Thanks for the update. The "wow this is fast" experience has happened to us a few times with x86 boxes. However, keep in mind, that the Sparc architecture is really aimed at multi-user multi-threaded apps. The old adage is still true: "If you put 5 users on a Sparc system, it'll run slow, but if you put 500 users on a Sparc system, it'll run slow." My current favorite is the x4450. I really love that box. Yeah, with one single threaded app, the x4150 seems to run just as fast (if not a touch faster) than the fastest x4450, but for what we do (Intersystems' Caché), we seem to get better results with x86 than Sparc - at least at things that really bog down the processor.

BUT, here's the thing: I put in a couple of x4450's (4x 2.4GHz quad core) not too long before a couple of m5000's. Each had 4 quad core procs (but obviously they're really not in the same league in price.) One of our setup steps is to recompile a bunch of classes in a couple databases. Now, this process brought a pair of 4x dual core Dell boxes running Win2003 to their knees (100% CPU) for about two minutes (the boxes are about 6 months older - and don't get me wrong, they've been great boxes. They replaced two v880's and the guys running them love 'em.) When I got to that step, the x4450's were running at about 30% usage in prstat and finished in roughly the same time frame if not faster. There was no comparison with the Dells really. Nonetheless, doing the same (actually double the number of db's and hence double the workload) on an m5000 finished in about the same amount of time as well (possibly 5% longer). However, the m5000's didn't even break a sweat. Try as I might, I don't think I saw prstat rise above 18% - and that was only momentarily. I could have run this in the middle of the production day and not one of the hundreds of users connected to the server would have been the wiser that it had happened.

I don't think Sparc is dead by any means. Expensive? Certainly - but it always has been. It's just targeting a different demographic. Those that want to have hundreds (or more depending on the task) of users connected and have the utmost in stability are probably better off with Sparc. I'm actually installing some older v490's this week and even with the slower 1.05GHz procs, they're still pretty good boxes in most regards. And although the 3510's I'm using with them seem slower than 2540's, I don't like CAM and the fact that you can't have volumes/LUN's over 2TB with the 2540's and 6140's. I miss the flexibility of the 3x10's

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I still love the 2540's, but we did end up spec'ing 6140's (and CSM200's) for another bigger than normal project. I'll report back if we end up getting them and I have a chance to run some tests with them. I'm still guessing we'll see a difference in performance, but that it will be really hard for us to tell how much performance increase without really loading down the system with user connections.