Intel "Harpertown" Xeon vs. AMD "Barcelona" Opteron

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• MrKaz - Thursday, September 20, 2007 - link

  You bring very valid points! And thanks to the originator of this discussion!
  
  But let me spice things a little.
  I think you and Anandtech are wrong!
  Correct testing would be loading ALL THE MEMORY BANKS WITH RAM!!!
  
  That would be more realistic scenario.
  I see Intel praising the technology edge of FBDIMM by allowing to have more RAM on the system, then lets load the Intel system with the maximum RAM they can handle.
  
  Otherwise seams a little biased test.
  Showing how Intel systems:
  -are energy efficient = use less RAM on them and add more to the AMD system
  -can handle much more RAM than AMD = Show how Intel system have lots of memory banks

• flyck - Thursday, September 20, 2007 - link

  although you are correct when you say there are small errors in the setup, i cant agree with the part about being paid by intel todo...
  This is an assault which they cannot defend themselves against.
  
  Either way this review would be much more interesting when a 2.5GHz release and low power barcelonas would be available. But that is dependent on AMD itself.
  
  

• Viditor - Thursday, September 20, 2007 - link

  quote:
  

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  Either way this review would be much more interesting when a 2.5GHz release and low power barcelonas would be available. But that is dependent on AMD itself.

  ---

  
  As to that, the low power Barcelonas are available...NewEgg has them in stock already.
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">NewEgg

• flyck - Thursday, September 20, 2007 - link

  most hardware site rely on hardware that has been given to them for testpurposes. They wont buy them.
  

• Justin Case - Thursday, September 20, 2007 - link

  Which is probably one of the reasons why CPUs in some reviews overclock so well, and the ones you buy from retail overclock so poorly.
  
  I don't trust any review where the item was supplied by the manufacturer; chances are they cherry-picked the best one they had, to get the best possible review. If the sites can't afford to buy the items they're reviewing, they should simply strike a deal with a retailer, where they get to test the stuff (and return it) in exchange for a sponsored link or something. That way the chances of getting an above-average (or below-average) part are the same as for anyone else.
  
  

• Justin Case - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link

  In other words, what you're saying that the Opteron did not have more RAM than the Xeon, so it did not get any benefit from the different memory configuration.
  
  Well, that's the "pro-AMD" conspiracy put to rest, no doubt. Thanks.
  
  But you still have 8 DDR2 DIMMs on the Opteron versus 4 FB-DIMMs on the Xeon. As pointed out above, using the same configuration would either reduce the Barcelona system's power consumption (by about 18 watts, if both used 4 DIMMs) or increase the Harpertown system's consumption (by about 40 watts, if both used 8 DIMMs).
  
  In the latter case (which is the likely scenario on a server under high loads - fill it with as much RAM as possible), that would put the Xeon's "performance per watt" below that of the Barcelona system in most of your tests.
  
  And there's still the mystery of why a system that dissipates less heat needs more than twice as many fans. Or was there also a typo on the number of fans in each system? Maybe the number of fans is different but the total number of fan blades is the same, so that's alright? :)
  

• Wirmish - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link

  The problem is not the number of GB, it's the number of DIMMs.
  
  Do you try to convince us that one 8GB DIMM use the same power as eight 1GB DIMMs ?
  
  This is just plain stupid.

• Wirmish - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - link

  Same question...
  
  AMD..: 8 DIMMs (16 GB) + 7 fans
  INTEL: 4 DIMMs (8 GB) + 3 fans
  

  quote:
  

  ---

  A DDR2 DIMM needs 4.4 watts while a DDR2 FB-DIMM requires near 10.4 watt.

  ---

  
  http://www.interfacebus.com/Memory_Module_DDR2_FB_...">LINK
  
  With 8 FBDIMMs the Xeon may consume ~42 watts more !
  
  A standard fan may consume anywhere from 1.6 to 6.0 watts.
  Try to use only 4 fans (1 middle-front, 1 top-rear, 2 CPU) with the AMD system.
  It will work perfectly and you will save ~15 watts.
  
  1. Add 4 FBDIMM in the Xeon system.
  2. Remove three 3.5" fans in the AMD system.
  3. Rebench.
  4. Update your power consumption and performance/watt graphs.
  5. Thank you very much.

• Proteusza - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link

  okay I also think its fishy but I'm playing devils advocate here.
  
  if you had to run a netburst server, part of your power goes to cooling, thats part of your total energy requirement. if the AMD system requires more cooling, for whatever reason (no matter how strange that may seem), then like it or not its a part of your server and energy expense.
  
  As for the differing amount of ram, that makes no sense at all. Why halve the amount of memory on the Intel system?

• Justin Case - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link

  Maybe AMD uses inferior knock-off photons, so despite dissipating less heat, it needs more cooling. ;)