[K12OSN] New Building's LTSP Server

Wed Apr 20 15:06:23 UTC 2011

For LTSP, the more cores, the better, especially with the number of 
users you're talking about. I'd rather have a 6-core at 2.8 GHz than a 
4-core at 3.2. The reason is all the processes that you're running at 
once. In your situation with possibly 65 users at once, I'd really 
rather have 12. The bigger on-die cache in the CPU, the better, too.

It's all about how much money you're willing to spend. CPU's are fast 
enough now that I would have no problem with any of the so-called 
"desktop" processors doing most server duty. However, if I need more 
than one CPU socket, i. e. a lot of cores, that's when I'd consider a 
so-called "server" processor. Been eyeing and lusting certain Tyan 
dual-socket motherboards for a while.... :-)

If you're thinking about the Xeon, that's higher end, so if you're going 
there, then consider that AMD also has 8- and 12-core Opterons, with a 
16-core on the way. Remember that a lot of "little shops"--heck, "big 
shops", too--get financial rebates to push certain products, and the 
more expensive, the better, so I've learned over the years to take any 
such recommendations with a grain of salt. Better to do your own research.

Good idea for segmenting the computer lab and the rest of the school.

--TP

Joseph Bishay wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> The feedback has helped tremendously with spec'ing out the new machine
> for us.  The key points so far that I have are:
>
> 1) SATA RAID 1 drives for space, SSD for OS & /tmp
> 2) 16 GB RAM
> 3) three gigabit NICs (one to switch for computer lab, one for rest of
> school, plus a third for Internet access)
> 4) local-apps for firefox/OpenOffice to alleviate some load
>
> The little shop I deal with has recommended the Intel Core i7-960
> 3.2ghz 8M Cache 4 Core CPU or the Intel Core i7-970 3.2ghz 12M Cache 6
> Core processors.  However the vast majority of online reading I've
> done says for "servers" or intensive-use applications (which I'd
> assume LTSP falls under!) you're better off with the new Xeon series
> of chips.
>
> Any thoughts on this? The machine is slowly coming together!
>
> Thank you
> Joseph
>
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