On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Bob File wrote:
> Anyone have any direct experience comparing SGI to Intel hardware?
> This is such a big price difference.
I haven't used an SGI since the O2's were first released, but I can give
some comparisons between an Intel box and a Sun box, which would be
very similar to a MIPS based SGI. The short of it is this: Intel
hardware is MUCH better as a workstation, but Sun hardware can make a
better server in certain circumstances. We just got a SunBlade 1000
(750Mhz USparc-3, 512MB RAM, 18GB FC Hard drive) and it is the first
workstation class Sun machine I have ever had that was comparable to an
Intel box. It runs Gnome as fast as my P3-1Ghz, although there is some
weirdness with the video card -- I don't think Sun has gotten the drivers
just right yet. However, the educational price of the SB1k was almost
$10,000, so the retail price would be $12-15,000 -- 6-7 times the price of
a maxed out P3-1Ghz or Athlon 1.3Ghz. It's obvious which system is a
better buy for a workstation.
On the server end, however, the choice isn't as clear. If you are doing
something that can be written for a clustered evironment (like
rendering) a beowulf or similar cluster of inexpensive Linux/Intel boxen
would be the clear choice. Applications like shell servers, mail servers,
and application servers could go either way, linux clusters are easily
expandable, but a single Sun machine (any of the Enterprise class) can
take alot of abuse from users. The single machine could be a point of
failure, but the administrative time spent on it would much less than on a
cluster. So when would a massive Sun machine (32+ CPUs, 128GB+ RAM, TBs
of storage) be a good idea? The best use is for databases. A parallel
version of Oracle is available for clustered environments but the
licensing could end up being well into the millions of dollars. You could
save enough in licensing costs to pay for an E6800 or even a E10000.
-Eric
#########################################################################
Eric Pierce Phone: (813) 974-8868
Academic Computing Fax: (813) 974-1799
University of South Florida
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