On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 05:26:33PM -0400, Bob Mariotti wrote:

Doug;

Having worked with both types of systems, online business applications on AIX with the RS6K's and mostly online web serving with the AMD's, and now running all my desktops and servers on AMD w/Linux (windoze free!!!), I personally and professionally would recommend the latter for what you are talking about.

Thanks Bob, How have you found reliability with the AMD (and the whole platform)? My perception (probably wrong as it seems) is that with the new x86 systems running so hot, with everything being a comodity, with upgrades requiring replacement rather than adding on (e.g. another processor card) that the reliability suffers compared to the RS/6000. This is what I've found with comodity level x86. My only reliable computer is my IBM 486 (no hardware/firmware/mysterious errors ever since I bought it in 1994). My pentium 75 is a joke. My Pentium II 233 has a bum power supply and when asked re the value of replacing it says "well that Asus board was a good board but its 5 years old now". If I go with the AMD, how do I know what's a good quality board vs a comodity board (and other components) or do I just trust the vendor to put together a good, long lasting, box? When you need to upgrade your servers for performance, do your old ones still have life in them to resell? Nobody around here has older x86 boxs (I haven't checked with my RS/6000 vendor). Feel free to email me directly if you wish since this is leaving the purpose of the list. Thanks, Doug.