Re: Quad Xeon or Quad Opteron?

Andrzej Zawadzki wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We're planning new production server for PostgreSQL and I'm wondering
> which processor (or even platform) will be better: Quad Xeon or Quad
> Opteron (for example SUN now has a new offer Sun Fire X4440 x64).

[snip]

> Suggestions?

To get a more useful response here, you might want to include some
information about your workload and database size, and report on your
planned disk subsystem and RAM.

Also, based on what I've seen on this list rather than personal
experience, you might want to give more thought to your storage than to
CPU power. The usual thrust of advice seems to be: Get a fast, battery
backed RAID controller. "Fast" does not mean "fast sequential I/O in
ideal conditions so marketing can print a big number on the box"; you
need to consider random I/O too. Get lots of fast disks. Get enough RAM
to ensure that your indexes fit in RAM if possible.

Note, however, that I have no direct experience with big Pg databases;
I'm just trying to provide you with a guide of what information to
provide and what to think about so you can get better answers here from
people who actually have a clue.

--
Craig Ringer