Strykers server is one of the fastest I have hosted with. I dont care about benchmarks, the real world results are far more important. I have hosted with several of the large providers and have to say I am the most pleased with strykers setup.
Like, I said there's nothing wrong with Xeon setup. The benchmarks simple point to the fact that Opterons servers might be able to handle more cusomers per box than Xeon servers.
Say for example, a dual proc Xeon server that costs $5000.00 can host around 200-400 customer accounts. It may be that an Opteron box of the same price would be able to hold 300-500 customer accounts. This would lead to higher profits.
I should check out that webhostingtalk forums and see what people have to say.