[dba-Tech] I have a quad core

I just updated my 2 year old Asus M2NA32 Deluxe AMD motherboard from a 2.0
GHz dual core to a 2.2 GHz quad core.  I now have two virtually identical
servers, one with a dual core and one with a quad core.  It is interesting
to note that the dual core says the 2.0 GHz is a "3800+", i.e. a 3.8 GHz
machine.  The quad core does not make any such approximation.  It simply
says that it has a Phenom processor running at 2.21 GHz.

The upgrade was pretty easy.  I had to find and update the motherboard bios
to the latest rev, the description for which simply said "upgrade for new
processor" or something similar without specifically saying Phenom ready.
Anyway, I then removed and replaced the dual core with a quad core and I was
done.  It is common knowledge that the Phenom is not equivalent to the Intel
quad but it is an available update for those of us who try to support the
competition and it at least is a drop in upgrade to an existing system.  I
will be doing some a/b comparisons running SQL Server which should be able
to take advantage of the extra cores.  I'll post results as I get them.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com