Behind AnandTech - 2002 Server Upgrade

Moving from desktop systems to servers

Regardless of what load they were under and how often we kept them running, those four original Athlon webservers were nothing more than desktop systems in rack mounted cases. When we moved to Athlon webservers, we were forced to buy cases that would accommodate desktop power supplies so we could build those systems much like we would build a desktop Athlon. Back then AMD wasn't being taken seriously as a server chip manufacturer, but they quickly proved to us through solid performance in a server environment that they had every reason to be taken seriously.

Today the situation is much different; the release of the 760MP chipset and the Athlon MP processor marked AMD's official entry into Intel's server stronghold. The migration over the past 7 years from RISC architectures over to x86 servers has primarily been a migration to Intel platforms. With the release of the first MP platforms from AMD, the x86 server market could belong to more than just Intel. And with Hammer on the horizon, there's no reason to believe that AMD won't make some positive gains in that sector.

While the major server manufacturers are continuing to stay away from AMD, a few smaller firms have taken the same risk we took back in 2000. One of those manufacturers happens to be Appro; as you may recall, Appro was the first manufacturer to adopt and offer the Athlon MP/760MP platform in a true server form after its launch in June 2001. Appro also makes the 1124 760MP solution which ended up being our database server of choice for the AnandTech Forums.

With Appro's proven R&D efforts that went into developing the 1124 chassis, a 1U dual Athlon MP solution, the time had come for us to say goodbye to our crude 4U and 5U Athlon web servers. They served us well during the years before anyone ever thought of shoving an Athlon in anything smaller than a desktop-sized case, but now the time had come to move to something a bit more serious.