Behind AnandTech - Upgrading the Server Farm

Database servers love multiple processors

Although our last server upgrade consisted of a large migration to Socket-A platforms using AMD Athlon processors, a need for multiprocessor support for our single Forums database server kept the Athlon out of the running for this upgrade.  With the AMD 760MP chipset still four or five months away from being readily available, the only remaining option was to pursue an Intel based solution.

Instead of pursuing higher clocked Pentium III Xeon processors to replace our Pentium III Xeon 500s that were currently running the Forums database we decided to move to higher clocked Pentium III processors.  The 133MHz FSB Pentium III Xeon processors are currently no different than the 133MHz FSB Pentium III processors that have been in the desktop market since late 1999.  The Pentium III Xeons simply plug into a Slot-2 interface while the desktop Pentium IIIs are Slot-1/Socket-370 solutions; they both have 256KB of on-die L2 cache.

The sweet spot for Pentium III processors is around 800 - 866MHz since they currently offer the best price to performance ratio out of all of the Pentium III processors.  At the time we decided to go with dual Pentium III 800s, these being the 133MHz FSB versions.