title: Linux benchmarking tools
body: <p>I've been asked to evaluate a new vendor's computing system and management has requested that I do NOT use any of our existing software to evaluate the platform (believe it or not, they have some valid reasons).</p>
  
  <p>Anyways, I've started trying to read up on meaningful benchmark programs for server-grade computers but haven't been all that impressed.  I'm trying to demonstrate raw computing power and memory I/O throughput.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions on meaningful tests that I should run? -- I will have access to both the existing system and the system to evaluate for all of these tests.</p>