Hardware comparison

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Proce…,30_118_8796_9240,00.html

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I can't say for sure but from most forum discussions and things.... the pros are its a bit faster and more powerful, and the cons are it costs more and uses more power

Hard to find good comparison. You can try here. I think you mean the socket 939 models which are practically the same as their desktop analouges - in this case X2 4000+ (Opteron 170) and X2 4400+ (Opteron 175). As far as i remember you wanted to use 1 core for fl server and the other core - for additional program working with some files/equipment for FL. In this case would be best to go for 170 or 175(unless too expensive). Its possible to allow fl to use both cores and the additional program - only one of the cores. With some more work should be possible to force most windows processes to work only on specific core. There is difference how 1 processor and dual-core processor act under load. As example single core proc verry easy hit 100% load no matter how fast is it, dc proc will do that much rare even if its running on lower speed.

175 the best of them:
148 has the same speed but only one core so 175 is better than 148
165 has two cores but is slower than both 148 and 175. it makes it worse than 175...
depending on the use it would be better 148 or 165. for long and single heavy processes that requires heavy calculations (heavy excel calculations, scientific computing) 148 is maybe advisable, but for a more regular use the second core is a great advantage, so for FL id get 165

to choose 165 or 175 depends on the costs... 175 is somewhat better, but not much: about 5-10% better overall performance in my experience (well, in fact my experience is with 265, 270, and 275 cpus, that are the equivalent to 165, 170, and 175 for dual cpu systems, but no significative difference is expected)

on a sidenote, all those opterons are now outdated, as they employ the 'old' and -nowadays- expensive DDR memory. dunno if its possible, but id try to get a xeon (5100 or 5300 series) or a opteron series 1000, that shouldnt be much more expensive (the cpu is maybe a bit more expensive but the RAM is way cheaper) but the performance is significantly better

I think the case is to rent pc so only end price matters

for the need of fl server, from best to worse:

1. 175
2. 165
3. 148

m8s already explained why.

ddr2 based memory server is better solution, imao.

mod: if you want advice on pc configuration, please create seperate thread

I'm not sure how fl server exe would act cause i dont see way to test that without getting some ppl playing on it but whats for sure that freelancer exe is successfully balanced on 2 (and eventually more) cores automatically by windows.

as far for tests i have been making with fl server on amd dual core, it performs faster, and of course, never gets to 100%.

these tests were not serious, but my config showed me a certain benefit of multiprocessor machine, so, u should consider that one, in any case.

and yes, since microsoft made the game, windows does good job into splitting processes between cores, no problems encountered for days of testing.