P5 vs Core2Duo

[fos]

I am considering an upgrade to my commercial server. The current server that this forum is running on only has 512 Mb of allocated ram in a Xen virtual environment. It also has cpanel / Fantastico installed. That uses a fair amount of resources even with the vps version.

I can get a P5 server or a core2duo server. The specs are the same for either other than the cpu. My needs are meager since this is essentially a hobby at this time.

Would the performance difference in a lightly loaded server make a $20 per month difference?

fos

[Leon]

Is the P5 server using one of the later CPU's with "hyperthreading"?
If so, I am guessing that you would see little performance difference between it and a Core2Duo system. However, the Core2Duo uses less power, so it would make a small "green" difference.

[fos]

The Pentium does have hyperthreading enabled. I'm still in the pondering stage.

Thanks, fos

[danieldk]

The performance of hyperthreading is nowhere near a dual-core CPU. A dual-core CPU is more or less a SMP setup crammed into one CPU socket. Hyperthreading is an extension that allows some parallelization, Intel initially claimed 30% performance win over a non-hyperthreading CPU for some tasks. But tests have shown that in many situations there is no win at all. So, for most purposes a hyperthreading P4 is just a single-core processor.

If it's worth paying 20 dollars more for two cores, depends on the applications, the return on investment you want to have (if any), etc.

I'd also look at Xen hosting at Gandi:

http://www.gandi.net/

Their offering is very affordable, and can easily be extended (e.g. adding more CPUs, memory, or disk space is a breeze). They also support some non-profit/free software projects.

[fos]

Thanks for the link to Gandi. You had recommended them previously. I had misplaced their address. One advantage to their Xen service is the availability of 512 Mb of swap space. The xen server I am on now does not have any swap enabled. That caused a crash last month when a backup application demanded more memory than was available. The provider does not have a remote re-boot available resulting in a service call via email.

Other than that, this vps server has performed well. The memory problem instigated the search for a full server.

Jeff