[mythtv-users] Single vs. Dual Core

[Brian Long]

> Just as an aside, the power savings going from two single-core CPUs
> to one dual-core can be rather impressive.  At work I run a computing
> cluster on AMD64 hardware, and we've been studying replacing our 2-
> socket single-core compute nodes with half as many 2-socket dual-core
> systems, and doing some similar consolidation of our support
> servers.  Part of the motivation for this is we've exceeded our
> available A/C capacity.  I ran the numbers and at the same clock
> speed (2.8 GHz) we could cut our power consumption (and, by
> extension, our heat generation) by a third.  By giving up 200 MHz per
> chip to switch to HE-series CPUs we could cut it by almost half.

Have you compared this to the Intel Xeon 5100 or 5300-based systems?
Last I ran benchmarks for hw sims and sw compiles, the Intel Xeon
5100-series smoked all Opteron-based systems.  As an example, I tested
the HP DL385 G2 vs. the DL380 G5.  I did not look at system power
consumption, but price/performance.  Price was roughly the same for
similarly-configured systems, but in price/performance, the
Intel-based solution won by 25-75% depending on the situation.

/Brian/