1 processor vs. 2

[Chuck Swiger]

Joseph Koenig wrote:
> I'm putting together a system that will host a relatively small database
> (around 20,000 records), as well as run Apache / PHP to search that
> database. I have the option in front of me to use a P III dual 1GHz machine
> with a SCSI Raid 5, or to use a single P4 2.8 GHz with a SCSI Raid 1. Both
> have 1GB RAM. I'm looking to use MySQL as the DB  [ ... ]

I'd choose the P4 machine, not because of the difference in CPUs as much as 
because RAID-1 is much better suited for hosting a database than RAID-5.

You probably don't need the horsepower of the P4, or even a dual-P3 box unless 
your workload per transaction is fairly high.  2m hits per month is less than 
one hit per second; if you have one DB query per pageview, and ~10 hits per 
page, your average transaction load is going to be quite low.

On the other hand, if your usage patterns are bursty, a dual-proc machine 
helps reduce latency better than a single-proc might...

-- 
-Chuck