For reasons I won't go into here, my company has the opportunity to buy a 2
year old DEC 3000-700 Workstation that was loaned to us for some project
work. Since Digital has dropped their prices on most of their line, I wanted
to compare what I could get in a new Alpha.
I should mention that the 3000 was loaned to us to run as an NMS, and I
never really considered buying it until we got a helluva quote. Also,
Digital either wants us to buy the 3000 or return it. What we really need is
a Unix development machine that can double as a file/application server
(like many small companies, we're not exactly gushing with cash). With
discounts and all, I can get an AlphaServer 1000A 5/400 w/128MB for about
the same price.
I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be taking too much of a hit on
performance, so I tried to check benchmarks between the two. Now I'm really
confused. Here's what I found:
3000-700
SPECint92 162.6
LINPACK 100 x 100 26.9 MFLOPS
Alpha 1000A 5/400
SPECint95 11.5
LINPACK 100 x 100 186.6 MFLOPS
Several questions come to mind. Is the 3000 really 14x faster than the
1000A? I realize the SPECint values are from different benchmarks, but
according to the SPEC FAQ there is a "certain correlation" between SPECint92
and SPECint95, though there is "no magic formula" for conversion.
Conversely, is the LINPACK value completely meaningless?
Finally, I would welcome any and all opinions/recommendations that you may have.
TIA.
--
Casey Spangler spang_at_probita.com
Probita, Inc. 303-449-7665
"Go, and never darken my towels again!" -- Groucho Marx
Received on Mon Jan 20 1997 - 22:20:36 NZDT