Advice please - x64 Std Ed best value for money?

Hi
We need to part ways with our 32 Bit SQL 2000 Enterprise Ed server this
year and finally upgrade to 2005.
Purely from a MS / Licensing viewpoint, it would appear that the best
value for money seems to be x64 Std Ed on the per processor license
option on a W2003 x64 Std Ed? (~US$ 5000 / processor)
Rationale
=> It doesn't seem to make sense to go back to 32 bit [PAE / 3GB AWE
and the like]
=> It seems hard to justify the 4 fold price differential between x64
SE and EE - in SQL 2000 we haven't used any of the EE only features
like Indexed Views, and the major reason for EE was for the > 2GB
memory usage.
The server will host about 5 mostly OLTP / LOB Databases Total size of
around 250GB, with around 200 concurrent users. Our current EE 32 bit
setup is 2 x 3Ghz Xeon MP with 6GB RAM and usually runs at about 40%
utilisation.
I have been through
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx
Am I missing something obvious? (SE x64 can use >> 4GB RAM, has no DB
Size Limitations, and unlimited concurrent connection limitations,
right?)
Thanks in advance
StuartThanks John - SE x64 will definitely be on the shortlist.
Regards
Stuart
John Bell wrote:
> Hi Stuart
> I am not sure if this will be posted twice!
> I think your reasoning is fine if memory was the only issue that you need
> Enterprise Edition. If you are definately not going to be using any of the
> features available only in EE such as partitioning, online restores, online
> indexing etc then SE will be sufficient.
> John
> "NonNB" wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > We need to part ways with our 32 Bit SQL 2000 Enterprise Ed server this
> > year and finally upgrade to 2005.
> >
> > Purely from a MS / Licensing viewpoint, it would appear that the best
> > value for money seems to be x64 Std Ed on the per processor license
> > option on a W2003 x64 Std Ed? (~US$ 5000 / processor)
> >
> > Rationale
> > => It doesn't seem to make sense to go back to 32 bit [PAE / 3GB AWE
> > and the like]
> > => It seems hard to justify the 4 fold price differential between x64
> > SE and EE - in SQL 2000 we haven't used any of the EE only features
> > like Indexed Views, and the major reason for EE was for the > 2GB
> > memory usage.
> >
> > The server will host about 5 mostly OLTP / LOB Databases Total size of
> > around 250GB, with around 200 concurrent users. Our current EE 32 bit
> > setup is 2 x 3Ghz Xeon MP with 6GB RAM and usually runs at about 40%
> > utilisation.
> >
> > I have been through
> > http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx
> >
> > Am I missing something obvious? (SE x64 can use >> 4GB RAM, has no DB
> > Size Limitations, and unlimited concurrent connection limitations,
> > right?)
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> > Stuart
> >
> >