Re: Quad processor options

Anjan Dave wrote:

> We use XEON Quads (PowerEdge 6650s) and they work nice,
 > provided you configure the postgres properly.
 > Dell is the cheapest quad you can buy i think.
 > You shouldn't be paying 30K unless you are getting high CPU-cache
 > on each processor and tons of memory.

good to hear, I tried to online configure a quad xeon here at dell
germany, but the 6550 is not available for online configuration. at dell
usa it works. I will give them a call tomorrow.

> I am actually curious, have you researched/attempted any
 > postgresql clustering solutions?
 > I agree, you can't just keep buying bigger machines.

There are many asynchronous, trigger based solutions out there (eRserver
etc..), but what we need is basically a master <-> master setup, which
seems not to be available soon for postgresql.

Our current dual Xeon runs at 60-70% average cpu load, which is really
much. I cannot afford any trigger overhead here. This machine is
responsible for over 30M page impressions per month, 50 page impressums
per second at peak times. The autovacuum daemon is a god sent gift :)

I'm curious how the recently announced mysql cluster will perform,
although it is not an option for us. postgresql has far superior
functionality.

> They have 5 internal drives (4 in RAID 10, 1 spare) on U320,
 > 128MB cache on the PERC controller, 8GB RAM.

Could you tell me what you paid approximately for this setup?

How does it perform? It certainly won't be twice as fast a as dual xeon,
but I remember benchmarking a quad P3 xeon some time ago, and it was
disappointingly slow...

Regards,
Bjoern