Over the weekend, as I watched my wife’s beloved New Orleans Saints win their first Super Bowl, I reflected back on the decision that the Saints made to hire Sean Payton, Drew Brees, and Reggie Bush in 2006. It struck me how datacenter managers are doing the same thing – making decisions when selecting new servers that will drive their future success.

To assist with the server selection process, AMD has recently created a new benchmark selector tool on www.amd.com. The tool easily allows customers to sort and filter benchmark and performance data for servers using our existing Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processors and Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors, and will soon be expanded and enhanced to include data for servers using our upcoming 8-core and 12-core AMD Opteron™ 6100 Series processors (code named “Magny-Cours”).

For instance, to filter for Integer Throughput Performance of servers using low-power Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processors, select:

• Six-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor
• HE/EE (Low-Power Processors)
• Integer Throughput Performance

Key features include:

• Ability to sort data for mainstream processor models, higher performance SE processor models, and energy efficient HE and EE processor models.
• Ability to sort data by workload/application, including virtualization and compute intensive (HPC) applications

Of course, performance is only one part of the decision making process. The updated site also includes data on the energy efficiency of servers using AMD Opteron™ processors and feature set comparisons and performance summaries.

Keep in mind that certain benchmarks can be influenced by compilers. A blog by my colleague Margaret Lewis, “Chipping Away the Façade of Benchmarks and Compilers for AMD Opteron™ Processors,” can give you more insights on this topic.

There is more involved in selecting a new server than just looking at the benchmark numbers. With that in mind, I encourage you to also consider the information on other portions of our site (here and here), including our latest virtualization webinar.

What do you consider when selecting a new server? Do you feel you have the resources necessary to make an informed decision? We’d love to hear your input in the comments section.

And finally… Congratulations Saints!

Andy Parma is a Product Marketing Manager for Server/Workstation products at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.