Category Archives: Intel

Processor Tall Tales From Best Buy

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Glenn Berry

I was recently doing some shopping at my local Best Buy, and I wandered through the computer section to see what they were currently selling (as I periodically like to do). While I was standing in the laptop area, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Intel, Laptops | Tagged | Leave a comment

Selecting an Appropriate Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 Family Processor for SQL Server 2012

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Glenn Berry

Intel has finally released the 22nm Xeon E5-2600 v2 Family (Ivy Bridge-EP) of processors that will be used in two-socket servers. These processors have slightly better single-threaded performance than the previous 32nm Xeon E5-2600 Family (Sandy Bridge-EP) processors, along with … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Intel, Ivy Bridge-EP, SQL Server 2012 | Tagged | 3 Comments

Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Glenn Berry

On July 25, I had the opportunity to present Hardware 201 for the PASS Performance Virtual Chapter. You can download my deck here. Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performance The foundation of database performance is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Intel, Processors, SQL Server 2012, Teaching | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Intel Haswell-EP Processor Rumors

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Glenn Berry

Intel releases a new processor microarchitecture every two years, which is called a Tock release. One year later, they take that same microarchitecture and move it to a new, smaller manufacturing process, along with adding some minor feature improvements. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Haswell, Intel, Processors | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Choosing a Mobile Workstation

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Glenn Berry

I get a lot of e-mail and Twitter requests for advice about what laptop someone should buy. I don’t mind this too much (I actually sort of like it, to be honest), but it probably makes some sense to summarize … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Dell, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Laptops, Processors | Tagged , | 20 Comments

Analyzing TPC-E Benchmark Performance by Physical Processor Core

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Glenn Berry

The TPC Benchmark E (TPC-E) is an OLTP performance benchmark that was introduced in May, 2007. The TPC-E benchmark is a not a replacement for the old TPC-C benchmark, but rather is a completely new OLTP benchmark. Even though this … Continue reading →

Posted in AMD, Computer Hardware, Intel, Processors, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Building an Intel Ivy Bridge Desktop System, Part 2

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Glenn Berry

A few weeks ago, I wrote about buying some of the components that I needed to build a new 22nm Ivy Bridge based desktop system. When I wrote that initial blog post, the actual Ivy Bridge desktop processors were not … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Processors | Tagged | 5 Comments

Quick Roundup of Intel Ivy Bridge Reviews

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Glenn Berry

The overall opinion seems to be that the 22nm Ivy Bridge represents a relatively small boost to CPU performance (typically 5-20% compared to the 32nmSandy Bridge, depending on the task), a pretty significant boost to integrated graphics performance (typically 40-65% … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Processors | Tagged | Leave a comment

Intel Ivy Bridge Release Coverage

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Glenn Berry

Web sites, blogs and media outlets in Europe and the U.K. are starting to post some early Ivy Bridge stories, which means that the Intel information embargo about the Ivy Bridge processor must be nearly about to expire. From what … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Processors | Tagged | 1 Comment

Building an Intel Ivy Bridge Desktop System, Part 1

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Glenn Berry

I stopped by my local Micro Center on April 9, 2012, and I noticed that they had just received their first shipment of ASUS Z77-based motherboards. They were still on the warehouse cart, not even on the shelves yet. There … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Hardware, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Processors | Tagged | 1 Comment