Ask An Expert - The Server Room

[idata]

<![CDATA[<font size="3">Welcome to intel.com/ITopia. Join the discussion, debate and collaborate. This is your opportunity to *ask our experts* what you want to know about Intel's latest technologies. The floor is yours.]]><![CDATA[<hr>]]><![CDATA[<font size="2">+This discussion is not intended to answer PC support question. If you have a support question go to {document:id=1086}.+]]>

[idata]

Hi,

I'd like to configure teaming with the Intel Pro/1000 PT dual port server adapter on windows server 2008.

I have installed the proset, and in the properties of the adapter in the tab teaming I get this message:

"this adapter is configured for an intel iscsi remote boot image. you cannot use this adapter in a team".

How can I disable that so I can configure teaming? We are not using iscsi on this server.

[William_L_Intel1]

I've consulted with the experts and the easiest way to do this would be to load PXE via the Boot Options tab on DMiX and use the FLB file on the CD. That should change the eeprom and get DMiX to release the iscsi block on the teaming and vlan tabs. Optionally, you could boot to DOS and run the IBAUtil DOS utility to load the PXE image. Thanks and please let us know if this answers your question.

[idata]

With a DQ35JO motherboard, a Core 2 Quad processor and Vista Ultimate 64 bit, I was getting a Vista performance rating of 3.3, which was the rating for the 3D Business and gaming performance part of the performance test. I just installed the most recent Intel Graphics Media Accelerator update from the Intel website, and the Vista performance rating DROPPED to 3.2. This is supposed to be a graphics media accelerator, not a graphics media decelerator! What can I do to improve the system performance? Currently, the processor rating is 5.9, the RAM is 5.7, the graphics is 4.1, the Gaming graphics is 3.2 (was 3.3), and the primary HD is 5.9. Also, do you have compatibility lists for multimedia graphics cards for TV and media devices?

[William_L_Intel1]

If you are still looking for comments & suggestions on your questions, please start a new thread http://communities.intel.com/post!input.jspa?communityID=2026 HERE . Thanks for your participation in our forum.

[idata]

I work on a zeon 5160 chip workstation running Autocad & Cadworx. All of my work is 3D and my models are pretty big. My question is this, to best run Autocad, was the zeon chip the right chip or do i need to upgrade to a different chip. right now my grafics card is the PNY Nivida FX3500.

Thanks.

Joe

[JimmyLeon]

CAD applications are not very threaded today, that might change in the future as software vendors start take advantage of multiple cores. I assume you have a 2 Xeon's 5160s (3Ghz) in your workstation already? You have a total for 4 threads (with 2 Xeons) which is quite sufficient for CAD. You have pretty good high core frequency Xeons which are ideal for the single threaded nature of CAD. You already have a pretty high end graphics card (Quadro FX3500) as well. If you are looking to future proof your workstation, I might suggest the Xeon 5400 Quad core series as your next investment, if you are looking beyond CAD work for your workstation. This would bring the total number of threads/core to 8, double of what you have today. To get any benefit for CAD beyond the Xeons 5160 you have, you'd have to upgrade Quad core processors that are > 3GHz, otherwise, you'd be downgrading as far as CAD workloads are concerned. One benefit of upgrading to Quad cores is that these new processors would have larger L2 caches and if you are models are pretty big, they would minimize the load from memory/disk access, but like I said, I would also look to at least match the core frequency of the Xeons you have today.

[idata]

Thanks for the question with respect to AutoCAD and CADWorX .

As my colleague pointed out in an earlier response, most CAD applications are indeed single threaded.

So that leaves the obvious question--- what do I do with a workstation with one processor and 4 cores and why do I need a workstation with two processors and 8 cores?

The answer is of course not obvious, but one that is being seen lately is that users with two processor and 8 core workstations are indeed changing the way they work. They are no longer working serially one task and then the next. They are actually combining task and developing new parallel workflows where users design and also simulate and or render other objects.

They are changing their workstation from a simple CAD terminal into a virtual workbench that enables them to design, test and validate ideas faster than before.

As to your graphics card question, unless you are involved in extremely fringe graphics needs in the CAD market your FX3500 is probably just right. If your scenes are complex and you are doing a real-time walk through you may want to reconsider your card.

[idata]

I'm planning to buy to setup a sever for my enterprise business. Kindly tell which is the best one and leading one?And send the Spec also.

[William_L_Intel1]

Thanks for your question on enterprise servers. To properly answer, we would need to know much more about how you plan to use the servers. Could you please provide more details on what is the purpose for your servers? In the meantime, you could check out the http://serverconfigurator.intel.com/default.aspx Server Configurator Tool to get an idea on some of the possible solutions you may want to consider.

