AMD athlon 1.4ghz vs celeron 2.6ghz

[browndrake]

I am putting together a server for my house. I am going to be running ubuntu server on it and using it to host some apps which are run off a webserver.. mostly with php/mysql.

I have two old machines: AMD athlon 1.4ghz and celeron 2.6ghz. Both have 512mb ram.

How much difference will there be in their performance for the above task. The celeron has a much faster processor but the amd has twice as much cache. I have never really dealt with this type of thing before, but thought that several of you would have a fair bit of experience.

Any feedback on pros/cons of either/both. Is there even any comparison or is one much better than the other.

Thanks for your feedback

browndrake

[Livewire]

For a webserver the main slow-down should actually be the speed of the hard-drive; in my opinion I'd use the AMD 1.4ghz for it - leave the 2.6 available for something that needs the extra oomph behind it.

[JKoltner]

I agree with LiveWire... unless you start installing "CPU intensive" server applications like MySQL or PHP or somesuch on your PC, the hard drive will most likely be the limiting factor and either CPU will be unlikely to hit even 10% CPU utilization.

In terms of raw performance (e.g., an infinitely fast hard drive), I doubt you'd see that Celeron garnering more than 10-20% extra speed anyway -- I'd use the AMD.

[browndrake]

Thanks for the feedback..

How "CPU intensive" are MySQL or PHP? The main purpose of the server is to host an application that is mostly MySQL and PHP.
The app is mostly calendaring, data entry, storage and recall. The most intensive part would be when scanning in documents and saving them as pdf. (this action will be done but infrequently)

Thanks again

browndrake

[asoit]

Most likely AMD has more cache witch is good for server-based purposes, so I would suggest it

[gptsven]

id go for a SATA Disk 10 000 rpm

[Smith6612]

Thanks for the feedback..

How "CPU intensive" are MySQL or PHP? The main purpose of the server is to host an application that is mostly MySQL and PHP.
The app is mostly calendaring, data entry, storage and recall. The most intensive part would be when scanning in documents and saving them as pdf. (this action will be done but infrequently)

Thanks again

browndrake

MySQL, PHP and HTTP/DNS working together isn't very CPU intensive depending on what you're doing. Before I moved to x10Hosting, my Linux router was also a web server. It has a Pentium III 600Mhz processor on it and it was able to generate pages quite quickly.