Grant <emailgrant <at> gmail.com> writes:
> I've only ever used systems with a single CPU. I'm looking for a new host for a dedicated server (suggestions?) and it looks like I'll probably choose a machine with two or four CPUs. NUMA is specialization, imho: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-4-esx-vcenter/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.resourcemanagement.doc_41/using_numa_systems_with_esx_esxi/c_what_is_numa.html The more cores the better. 6 and 8 are readily available. The 6 core AMD near 4 GHz is the sweet spot, imho. Here is a 4 core on sale at Newegg: AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz If you run a feature rich desktop (kde, gnome, etc) then the more cores the better. Compiling code is much faster and you can still have a snappy desk top. Most gentoo folks compile quite a bit of code, depending on your updates and how often you experiment with new features or software. I'm setting up some new FX-8350 machines, but fully flushed out, there around a 1K (USD). Surely you can replace a mobo with a quad and as much ram as will fit, and get a fine machine. CPU speed, for me, is the dominate feature, when you are only doing a few things for a snappy workstation. Lots of cores and low CPU speed and low ram, sucks, imho. Max amount and max speed of the RAM is the killer performance edge for most workstations, imho. It boils down to a personal decision. The world of software is migrating to multi-threading, so the more cores, the more future-proof, imho. hth, James
