rp5470 - A or B Version?

[Justin Willoughby]

We are going to be getting two rp5470's (L3000's) soon and are wondering if it's worth getting the B version that supports the faster processors or if we should save some money and get the upgrade to the B version later if/when we need it.

We are only going with the 550MHz process right now so either the A or the B will work.

Looks like it will cost us about $10,000 more now for two servers. Is it worth it or is the upgrade to the B painless and will be less expensive in a year, two, or three?

Thanks,

- Justin

[dave daniels_2]

Justin,

The upgrade consists of changing out the system board which can be pretty involved if your not hardware savy. If cost is the major concern you can go with the A and upgrade later when the costs drop considerably.

(Shamless plug)
Have you considered the refurbished market? You can save considerable $'s. Check out www.elite-group.us

-Dave

[Justin Willoughby]

Yes we are looking at the refurbished market, right now we are looking at remarketed system from HP via a HP VAR that come with the full 3 year warrantee, these are about the same cost as used of the same model but some with 3 year warrantee which effects the cost of maintenance from HP.

Thanks,

- Justin

[David Bell_1 · Accepted solution]

Justin,

If you don't anticipate updating really soon, I'd wait. I too think the upgrade price may fall some. It is also reasonable to think unless you're growing at a relatively significant rate, have inappropriately sized the boxes initially(allowing for growth), or have unanticipated additions made to the processes/applications running, you may be at a place of trading the boxes up at the time the upgrade is required. The difference in technologies over a year or two can still be pretty significant at times.

HTH,

Dave

[S.K. Chan]

For revB you'll be getting 200MHz more plus probably about 1MB more of the on-chip cache, assuming revB supports the 750MHz PA8700. Your decision will have to be based on several factors, what kind of application are they going to run (eg: IO intensive of CPU intensive), the estimated server resources growth and cost. More than likely the cost of such upgrade will get less. If you size it correctly you would know when you need such an upgrade. If cost is the major concern, go with "upgrade later".