Post
by somename » Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:19 pm
If the main purpose of the server is as a file server, I'd recommend AMD solution because I'd highly recommend ECC memory for such environment and because ECC is much cheaper to implement with AMD monetarily and in power usage.
I recommend ECC because I've found data integrity tends to deteriorate over time without preventive measures. I've always stored my documents in compressed formats, and I've found a good number of them had errors when I decided to re-archive everything in rar format a few months ago. Out of 1000+ compressed files I've accumulated over 15+ years, I think 5-10% of files had errors. Of course, a lot of things could have caused those errors such as faulty memory or faulty disk systems, but if I had taken some preventive measures against data corruption such as ECC memory, I likely would have reduced the error rate quite a bit. ECC, of course, isn't fail proof. It merely detects error when it happens and not 100% of the time either. The file server I'm building will be based on Solaris because ZFS has checksum built in, and I also now archive my files with parity data.
ECC isn't necessary though if the files will mostly be on disks statically without being copied or moved much. Also, if file systems with integrity checking like ZFS are used, ECC is probably somewhat redundant for that purpose(not so if you use applications that deals with large data in the memory). I decided to go with ECC because I might find dealing with Solaris too difficult and go with another OS/file system and because being extra paranoid probably doesn't hurt.
If you decide you don't need ECC, I would suggest to go with AMD if you want to build it cheaply or to go Intel if you need extra processing power for virtualization. I've built a couple AMD machines with 4850e with a 740G board and a nvidia 8200 board, and they idled around 45W(though I know people have machines idling below 40W). However, I don't think 4850e is a great CPU if you run more than a couple of VMs. My set up definitely struggled, especially with heavy i/o. This was on server 2003 with vmware, so the performance might be better on Linux platform though.
I know more than a few people believe Intel chipsets are much worse than AMD's power consumption-wise, but my experience doesn't correlate. I've tried out Zotac GF9300 mini-itx with Petium e6300, and it idled at 44W(for comparison, it idled at 45W with e7400 and at 53W with e8400). I have dq45cb on order, and I believe it would idle at a bit lower wattage. I think VMs run snappier with e6300 than with 4850e also. e8400 would be a good option if you're going to run a couple of VMs or perhaps even q8400.
I'm considering especially these topics: