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#323893 - 01/07/2009 16:17 Quad Core vs Dual
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1914
Loc: London
I'm going to be ordering a server to run Exchange 2007 for a 25 user network, Dell offers dual and single core processors as well as multiples of each. Is there any advantage in running quad core and/or multiple processors with Exchange? We have 3 remote offices that connect via Citrix if that makes any difference.

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#323895 - 01/07/2009 16:33 Re: Quad Core vs Dual [Re: tahir]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Windows and Exchange will certainly be able to use multiple cores, but a 25-user network isn't a big load on an Exchange server. (An Exchange server is a huge load on an administrator, or on a person who wants email to work properly, but that's another story.)

I currently run an Exchange (2003) server at a remote office with 35-ish people on a single Xeon 5160 (3GHz, dual-core) with 4GB RAM, and I've never had any load problems, and it is also an AD, DHCP, and DNS server.

When you say the remote offices connect via Citrix, will your Exchange server also be the Citrix server, because that will have a significant impact.
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Bitt Faulk

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#323896 - 01/07/2009 16:58 Re: Quad Core vs Dual [Re: wfaulk]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Exchange is more memory/disk speed hungry then it is CPU bound. Make sure to spring for better disks or more memory before you look at better CPUs.

And as Bitt said, CPU will be more important if it is also going to be a Citrix server.

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#323898 - 02/07/2009 05:49 Re: Quad Core vs Dual [Re: wfaulk]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Originally Posted By: wfaulk
Windows and Exchange will certainly be able to use multiple cores, but a 25-user network isn't a big load on an Exchange server.


True, but (IMO) it's rarely worth bothering with single-core CPUs these days. I'd probably opt for a 64-bit CPU and plenty of memory.

Another question: will you be running AV on the Exchange box? That adds extra load...
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-- roger

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#323899 - 02/07/2009 07:35 Re: Quad Core vs Dual [Re: Roger]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1914
Loc: London
Citrix is on a different box, as is AD, we're going to be using Google postini for AV and spam filtering apparently:

http://www.google.co.uk/postini/compare.html

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#323905 - 02/07/2009 10:56 Re: Quad Core vs Dual [Re: Roger]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Originally Posted By: Roger
True, but (IMO) it's rarely worth bothering with single-core CPUs these days. I'd probably opt for a 64-bit CPU and plenty of memory.

Oh, I totally agree. Honestly, I don't think that Dell offers any single-core CPUs any more. Even if they do, they're only worth it if you need raw speed out of a single-threaded process, and that's an unlikely situation, and one that an Exchange server is not.
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Bitt Faulk

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