I've been using a cluster of ProLiant 5500's Quad Xenon III 2MB 550MHz 4G RAM for ESX 2.5/ESX3 (with added 5302 controllers) for sometime for test and development, (I've got access to DL585s at work!), but I now wondering, if I'd get the same performance out of an HP/Compaq D530 Whitebox with a 3.4GHz single processor, 4G ram and 500GB SATA hard disc, although I could still attach to SAN via HBAs.
My question really is power (electrical) versus performance, I find the ProLiants very good, although power hungry and noisy, is it better to have more CPUs than a single CPU, although Hyper Threaded and faster! If so I'll switch and save some electricity, but if performance is poor, I'll stay with what i've got and pay the electricity bill!
