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Conference decwet::ntaxp

Title:	Windows NT For Alpha AXP

Moderator:	TARKIN::LINEIBER

Created:	Mon Sep 27 1993
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1058
Total number of notes:	4567

1053.0. "ALPHASERVER 2100 & NT 4.0 - Poor Performance!" by VAXRIO::EMILIO () Tue May 27 1997 08:00

    
    	Hi everyone,
    
    	Iam with some problems with NT 4.0 in a big customer here in
    Brazil.
    
    	It seems like the File and Print Server performance with an
    
    	AlphaServer 2100 4/200 (2 SMP) is very poor if we compare with
    
    	a Pentium 166 (1 CPU). 
    
    	There are at the customer about 60 clients, some of them with
    
    	IPX/SPX and others with TCP/IP.  The AlphaServer has a FDDI NIC,
    
    	and RAID 5 implemented. Iam wondering what is going wrong ?!
    
    	The machine has 256 MB of RAM !? 
    
    	I would like to know if this could be normal, or there is something
    
    	really bad customized ?! Maybe some parameter in NT ?!
    
    	Iam really worried about this cause this customer is starting
    
    	to think that Alpha is a legend ?! I got to prove our power to him.
    
    	Maybe someone can help me.  I'd like to know the last versions of
    
    	SP for Alpha, HAL, firmware and other stuffs.
    
    	Thanks for your cooperation.
    
    	Emilio Silveira
    	DTS - Rj Brazil

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1053.1	and now you know why...	PCBUOA::KRATZ		`Tue May 27 1997 08:17`	3
	Have you seen any File/Print server benchmarks that have been favorable to Alpha servers? K
1053.2		MPOS01::naiad.mpo.dec.com::mpos01::cerling	I'[email protected]	`Tue May 27 1997 08:49`	13
	What are you considering poor? Is it not what was expected? For example, did you expect 4x performance and are only seeing 2x or no performance improvement? Or is the system performing slower than the Pentium? Is the data on the Pentium system in RAID5? Latest version of HAL and firmware can be found at www.windows.digital.com SP3 has just been released for NT4.0. tgc
1053.3	Poor Performance in ALPHA	VAXRIO::EMILIO		`Tue May 27 1997 10:29`	13
	Hi tgc, thanks for your help. The Pentium is running better than the Alpha and it was using RAID 5 too. If you have any tip I'll appreciate. Emilio Silveira DTS - RJ Brazil
1053.4	vintage system.....	TROOA::MSCHNEIDER	[email protected]	`Tue May 27 1997 16:56`	11
	Hate to say it but the 190 Mhz EV4 Alpha that you are using does not compare well to the Pentium 166. Against a 60 or 75 Mhz Pentium perhaps, but not at 166Mhz. Get a faster EV5-based Alpha for better performance, but the current system you have first shipped in May 1994 and you're trying to beat a 1996 Intel system. As Kratz noted, Alpha at any speed shows very little performance benefit over a PPro for file/print. If this is all you're testing with that vintage of system, then prepare to lose the benchmarks.