Results 1 to 20 of 20
  1. #1

    Question What's Better: More RAM or More CPU Power?

    just curiose..
    what's better for webhosting
    having lot of Memory (1024- 2048 Ram)
    or mor CPU Power at least as P4 2.00GHz or higher...


    Thanks

  2. #2
    It depends upon what you're going to be serving; https needs lots of cpu power, mod_perl chews up memory like candy. For serving static files over HTTP, memory is more important than cpu power, but a 2GHz P4 with 1GB of memory should be able to serve hundreds of GB/day, so for static files the bottleneck is going to be your network uplink.
    Dr. Colin Percival, FreeBSD Security Officer
    Online backups for the truly paranoid: http://www.tarsnap.com/

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,040
    "It depends" heh

    How about going for both? prices are so low now over in the US that you may as well

    Obviously if you're running an awful lot of complex dynamic content then you're going to need more CPU power than say someone just hosting some static images...
    Robin Balen
    Gyron Internet Ltd - http://gyron.net/
    UK colocation, managed hosting and connectivity services with 100% uptime SLAs

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Washington DC
    Posts
    2,514
    If you had to choose, I would say processor... Linux manages ram pretty efficiently. Unless you are getting low on ram and swapping a lot. Then get the ram!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2001
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    278
    mercury, I think memory is more important than CPU especially when you got hundreds of web sites and they are still using CGI scripts in your server, you will know the benefits of getting more RAM instead of a more powerful CPU.
    Hozting.com - Professional Hosting since 2000

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,040
    Aah... but 100s of CGI scripts = high CPU load... hehe - really, you need a balance of both CPU power and RAM
    Robin Balen
    Gyron Internet Ltd - http://gyron.net/
    UK colocation, managed hosting and connectivity services with 100% uptime SLAs

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,040
    What I'm trying to say is there's no point having a 3GHz P4 but with only 128mb ram... likewise it would be a bit daft to have a 400MHz PII with 6GB ram
    Robin Balen
    Gyron Internet Ltd - http://gyron.net/
    UK colocation, managed hosting and connectivity services with 100% uptime SLAs

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2001
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    278
    yup Robin, I'd say, it's a fair server if the CPU is PIII 1.0 with 1GB Ram
    Hozting.com - Professional Hosting since 2000

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    The South
    Posts
    5,408
    My outlook on this:

    P3 celeron - 512M
    Real P3 or P4 Celeron - 1G
    Real P4 or Dual P3 - 1G+

    This is assuming shared hosting where you're gonna have a hodge podge of account types, forums, static files, perl, etc.

    Though more ram is never ever a bad idea this is my "minimum".
    Gary Harris - the artist formerly known as Dixiesys
    resident grumpy redneck

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    London Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    986

    Re: What's Better: More RAM or More CPU Power?

    I always go for RAM (if my clients agree). RAM removes processing bottlenecks more quickly (known as the VonNeuman Bottlenecks). This is almost always noticed performance-wise, especially when your run high loads. Increasing CPU is noticible often only when the upgrade is significant. Otherwise it mostly affects floating point performance which webhosting type applicataions rarely saturate.

    On a side note, other than Memory, another good investment is in quality ethernet cards (on board packet management and so forth). Not all ethernet cards are created equally. IF you can take load off the CPU by making the ethernet card handle more you should.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Posts
    782
    I usually get a box which is dual capable and supports upto 4gigs of ram and start it off with one chip and 2gigs of ram, most of the time it will handle a fair amount of sites with that and still be scalable...

    also I wouldnt use anything less then SCSI drives....

  12. #12

    Re: Re: What's Better: More RAM or More CPU Power?

    Originally posted by idologicJeff
    RAM removes processing bottlenecks more quickly (known as the VonNeuman Bottlenecks).


    No. The Von Neumann bottleneck is an inevitable result of the Von Neumann architecture; adding memory has absolutely no effect upon it.

    It's also a critical element in the success of a particular Hefeweizen microbrewery, but that's something which only regular comp.arch readers would appreciate.
    Dr. Colin Percival, FreeBSD Security Officer
    Online backups for the truly paranoid: http://www.tarsnap.com/

  13. #13
    you need to have at least a gig of ram, if you decide to go with P4 ...my opinion
    P4HOST.COM -- Specialize in quality Web Hosting solutions.
    Affordable -- Prices are very comparative
    Reliable -- Very low load average guaranteed. 60 day money back. Fast Support --Support Forum -- Providing hosting since 2003

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,040
    That's a rather sweeping statement, but OK.... heh
    Robin Balen
    Gyron Internet Ltd - http://gyron.net/
    UK colocation, managed hosting and connectivity services with 100% uptime SLAs

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    Just go with Dual XEONs 2.4Ghz with Hyperthreading and 2GB RAM.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Washington DC
    Posts
    2,514
    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    Just go with Dual XEONs 2.4Ghz with Hyperthreading and 2GB RAM.
    Not everyone is as pimped out as you!

  17. #17
    Originally posted by alapo
    Not everyone is as pimped out as you!

    ...
    P4HOST.COM -- Specialize in quality Web Hosting solutions.
    Affordable -- Prices are very comparative
    Reliable -- Very low load average guaranteed. 60 day money back. Fast Support --Support Forum -- Providing hosting since 2003

  18. #18
    cpu load is not immportant. cpu idle time percentage is, look at that. as far as the cpu, i would go for l2 cache before adding clockspeed.

    paul
    * Rusko Enterprises LLC - Upgrade to 100% uptime today!
    * Premium NYC collocation and custom dedicated servers
    call 1-877-MY-RUSKO or paul [at] rusko.us

    dedicated servers, collocation, load balanced and high availability clusters

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    2,504
    I prefer strong processors with a lot of cache and a lot of good DDRAM. I've also noticed using SCSI disks seems to help out a lot in how somethings are handled.

    Clockspeed isn't what I look for, cache is, but if you can get both take em.
    What does one host say to the other? "(HostA) Want to go see a movie?" "(HostB) Sure, can your parents drive?"

    I'm premium, and no, I did not have to pay $6 a month to figure that out.

  20. #20
    Well in short, your machine is only as good as the slowest bottleneck.

    That can be anything, ram, cpu, harddisk, motherboard, bus speeds, even your IDE cables (for example if you are on IDE).

    But if I am to choose.... I can't really You have to look at the usage as many has pointed out. For example, if your usage is a lot of processing work (crunching of data, logs etc) then it will help to have a faster chip.

    But you must remember the above statement: which is your machine is only as fast as your slowest bottleneck
    ••• Like us on Facebook to qualify for discounts! •••
    ••• http://www.sprintserve.net •••
    ••• Offering: | Internap FCP Bandwidth! | Rebootless Kernel Updates! | Magento Optimized Hosting | Wordpress Hosting | •••
    ••• Services: | Managed Multiple Cores 64bit Servers | Server Management | •••

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •