Dear Ericneu:
You said that any high end server would have the maximum number of CPUs installed, well here is the highest end HP and only 75% of the CPUs were installed (of the cell boards in place (it could go higher)). Even a flagship entry that does not, means that HP only uses what would be useful (keeps the price/performance ratio up). They may do it on their smaller systems. Others claim that this is how servers are sold to the business community at large. It has been my experience that this is true of both high end and mid level systems. For hot swap systems, this is even more true. CPU prices drop over time and thus if you only get what you need when you need it, you will pay the lowest prices and installation is just plug it in while the server is running and remote activate it. Easy installation is a hallmark of hot swap systems (not something Intel can do in its motherboards (or AMD for that matter)). They can start with two CPUs in two cell boards. To add a CPU, deactivate one cell board, pull it out, add a CPU, and put it in. Reactivate both CPUs and repeat for other cell board. Adding CPUs is easy. Ditto for memory, storage, NICs, etc.
Pretty neat, huh?
Pete |
