looking for a multiprocessor system
 

looking for a multiprocessor system between $5 and 10K. We have a math server program that implements multithreading, and a solaris box that works well. Now I need to add a linux box that is as powerful as can be for this price. It needs to have the following stuff:

1. Oracle client and server, 10g.
2. Fedora Core 2
3. CBuilderX.

I implemented this on a laptop as a test and it works fine.

My question is, I'm not sure what kind of systems is best performance for the money. I have seen dual 64 bit itanium systems for around 10K, but there are dual xeon systems for half that. I am not sure but I think there may be some quad xeons around for the high end price.

Could anyone advise me please on a good recommendation or whether any of these types of systems are incompatible with my requirements? Or if there is another (alpha?) system that I could get that would beat this? Most of the processing is not disk-intensive, the data is loaded into memory and then used in multithread calculations. Keep in mind I am a linux newbie please with about a month of experience, so any help would be useful.

Thank you very much.

Dean Brown

multiprocessor system
 

I to am new to Linux, and also wanted a dual cpu system.

After some research I ended up purchasing a system from SW Technology in Richardson TX. It came with Linux preinstalled and everything worked. This let me start using Linux and learning with a system that worked perfect.

Good Luck

could you give me a few details, such as price and processors/disks/mem?

i'd use opteron processors (price/perf.) but i don't know a really good board now. i think the msi's are quite ok (a friend always uses them and he's satisfied with). the amount memory depends on your needs. about 1G might be enough more is sure better ;-). look out for good disks and raid.

sl mritch.

dual/multi cpu system
 

Wow, you are on top of this.

Instead of me trying to remember configurations and pricing, I suggest that you go to their web site.
Google SW Technology. You may find that the most knowledgeable people there don't speek english as their first language. But I enjoyed doing business with them.

Ok thanks all. One question though, what's the deal with RAID disks? Are we just looking at security here or are they faster or what?

RAID gives you data redundancy, so that if one of the drives in the array fails, you will not lose any data. In contrast, if you are running a single disk system, and it fails, you're dead in the water till a new drive is installed and any recoverable data is salvaged from the dead drive. Therefore, RAID makes a lot of sense for mission critical systems.

Using RAID has nothing to do with security; they are independent issues. In other words, you still need a firewall, you still need to use good passwords, you still need to manage which users can access what data, etc.

As for cost or performance evaluation, I think that would depend on the specific equipment choices that you were evaluating. Good luck with it in any event -- J.W.

JW,

When I said security, I meant security against data loss. This is not such a critical part of this project, so I was just asking whether RAID has any other advantages apart from this.

Thanks

Dean

Sorry Dean, I didn't understand you meant security in terms of data protection. The answer though is Yes, RAID will provide security against data loss. As you probably know, there are several different "flavors" of RAID however, eg, RAID 3, RAID 5, etc, and if you haven't done so already I'd suggest reading over a basic FAQ to learn about the differences. Just like everything else, there are advantanges and disadvantages to each approach.

Good luck with the project. Heck, I'm envious. I wish I had your budget for new equipment -- J.W.

J.W. that's ok! I am a raid newbie! I guess I'll end up with a 15K scsi drive or two. Our clients, with their big databases, will use raid, but that's up to them. We just have test data to work with:)

Dean