[Opensim-users] Opensim-users Digest, Vol 19, Issue 1

[Erik Gordon Bainbridge]

Doug, thank you for your advice.  This has been a really tough decision for me.  I haven't found any solid information about this, so getting the benefit of your experience is a definite help.  

There are two related questions I'm wondering about.

1. Is a hyperthreaded Xeon E3 or E5 CPU with hyperthreading turned off in BIOS at any disadvantage compared with a non-hyperthreaded member of the same family?

2. Do you have any opinion about using a six core Xeon (E5-2630 v2)?  A dual CPU system is out of the question for me because of its power consumption.

I appreciate any replies.  I've been putting a lot of time into researching how best to build my new server but haven't been coming up with much solid information to go by about hyperthreading except for Doug's reply.

Erik/Apollo

> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> No.
>
> v/r -doug
>
> Douglas Maxwell, Ph.D.
> Science and Technology Manager
> Virtual World Strategic Applications
> U.S. Army Research Lab
> Simulation & Training Technology Center (STTC)
> (c) (407) 242-0209
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: opensim-users-bounces at opensimulator.org
> [mailto:opensim-users-bounces at opensimulator.org] On Behalf Of Erik Gordon
> Bainbridge
> Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 1:08 PM
> To: opensim-users at opensimulator.org
> Subject: [Opensim-users] Is hyperthreading useful in an OpenSim server?
>
>  
> I'm planning to build a new server for my grid and am wondering whether the
> virtual cores provided by hyperthreading (i7, some Xeons) are an advantage
> in an OpenSim server over a non-hyperthreaded CPU (i5, most Xeons)?
>
> My current server's i7 CPU has hyperthreading. I would like to test its
> effect on performance by disabling and enabling hyperthreading in the BIOS.
> Is there a more accurate way to test than using viewer fps and statistics?
> I'm currently running OpenSim 0.7.6 on OpenSUSE Linux (I will upgrade soon
> to the latest OpenSim).
>
> I've considered dual Xeons, but power consumption is a problem. If a
> non-hyperthreaded CPU performs as well or close to one that's hyperthreaded,
> then I might get a dual socket motherboard but wait to buy the second Xeon
> until my grid expands (it's possible to use a single CPU on at least some
> dual socket Supermicro boards).
>
> Thanks!  I appreciate any advice.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-users/attachments/20151002/bbe519f1/attachment.html>