[idata]

Good day,

I teach technology in a business college. Does Intel offer any educational recources, (i.e.: posters & literature) that I can frame and hang in our classroom? I would appreciate any resources, assistance or direction you can offer.

Sincere thanks,

John Finkler, IS/IT Faculty

Bryant Stratton College

Willoughby Hills, OH 44092

wh.finkler.johnw@mail.bryantstratton.edu

440.944.6800

[PAM_D_Intel]

John-

We'd love to send you collaterals and posters. We have the new campaign posters that we can send you right away. I am also reaching out to Intel Education to see if there is any processor evoluation type of collateral that I can send you.

More updates to come.

[PAM_D_Intel]

John-

Besides our business campaign posters, we also sent you sand to circuit posters and brouchurs. I hope that you will find it useful.

[idata]

i would like to know what is faster. i will paint the picture.

our software can only utilize a single core. therefore we have been changing in the bois dual cores to become singles and quads into duals.

but then there is Xeons and Extreme core's.

what is the fastest/most powerful setup/combo?

a EX quad or Xeon dual? or via versa

[William_L_Intel1]

Seems like you are asking two separate questions, so I'll address individually. If your code is truly serial only, then multi-core will not benefit you. First approach would be to consider parallelizing as much as possible. Check out this http://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/ SITE to find out if you can take advantage of threading tools. On the second part of your question, XEON is designed to support Server applications at the enterprise level whereas Extreme is more for the power gamer and advanced desktop users. Hope this helps.

[Christophe_P_Intel]

I'm gonna chime in with Hank. It sounds like one of the applications you are looking at is single thread. Because of advancements in the intel microarchitecture, your application should see a speed up even with dual-core or quad-core. the most prevalent benchmarks for single thread app performance is specint (speed) and specfp (speed) benchmarks - note don't look at the throughput or rate benchmarks for this comparision.

Example on integer speed:

• the older netburst single core xeon arch ran at 3.8GHz and scored 11.4.

• the new 45nm intel core arch dual-core (xeon 5200) runs at 3.33 GHz and scores 23.8

• the new 45nm intel core arch quad-core (xeon 5400) runs at 3.16GHz and scores 24.1

The reason is that with core arch is more efficient at each software thread, executing 4 instructions per every clock cycle and the front side bus is running faster and is dedicated to each processor - so your application can and should benefit from the latest architectures and platform our OEM partners offer. On floating point the results are similar: single core (11.7), dual core (24.4), quad-core (23.9)

You can see the dual-core and quad-core results graphically on our performance website under http://www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon/intspd.htm integer speed and http://www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon/fpspeed.htm floating point speed.

[idata]

thanks for the feed back guys. yes in our field things move slowly. we have some software that need hummingbird to run with Windows, ( old Unix software).

the software in question is WorkNC for CAM . all we need is horsepower in a single thread. we have gone from Xeon single 3.8GHz to 6700@ 2.66GHz and lately to a Quad EX9650 ( running as a dual 30% faster than the 2.66!)

i am looking at purchasing more pc's and Dell reccomended the Xeon X5460 to be faster again to the Quad 9650 but i am not convinced should i be? were talking just number crunching here. there are sooo many cpu's out there it just gets a little too much. also theres never any cross comparing. ie Xeon to Extreme. only within a family, which doesnt help me too much.

any advise would be greatly appriecated.

Vince

[Christophe_P_Intel]

Vince, Here is a http://www.intel.com/performance/workstation/xeon/scalability.htm?iid=perf_ws_lhn+xeon_scal website that shows scalability of the Xeon X5400 cpus vs QX9650 for a couple different workloads - Chris

[idata]

hi chris

is possible to make the X5460 into a dual core. i was able to make this change in the bios on a QX9650 . i cant find the option in the bios of the X5460 ' maybe because it cant be altered like the QX9650.

can you verify this for me please.

thanks

vince

[Christophe_P_Intel]

Vince, Yes it is possible to disable cores on the X5460. I've heard of this and also checked with our technology team. This core disable is done through BIOS and each system vendor makes their own BIOS's, and may or may not have this option. So there is not any standard documentation (sorry). Some server system vendors have a BIOS option which is "Disable AP" (Disable application processor). When this option is "enabled", one core on each die is disabled. Other vendors may have the option, but called it something else.

[idata]

hi chris

thanks for checking that out for me.. i will squeeze the vendor and see what they can do for me. if i can make this pc into a dual core its going to be a VERY fast computer

vince

[idata]

who is the latest version of linux O.S.