My guess is that you will get better performance from a similarly priced
Dual Opteron for the following reasons:
1) OS-X is not 64-bit yet, 64-bit Linux/BSD OS's are available
2) GCC is far better tuned for x86 than PowerPC/Itanium/etc
3) Postgres *seems* to prefer Opteron's ondie memory controller
architecture over shared bus -- especially in SMP configs
Is it enough of a difference? If you needed to eek out every possible %
performance because you have a critical production need, then the answer
is yes. Otherwise, it's easier to stick with the OS you know.
Jim Strickland wrote:
> Well, the whole reason I have asked this question is because my
> developer swears by OS X and PostgreSQL. However, I wanted opinions from
> other people who have possibly used a similar setup so I can make an
> informed decision. I will certainly keep your advice in mind. I guess
> the only reason I was asking about the version of OS X and the G5
> processor, is because that is all my developer uses and he seems to
> think they make a great combination, but that seems to be at odds with
> your experience.
>
> Perhaps some others will weigh in with their experiences and I will be
> able to make a sound decision. Fortunately there is no great rush to
> decide. Thanks for your help.