RE: surprising result:8CPU Sun 3500 VS 4CPU Dell 6650

> -----Original Message-----
> So, what is the advantage of Sun? Redhat Advanced
> server and 920 is also so much stable, and Sun T3 disk array
> is also of poor performance. CPU poor, disk array not that
> good, why sun?
>

One thing I noticed is that you were using an older Sun. The current Suns have CPU's more than twice as fast as what you are using. It would be interesting to see the results using a new Sun rather than an old one. I have always thought the Dell PowerEdge series was an excellent value. But I have always appreciated the very well thought-out design of the Sun machines and the overall excellent package of solid hardware, very stable OS, and excellent customer service that Sun provides.

Some capabilities of the Sun -- which might or might not exist on the Dell (I don't know) -- are the ability to partition the machine into "domains" and dynamically move resources between the domains. The Sun will run OK with a bad memory module or bad CPU's. As long as the Sun has one working CPU, it will run. I haven't done sys admin work for a while, but in the past, Sun provided a utility called Symon that displayed a detailed picture of the system boards and, if there was a problem with a component, would show you which component had failed. Whether these features are of any value to you depends on you. One other point in favor of the Sun is that Sun is excellent at maintaining backward compatibility in releases of its OS. You could, in fact, take a ten year old Sparc IPC, install Solaris on it, and use it as a web server or file server. Almost every old (in computer terms) Sun shop has those old "lunch box" (not pizza boxes) Sun's hanging around, still perfectly usable. Something I doubt could be said about a 10 year old Intel box.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, the SunSolve CD is an excellent resource. One is tempted say "worth its weight in gold", but it is actually worth more than that.

As far as the preoccupation with which box can produce the best benchmark: In my personal philosophy, either a box is fast enough to run the application for which it is intended, or it is not. After that point those less tangible qualities, such as those listed about, do count and should be considered.

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Author: Stephen Lee
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