[K12OSN] Client RAM question

Julius Szelagiewicz julius at turtle.com
Mon Mar 29 15:27:05 UTC 2004


On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Jim Kronebusch wrote:
> I have been watching this thread and will just throw in some of my
> observations from my testing (I don't have a actual lab in use yet so
> take this with a grain of salt).
> 1. Largest speed gain is in network speeds 10MB crap, 100MB great, 1GB
> awesome
> 2. Next best gain is in video for apps like tux math and type, I haven't
> had time to find the best cards, but video cards make a huge difference.
> I can have 2 machines with 128MB RAM and with 100MB connections and tux
> math is perfect on one and unusable on the other, only difference is
> Video Card.
> 3. RAM seems to be optimal at 128MB.  They turn on with 32MB, they work
> with 64MB, they make me happy with 128MB.
> 4. Processor is not too important, I have used a 180MHZ machine side by
> side with a 800MHZ machine and as long as other variables like RAM,
> Video, Network are same, so is everything else.  With that said don't
> take this to an extreme and throw in your 66MHZ boat anchors, I am sure
> anything slower than 180MHZ will start to lag, and keep in mind that
> there is reliability problems with stuff that was around in 1988 :-)
>
> As far as server side goes I have seen plenty of postings here backing
> up 100-128MB per client on the server.  I have also seen plenty of
> feedback recommending SCSI, I myself prefer a SCSI Raid5 for any server
> that sees a lot of data access.  I have also seen that Dual processors
> are a must with over 15 clients but have not seen any feedback about the
> effects/advantages of quad processor machines.  In the dual 2.XGHZ range
> with SCSI Raid 5 and 4GB of RAM I have not seen anything backing up the
> ability to serve any more that 40 concurrent users.  From that point on
> it sounds like clustering or load balancing is the ticket.
>
> But keep in mind, I have no idea what I am talking about :-)

Oh yes, you do, Jim.
	There was not mention of 4 processor systems, because they seem to
be not cost effective when the limiting factor is memory, not processing
power.
	I have very high hopes for an Opteron based system - a dual Xeon
2.4GHz with 4GB runs ok (30% - 50% use) with 34 users, so I think that a
dual Opteron could get me to 80+ happy users with 12 or 16 GB.
julius





More information about the K12OSN mailing list