Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

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searcherrr
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Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

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If I were to tell you or anyone else that I was putting up an Opteron 185 Server of 4GB RAM and SATA drives running Windows 2003 Server, would that be looked at as a slow server right now? slow? medium? fast? super fast?

I see what looks to be a good deal on a used server and I know Opteron 185's were like end of 2005 - beginning 2006 release time... are they still considered fast enough to "SERVE" today?

I will simply be running 5 - 10 web sites at first and over a Comcast Business account on top bandwidth that I can get in a residential area. As I ramp up web sites in the future it is thought I should have more money and will buy another server, but for now ya'll think this is a good place to start?
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kenc51
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Re: Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

Post by kenc51 »

Sounds good, how much traffic will the sites have?
searcherrr
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Re: Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

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I think I'd be lying if I answered that question. Everything is "startup" so I assume the traffic will be very minimal at first until my sites catch on. I will be using ads on them amongst their other functions of information providing and some will be service based, but those sites will obviously take longer to develop. I don't really know how I'd estimate traffic for something that doesn't even exist yet? Anyone? Still, I feel the start will be slow.

Basically though, I'd kinda like to know where this processor rates amongst today's server processors and if its now thought to be slow.
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Re: Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

Post by kenc51 »

searcherrr wrote:I think I'd be lying if I answered that question. Everything is "startup" so I assume the traffic will be very minimal at first until my sites catch on. I will be using ads on them amongst their other functions of information providing and some will be service based, but those sites will obviously take longer to develop. I don't really know how I'd estimate traffic for something that doesn't even exist yet? Anyone? Still, I feel the start will be slow.

Basically though, I'd kinda like to know where this processor rates amongst today's server processors and if its now thought to be slow.
You'll be suprised with that CPU, even though it's from the previous generation it's still quite good, especially for what you're doing.
Web servers don't need raw CPU speed, the CPU on a webserver is only there to run apache / IIS and to queue IO requests from the RAM and HDD.
Sure a webserver can be crippled due to a slow CPU, but this normally happens some time later on after you've upgraded RAM and HDD's.
Since you have a single dual core CPU, just make sure you code the site well and don't let any one thing monopolise the CPU's time.

You should look into using FreeBSD and Apache if you haven't bought 2003 Server yet.
It's a lot easier to configure than you think and is as stable as they come, not to mention tried and tested.
Also with very little work you can make it super secure (sysctl kern.securelevel=2, ipfw firewall, Jails etc.)
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Re: Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

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Thank you for that information. It is very helpful.

I thought the Opteron 185's were just single core. My bad.... they are dual core. I guess I got confused over the board I've been looking at because it only goes up to a 100 series Opteron, which I wonder about.... as in if I could upgrade the motherboard bios-chip such that it would take later Opteron models (ie: 200 series and up).

Is having DDR (original) a big slow down now? I know there is DDR2 and I heard there wasn't much a boost in speed on that. Is there such a thing as DDR (original) dual-channel or would I have to have a motherboard that works with dual-channel memory? DDR3 much faster? Do I much care about going beyond DDR for what I've said I'm doing here?

Are the 185's vs 170's, 175's, & 180's any noticeably different from the 185? I've seen few remaining online, but the price difference is a bit big in some places. I just wonder if I'd be fine and happy with a 175 or a 180 or a 170 even..... as fine n happy as I'd be with a 185. What ya'll think?

I know I could research this all over the place, but does freebsd or apache have emulators or containers (or whatever) that can run microsoft stuff reliably? IE: .NET, old ASP etc..
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Re: Opteron 185 Server Speed Question

Post by kenc51 »

searcherrr wrote:Thank you for that information. It is very helpful.

I thought the Opteron 185's were just single core. My bad.... they are dual core. I guess I got confused over the board I've been looking at because it only goes up to a 100 series Opteron, which I wonder about.... as in if I could upgrade the motherboard bios-chip such that it would take later Opteron models (ie: 200 series and up).

Is having DDR (original) a big slow down now? I know there is DDR2 and I heard there wasn't much a boost in speed on that. Is there such a thing as DDR (original) dual-channel or would I have to have a motherboard that works with dual-channel memory? DDR3 much faster? Do I much care about going beyond DDR for what I've said I'm doing here?

Are the 185's vs 170's, 175's, & 180's any noticeably different from the 185? I've seen few remaining online, but the price difference is a bit big in some places. I just wonder if I'd be fine and happy with a 175 or a 180 or a 170 even..... as fine n happy as I'd be with a 185. What ya'll think?

I know I could research this all over the place, but does freebsd or apache have emulators or containers (or whatever) that can run microsoft stuff reliably? IE: .NET, old ASP etc..
I wouldnt bother with spending the money on getting a higher end CPU, also the 2 series Opertons are designed for dual socket motherboards. They have an extra HT link in them for communications between the two CPU sockets. I wouldnt recommend going the dual socket route, and if you do go that route, it would be cheaper to go with either a modern Intel or AMD platform. (It would be overkill for your needs)
DDR2 does give more performace over DDR1, but memory speed is not too important for webservers. (it can be, but there's other areas more important)
Regarding FreeBSD, Apache is developed for BSD Unix on BSD, then "ported" over to work with the other OS's. This means Apache is optimised for FreeBSD.
You could look into using "mono" on FreeBSD to get support for .NET - http://www.mono-project.com/Mono:FreeBSD
You can run ASP on FreeBSD, but I don't do much webdev, so I'm not to sure if it's stable or has all the features you may need. It seems you can use ASP but via Perl for scripting.
To be honest, go with what you know. If you're comfortable with IIS etc., use that. Remember once the site(s) have grown, you'll have to maintain it so it's better to go with what you know.
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