VincentKeyboard wrote Speaking of microcode updates, I was using the intframfs microcode image when I was using Linux. I found the spectre/meltdown mitigations to be literally crippling on consecutive I/O operations. And I did the mistake of actually updating the bios as well (to an April 2019 release) when I installed Windows 10. It's a 6th gen (Skylake CPU).
If I go back to Linux, and disable mitigation through kernel parameters, will I also suffer degradation due to having upgraded the bios?
As i see on benchmarks - microcode updates are more about availability of new MSR and new(more expected, predictable) behaviour of some instructions that is used in mitigations, such as LFENCE.
on Linux there is almost no performance penalty if mitigations=off with new microcode. On Windows - no idea.
nuclearcat wroteFirst. Topic starter said: DBA. This means no OC bullshit.
nm, ring and other buzzwords also is more fanboys stuff, than something that matters.

This pic says all:
https://i.ibb.co/rcL4JcT/prices.png
The 3900x Costs more yet it got beaten by the i9 9900k in Lightly and Tighthly Threaded Applications due to:
First thing i learned in Lebanon - words cost nothing. Proof cost everything.
So, beaten in tightly threaded applications? Really? Where? Calculator?

Yes, per core AMD 3900X lose a little to i7-9900k, but there is difference, AMD have much more cores. And SQL is stuff where you need cores.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-9_3900x-vs-intel-core_i7-9900k,6225.html
On the productivity side of things, AMD and the 3900X really show their strengths. From web to MS Office, the 3900x beats even the 5 GHz i9-9900K in much of our testing. Only in the video conferencing, photo editing, and spreadsheet work does the Intel CPU take the lead.
Without a doubt, anywhere the Ryzen 9 3900X can use its cores and threads fully, it’s the better productivity based CPU. If the applications used are not heavily threaded, the i9-9900K shows off its prowess. As time goes on we should see an increase in core use by software, so the AMD CPU should have a longer lifespan in particular with multi-threaded applications.
Donot be driven by cyber marketing slides here and there mate.

Bring both systems and you know what I mean. No hate for either AMD or Intel , I am a perfromance oriented person regardless A or B , X or Y .As such, I have both top dogs from Intel and AMD. I get my hands dirty in a praticle sense in all areas as a hardware enthusiast. Streaming , mutitasking , and rendering (3ds Max, Maya and Revit, Vray , Cinema 4D, Blender etc..) are a blast on the i9 9900k.

Main disgrace about AMD is they are on 7nm and failing to beat an aging based 14nm Skylake architecture. Shouldnot they went 25% IPC + Easy 5Ghz not 25% IPC with low boost clock and they are lower as you go down in the cores hierarchy count.
My main issue is compatibility with windows 7..windows 7 would work on newer generation cpu but misses too much in terms of power and drivers.


So what would you advise .. maybe an older xeon ??
Your ideal specs will depend on the database usage - traffic (how many clients, concurrent access, etc.?) and storage needs (how much data?).
If you don't know your needs yet, start with something that is upgradeable.
rolf wroteYour ideal specs will depend on the database usage - traffic (how many clients, concurrent access, etc.?) and storage needs (how much data?).
If you don't know your needs yet, start with something that is upgradeable.
Small ..2-3 usage with replication (subscriber) ..db is around 7 GB
Donot be driven by cyber marketing slides here and there mate.

Bring both systems and you know what I mean. No hate for either AMD or Intel , I am a perfromance oriented person regardless A or B , X or Y .As such, I have both top dogs from Intel and AMD. I get my hands dirty in a praticle sense in all areas as a hardware enthusiast. Streaming , mutitasking , and rendering (3ds Max, Maya and Revit, Vray , Cinema 4D, Blender etc..) are a blast on the i9 9900k.

Main disgrace about AMD is they are on 7nm and failing to beat an aging based 14nm Skylake architecture. Shouldnot they went 25% IPC + Easy 5Ghz not 25% IPC with low boost clock and they are lower as you go down in the cores hierarchy count.
I have tons of desktop-grade cpus, servers, including for DBA, Ryzen of different generations (including ThreadRipper), funky Xeon-D, Xeon Silver, Gold, even did tests on bleeding edge ARM64 boxes, the only missing (not for long) - EPYC.
And i use all that personally and for business applications, for very different workloads, not just synthetic benchmarks.
For example recently installed Xeon Gold 6230 MSRP $1900, and it is not impressive at all.

AMD is tricky to run sometimes (i had first top ryzen, it has several bugs, quite big errata, but not surprising for totally new architecture, and sometimes not all mobo+cpu combination works), but when it runs, it beats Intel in all serious workloads.
And Intel... Intel have drawbacks on each corner, if you look little closer. For example installing 384G of RAM for beefy system with 2-way or 4-way will drop clock of it to the floor because of memory management overhead. Or AVX512 that drops CPU performance significantly as well and does opposite what it is designed for. On AMD it is much less tricky.
As usual, proof of some reputable benchmarks: https://indico.cern.ch/event/730908/contributions/3153163/attachments/1730954/2810149/epyc.pdf
duke-of-bytes wrote
rolf wroteYour ideal specs will depend on the database usage - traffic (how many clients, concurrent access, etc.?) and storage needs (how much data?).
If you don't know your needs yet, start with something that is upgradeable.
Small ..2-3 usage with replication (subscriber) ..db is around 7 GB
Try to put enough RAM, so your indexes can fit all in ram/cache. I'm sure you know - it is most critical in db design.
nuclearcat wrote
duke-of-bytes wrote
rolf wroteYour ideal specs will depend on the database usage - traffic (how many clients, concurrent access, etc.?) and storage needs (how much data?).
If you don't know your needs yet, start with something that is upgradeable.
Small ..2-3 usage with replication (subscriber) ..db is around 7 GB
Try to put enough RAM, so your indexes can fit all in ram/cache. I'm sure you know - it is most critical in db design.
16 GB should be enough dont you think for a 7 GB db .. I don't have any other application running..maximum vnc or vpn
duke-of-bytes wrote
nuclearcat wrote
duke-of-bytes wrote Small ..2-3 usage with replication (subscriber) ..db is around 7 GB
Try to put enough RAM, so your indexes can fit all in ram/cache. I'm sure you know - it is most critical in db design.
16 GB should be enough dont you think for a 7 GB db .. I don't have any other application running..maximum vnc or vpn
Not familiar with MS SQL... on Linux i will measure first sizes of indexes.
i still cant find any i7-6700 cpu in Lebanon .. i just found a small ho elitedesk sff with no ssd or nvme for around a 1000$