I found a website with a great basic video that described benchmarking as technology’s way of “describing processor and system performance”… Different workloads require different system configurations,” considering both current needs and those in the future. It sounds like knowing the needs is the key factor in selecting computers. “Benchmarks are metrics used to evaluate computing performance in specific workloads.” Today, used as marketing tools, one should be aware of “needs” when choosing benchmarks best suited for each situation—watch for skewed or outdated information used for marketing products.
Like a car’s, subsystems—engine, transmission, and fuel systems, computer subsystem consist of:
1) The CPU (Central Processing Unit)—the computational subsystem that attends to calculation and program execution (single or multi-core versions)
2) The Input/Output (I/O) subsystem routes information to and from the processor (examples are the hard drive, the network interface controller and cluster interconnect)
3) The memory, which allows the computer to store and retrieve date more quickly than from hard drives)
The benchmarks I would use for heavier on-line transaction processing (TPC-C) would be a strong I/O, because database servers continually read and write large volumes of information and a balanced processor and memory performance.
This leads me to look for higher cache, DDR2 RAM because these components facilitate high-speed storage for working data and quick, easy access that students need. The benchmark information I found from the Tom’s hardware site for the Database I/O Benchmark Pattern (IOMeter 2003.05.10)—the first ranked machines are: 1) Western Digital Raptor (ranked 1162), the Western Digital Caviar SE16 (ranked 735) and 3) Samsung SpinPoint P (ranked 702). Raptor was the only one over 1000.
I have chosen these three hard drive selections from the NewEgg site because of the I/O benchmark ratings:
1st Choice:
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFDRTL 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - Retail
Cache: 16MB
Form Factor: 3.5"
Average Seek Time: 4.6ms
Average Write Time: 5.2ms
Average Latency: 2.99ms
Your Price:$239.99
2nd Choice:
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KSRTL 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Retail
Cache: 16MB
Form Factor: 3.5"
Average Seek Time: 8.9ms
Average Write Time: 10.9ms
Average Latency: 4.2ms
Your Price:$79.99
3rd Choice:
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD502lJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Cache: 16MB
Form Factor: 3.5"
Average Seek Time: 8.9ms
Average Latency: 4.17ms
Your Price:$79.99 (retail price ?)
