Of the two AMD contestants, the Tyan server comes out first; this is mostly due to the DDR interface that operated above the AMD specifications when using eight DIMMs. HP would have won with its 5 MHz overclocked Proliant DL385, but had both servers run at the recommended DDR333 with 8 DIMMs installed. We have no criticism of this decision, though.

HP bests the Dell server in the Intel competition everywhere but in the RAR test, where it takes a heavy beating. The fact that the Dell server runs 10 MHz below specification explains these results, at least to some extent.

Intel would have benefited considerably from dual core CPUs in this test, and we hope to include them at some point. The results might look as if Intel had nothing to fight AMD and in fact there is the Xeon dual core at 2.8 GHz. The Intel single cores are having a hard time competing with the dual core Opterons while remaining neck and neck with the AMD single cores.

Overall, AMD's Opteron solution can be said to be a clear winner, while the dual core Xeon will certainly help Intel reduce the gap. Also, we have to state that Intel's roadmap for the next year is pretty appealing, while there has been no substantial news from AMD.