Re: Why don't you compare similarly configured systems from the same supplier?
Well, the short answer is that I was responding to the comment "Dell costs little more than Rackmount Servers."
A somewhat longer answer is that there isn't any pricing information available on an Intel based 1U system with anywhere near the capabilities of the AMD system I compared the Dell to (the AMD systems supported 4 hot-swap SCSI devices, while the Dell was limited to 3), the AMD system was scalable to higher speeds, etc. Appro has just announced a PIII system in the same form factor as the Athlon system, but it isn't yet in production and there isn't any online pricing available yet. And that's still Intel's "old" and "slow" server. The Appro system offered considerably expandability and performance than the Dell system, despite the Dell costing 75% more.
We can compare two similar Chenbro based 2U systems, if you'd like, and in a 2U case, we can use the current processors from Intel, as well as AMD.
I won't restart the argument about relative performance, but most tests I've seen rate the Athlon MP 1800 considerably faster than a Xeon 1.7. I found pricing for Athlon MP at 1600 and 1800 but not 1700, so I'll give Intel the "pricing" benefit of the doubt. Going with an Athlon MP 1600 would save $180 and still outperform the P4 Xeon, so make that substitution if you'd like.Case, MOBO with Intel AMD
SCSI and Dual Lan: $1,569 $1,189
Backplane $165 Included
CPUx2(Xeon 1.7 or MP 1800) $738 $698
2x512meg ECC Ramu $1,596 $716
One 18 gig drive $299 $299
Total $4367 $2,902/$2,720 with 1600's
Dell's similar 2U server: Dell doesn't offer P4 Xeon in a server - evidently they think the P4 Xeon isn't any good for servers. |
