd look at on-board cache. Which
ones have the largest L2 cache? I find that a doubling in cache can make
for dramatic improvements in performance.


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp

[SQLJack]

Hi,

Greg:
Thanks for the feedback. I did find the reason for the high cpu load.
It was in fact a poorly written query. Instead of using a simple IF
EXISTS to check if a table was empty it used a COUNT () > 1. It slipped
passed me at first and it only takes 2 seconds to run, but the query
was run 12,000 times a day so it added up. Thanks for the L2 tip.

Erland: Opteron can run 64 bit code (as Windows 2003 64), but it also
runs 32 bit code without penalty.

Thanks!

-Jack

[Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)]

"SQLJack" <gr**********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11*********************@o13g2000cwo.googlegro ups.com...

Hi,

Greg:
Thanks for the feedback. I did find the reason for the high cpu load.
It was in fact a poorly written query. Instead of using a simple IF
EXISTS to check if a table was empty it used a COUNT () > 1. It slipped
passed me at first and it only takes 2 seconds to run, but the query
was run 12,000 times a day so it added up. Thanks for the L2 tip.
Yeah. Queries like that "add up" quickly.


Erland: Opteron can run 64 bit code (as Windows 2003 64), but it also
runs 32 bit code without penalty.

Thanks!

-Jack