single fast QC vs slower QC

[Robstarusa]

Do you guys have a recommendation?

I'm looking at some cheap, older B3 (TLB fixed) opterons @ 1.8ghz with 16G ram.

Would I be better with 16G ram + 8 cores @ 1.8ghz (opteron) or 16G ram on a p45 board with say a 3.0ghz quad core based on core2 architecture?

Is there a general rule of thumb?

 

[tom]

Do you guys have a recommendation?

I'm looking at some cheap, older B3 (TLB fixed) opterons @ 1.8ghz with 16G ram.

Would I be better with 16G ram + 8 cores @ 1.8ghz (opteron) or 16G ram on a p45 board with say a 3.0ghz quad core based on core2 architecture?

Is there a general rule of thumb?

I have no direct comparison to send but it could depend on the applications and databases you want to run. But even more important is the local storage system - you should follow our recommendations.

 

[tog]

If this involved CPUs that weren't so disparate in performance (older generation 1.8GHz opteron vs. newer 3GHz core2) it would be a tougher question. But, I expect four core2 cores @ 3GHz is actually about on par with eight older generation opteron cores @ 1.8GHz except with less electricity and heat dissipation needed to run the newer CPU.