Hi All,

I'm thinking of a purchase of dual Opteron system. I will use the server for development work on:

- Windows Server 2003 EE/64 with SQL Server, ISA Server, Exchange Server, and IIS
- Linux RedHat AS 3.0/64 to use for Oracle and WebSphere

I would need an 1 RU enclosure (for easy portability), and two hotswap SATA bays (for switching from Windows to Linux by replacing disks).

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I have some questions that would like to discuss:

- can one expect a high level of compatibility from dual Opteron systems (on 32 or 64 bits Windows Server and RedHat Linux)?
- using 64 bits operating system, does it brings better real world performance benefits?
- are Opterons worth complication of switching from Xeons?
- since no one sells Opteron's locally, which models actually offer the best performance/value?
- what mainbords are recommended for 2 way or 4 way Opterons?
- can one expect SATA disks (like WD 10K) to perform as 10K SCSI's in server envirovment?
- which company can provide me with an 1 RU enclosure with two hot swap SATA bays?
- will I have cooling problems with 1 RU enclosure?
- how could I add a powerful graphic card to 1 RU enclosure to alternatively use the server as workstation?

Well, any suggestions will be welcome.

Regards,


Igor Sotelo.

Your questions are pretty general and would take a long time to answer in detail, but would say generically, "Yes" it is worth the effort and "No", you should not see compatibility differences.

There are currently no 1U systems that have a "powerful" graphics subsystem, most of those systems will not support AGP. In the near future, you should see some that have support for PCI-Express x16, which with a riser card you add a "powerful" graphics card.

See Making Windows Applications Run Faster' ">http://www.devx.com/amd/Article/21026 as one of many articles on the Web about performance.

As for 1U enclosures, there are plenty, see Where to Buy an AMD Opteron processor-based server' ">http://www.amd.com/us-en/Proce...0,,30_288_3091,00.html