Decision: buy new processor or another server

[ecoVeritas]

Hi,
My company runs a memory intensive SQL program from a dell server, currently running Windows SBS 2003, but we are considering upgrading. We also use this for our file server.

Our current server is Poweredge SC1430 running a Xeon E5310 Quad processor. In the interests of speeding up our SQL program, we are considering either buying another processor to increase the speed of this server, or buying another server, to dedicate to the program.

Our main questions are:
1. Will a new processor add significant speed?
2. Will we require an engineer to fit the new processor?
3. We need to weigh up costs, so does anyone have a feel for the overall cost of adding a processor? We would consider buying a new server for say £1500.

Any help would be extremely welcome.

Thanks,
Sam

 

[fugtruck]

The processor is not the only thing that can affect performance. There is memory, disk IO, network, etc. You really want to measure all of these to determine where the bottleneck(s) are. There is a ton of web sites with tutorials on using Perfmon to measure performance.

Could you give some more information about your hardware, specifically: How much RAM do you currently have installed? Hard drive configuration--how many disks, type of disks (SATA, SCSI, SAS, etc.), what RAID level if any, how do you have them partitioned? Speed of network adapter(s)? Speed of switch the server is connected to?

Regardless of anything else, usually one of the cheapest/easiest upgrades to do is make sure your server has the maximum RAM supported by your operating system and hardware.

 

[PaulGillespie]

I've never found a SBS setup (even with up to 45 users) to be that processor intensive. The SQL app may need it though. I'd be more inclined to say it would benefit from memory first. SBS2003's eat memory! and they will only support 3.2GB.

Your disk subsystem will play a major factor too. I've never been fond of SATA drive in SBS. SAS drives are faster but unfortunatley they are pretty pricey by the time you have 2 to 6 drives in the server.

If you are not confident in fitting a new processor yourself then don't do it. What if you do, and then the server does not come back on, you don't want the feelings that go along with that experience, trust me!

Overall (bear in mind that I have not seen your setup and i could be wrong!!! ), i'd recommend getting a second server, If you have an SBS Premium license then it's pretty cheap. Even an upgrade to Premium is cheap.