Server good enough with 1 Opteron?

[Beavis]

I've been thinking about my server for a while and I can't make up my mind. At the moment I'm using just 1 Opteron in the server in my sig because I messed up and bought a 460 watt power supply instead of a better one. The computer would shut off after a couple days with both processors installed. In order to add the 2nd Opteron I have to invest in another EPS12v power supply but I was kinda thinking about using the 2nd Opteron in another computer since it's a pretty strong processor by itself.

So far I'm using the server as a domain controller, web server, and a file server. I might someday want to run a small game server. I'm running Windows Server 2003 x64 Enterprise. I will be buying 2 sata hard drives and run them in raid and add more ram eventually.

Is the server strong enough with just the 1 processor? It seems pretty fast the way it is now, do I really need that much power?

I was looking at this motherboard for the 2nd Opteron.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186055

 

[Big_Baller]

Well have you run any benchmark tests or real world tests?

I would imagine that in the future using 2 processors will help if you are running everything on 1 machine.

Perhaps cost is something to look at. If you already have the opertons it will be spendy to make a whole new setup just for the other one. How much is a power supply that would allow you to run the smp setup?

 

[Beavis]

Tyan recommended the Antec True Power EPS12v SSI 550 watt which is around $120. In either case I would need to spend money. I would have to buy a new power supply and ECC ram for the new setup but I could use a good work station for video editing for the future. I don't want to do at the server's expense though. It will be running for a long time.

I haven't been able to benchmark it as of yet. Every program I've tried to install on this version of Window Server doesn't work. Says it's incompatible. Tried Sandra and Prime95 so far. Having a hard time finding much that will install on it.

 

[mbentley]

running on a single opteron should be more than enough for what you have going right now. even under a stressful load of accessing files and such across the network and serving webpages hardcore, it run out of network bandwidth before anything else i imagine. until you start running a game server, it will be sufficient. after all, i run a similar type server on my network and it is a p3 450 mhz... not exactly a beast

 

[hooflung]

running on a single opteron should be more than enough for what you have going right now. even under a stressful load of accessing files and such across the network and serving webpages hardcore, it run out of network bandwidth before anything else i imagine. until you start running a game server, it will be sufficient. after all, i run a similar type server on my network and it is a p3 450 mhz... not exactly a beast

First of all you always want to fee a good computer good power from a good powersupply. I wouldn't put anything less than antec, thermaltake or PC power and cooling, Enermax or silverstone.

AS for your power... one oppy should do fine until you start running a game server then I would upgrade ram before proc.

 

[mejohnm]

Just to let you know I ran a single Opteron running windows 2003 server. The server runs DNS, AD, two web sites, file sharing and print sharing with no problems.

MeJohnM