1U Apache Servers - Sun or Intel?

odoa4 asks: "What do you think will make a better 1u Apache Server? A Sun Netra X1 or a 1U Ontel box such as a Dell PowerApp.Web 120 or a VA 1220. This is a difficult question because the Intel boxes are about $1800 a piece and the Sun machine is only $1000. The Sun machine can only use 1 CPU and it runs at 400Mhz, where the Intel machines run at 800+Mhz with up to 2 cpus. Keep in mind that the web servers will be clustered, so the real question isn't so much about whether the Intel boxes are faster, but more along the lines of are they worth the $800 more when I could almost get another Netra for the cost. As far as OSs go, I would use Solaris 8 on the Sun machines and FreeBSD on the Intel boxes. Here are some links to various servers I've looked at: Sun Netra X1, VALinux 1220, and the PowerApp.web 120" Are there other alternatives for 1U servers, that the submittor might do well to look into?

Comments

Why sun vs. Dell?

[smoon]

IBM makes a nice looking 1U server that includes KVM functionality.

Compaq has one that uses the same hard drives as their other servers.

I have to agree with one of the earlier posts -- get one of each and test them. Intel/AMD/x86 chips have gotten awfully fast lately. Since the cheaper sun boxes usually use IDE and PCI, the main difference from the intel servers will be CPU, scsi vs. ide, and memory subsystem (cache amt, speed, ram amt & speed). The Sparc might make more sense if you're doing some 64 bit stuff, or using some feature that's better on sparc, e.g.: floating point.

Since the preceding seems fairly obvious, your question simplifies to: "Is solaris 8 on slower hardware better than *BSD on faster hardware?". That question is better answered by looking at your in-house solaris expertise, need to run commercial apps only available on solaris, etc.