cPanel on Pentium D Dual Core? Or go with Xeon?

Hi all. I'm in the process of adding a new server and am looking for some advice. The server I am considering has the following specifications:

• 2U Chassis w 6 Hot-Swap SATA Bays and 350W Hot-swap redundant Power Supply
  \--- (460W Hot-Swap redundant power supply available for an extra charge)
• 1 x LSI MegaRAID SATA 150-6 6-port 64MB cache raid controller With LSI Battery Back-up Pack
• 1 x Intel SE7230NH1LX motherboard
• 1 x Intel Pentium D Dual Core 820 2.8GHz 800MHz 2x1MB Cache
• 3 drive 250GB SATA RAID with hot spare
  \--- (4 x 250GB SATA HDD Seagate Near-Line Storage Series w/5 yr warranty)
• 1 extra 250GB SATA for cPanel backups (will also use off-server FTP for backups)
  \--- (1 x 250GB SATA HDD Seagate Near-Line Storage Series w/5 yr warranty)
• 2GB = 2 x 1GB DDR2 ECC PC2-5400 Motherboard-Validated Memory
• On board dual Intel Gigabit Networks. 2 x RJ45 connectors for CAT6 TP
• No OS installed (we will install Fedora Core 4 or CentOS)
• DVD-ROM

I've been asking around and am getting some varying advice with regards to the use of a Pentium D Dual Core for the processor. Seems like many (most?) are using Dual Xeon's these days.

TIA,

- Scott

 

Intel says Pentium D is a Server Processor

Hi Jonathan. As always, I appreciate your help!

The reason I even considered the Pentium D is that it was developed and promoted as a server platform. One article of many on the Internet that discusses this is at:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050711214023.html

ARTICLE QUOTE:

As reported before, Intel on Monday released its first server platform built around dual-core Intel Pentium processors. The new product is primarily aimed at cost-effective and blade servers, but can offer performance close to higher-end 2-way Intel Xeon-based machines.​

Switching to Dual Xeon is going to add significant cost, but I will probably go that route, due to your concern.

- Scott