EM64T and linux

[Dave Cramer]

On 28-Apr-06, at 7:33 PM, Vince Hillier wrote:

> Christopher Browne wrote:
>
>> On 4/28/06, Phillip Qin <Phillip.Qin-szgMhqSEIEG+XT7JhA+gdA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>
>>> But all the servers Dell offers use the EM64T. I have no choice.  
>>> The port
>>> does say "The port consists of kernels for all AMD 64bit CPUs  
>>> with AMD64
>>> extension and all Intel CPUs with EM64T extension, and a common  
>>> 64bit
>>> userspace.".
>>
>> Well, then, that strikes me as an excellent reason to NOT buy  
>> servers from Dell.
>
>
> That's pretty black and white no?  The 64 bit processors run 32 bit  
> code fine.
>
>>
>> We stopped doing it a while back because they were severely  
>> underperforming.
>
> I'd like to see "serverly" defined, as they're not that bad.
Dell servers are what they are, they don't perform well for  
postgresql. This is a well known fact. The reason is because their  
disk I/O is very poor. Disk I/O affects all applications.

For the same money you can get much better hardware. But it's your  
money Chris is giving you the benefit of the experience of a company  
that uses a lot of servers. You can choose to accept this charity or  
not...
>
>> Here is a canonical example of the trouble with Dell:
>> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-performance/2004-12/msg00164.php
>
> The posting blasts Dell's linux support.  Who chooses a vendor  
> based on support?  You shouldn't be purchasing linux servers if you  
> have no in house linux expertise.  It then goes into saying that  
> the Perc's perform poorly, which again is undefined.  They aren't  
> bad, especially compared to Mylex.  The posting then chews Dell for  
> video card support issues - I thought this was a server?  I think  
> that's a Postgres mailing list... can you say... moot?
>
> There is definite advantages to running Postgres on non Xeon  
> hardware, however that article doesn't justify "not buying dell".
> That said, yes, Opterons rock.  They'll blow a Xeon away - any day.
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