cheap opteron, thoughts?

[polluxmr2]

ram isnt so much an issue, thats reasonably cheap.

but yeah, the mobo price makes it not worth it.

but in general, what would have higher performance numbers? an 8 p single core based system or a 2 p quad core based system? ( or even a 4p dual core system )

[Strongbow]

Depends...

• single core or multicore - if the single core is faster (much faster) then it will come down to the lowest level of whether or not your O/S and main apps are multi-threaded?
• Then base the size of L2 and L3 cache compared with RAM performance compared with amount of RAM compared with 32 or 64bit apps compared with number of concurrent apps running etc... oh dear!

So... go for high frequency CPU, large L2 & L3 caches, lots of cores, the fastest interconnects (HyperTransport for AMD) and fast memory etc....

and you end up with this (running HT3 )... http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...E15334,00.html

My advice is don't buy old computing technology unless you have designed a specific task for it. Generally always buy the fastest most powerful you can afford as in a few months it too will be 'run of the mill' and the older stuff will be obsolete.