[dba-Tech] Faster, cheaper and better

Hi Jim

Cute indeed! But I would need a rather normal board with more ram, PCI bus, etc. which could run Win2003. At best in a 19" rack housing.

Those power costs you mention, we can only dream about ...

/gustav


>>> accessd at shaw.ca 16-06-2010 17:19 >>>
Hi Gustav:

Here is a couple links that might interest you.

http://beagleboard.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Board 


An aside:

I understand the power costs over in much of Europe are very high. 

We here on the north coast of the NA continent are quite spoiled with some
of the cheapest power (all hydro) anywhere so it has never been a real
concern. (that is why Microsoft and Google are situated here along with a
host of other companies... cheap power.) 

An average house here (15 to 30K sq footage), heating with electricty pays
between $12.00 and $15.00 CDN (10 to 12 EUR) per month. Business rates are
lower (35 kW per month and up).

Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 11:39 PM
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com 
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Faster, cheaper and better

Hi Jim

Yes, but these old boxes use a lot of power, and if such a box runs for 24
hours that _really_ adds up on this side of the pond. 
My thought was that an Atom-based board would use far less power while
providing enough performance.

/gustav

>>> accessd at shaw.ca 15-06-2010 19:45 >>>
Hi Gustav:

Some of the best servers I have worked with are old beater boxes running
some form of Linux but seem unfazed with 10,000 hits a day. 

I was working on an old Win2000 box that this company has been running as
their web server and it seems secure and able to handle their web site
requirements just fine.... so I recommended they keep it until it starts
have problems or no longer supports their requirements. 

Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 8:38 AM
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com 
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Faster, cheaper and better

Hi Jim

Certainly interesting for the big guys though with one potential limitation:
32-bit only. However, for a web site, who cares if you run sixteen 32-bit or
four 64-bit virtual servers in parallel?
For normal use it could be cool with a 8 or 16 x Atom CPU board ...

/gustav


>>> accessd at shaw.ca 15-06-2010 16:55 >>>
Servers can be very expensive as they require huge boxes, many cooling fans,
a power supply that requires the biggest UPS, heatsink and more fans. The
CPUs have fans and heatsinks as big as a head. It requires two people just
to roll them into place. Then we throw in redundancy... 

They can be a really pain in the back; literally... I know. Most of the
pain, I understand is in the price (far beyond my pay grade) and
subsequently the maintenance and power consumption. They suck power
big-time. It is like turning on an electric stove or 20 hot plates and never
turning them off... no wonder they need their own power circuits.

But there isn't much that can be done about it. If you have a lot of data
and need performance you just pay... well until now:

http://venturebeat.com/2010/06/13/seamicro-drops-an-atom-bomb-on-the-server- 

industry/

Jim