A different approach to dually...

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heavyharmonies

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My Dell Dimension 4550 is feeling a bit long in the tooth, so I want a new box. I had built a dual Athlon 1800XP rig from scratch about 2 years ago, and I miss the responsiveness when multitasking.

Unfortunately at this time I do not have the time nor the inclination to build another system from scratch, so am looking to buy off-the-shelf, at least a barebones rig. There are some components from my existing box that I can snag.

There aren't any good deals on Precision workstations at Dell right now (yeah, I know that "Dell" is a 4-letter word in a community used to building its own). However, there is 20% off PowerEdge SC servers at the moment.

What do you think about using one as a desktop/workstation? I realize that there is no AGP slot so I would ultimately have to obtain a PCI video card.

Right now for about $1750 shipped I can snag the following:

Poweredge 1600SC
Dual 3.06 Xeons (512K cache)
512MB RAMM (1 DIMM)
36GB 15K SCSI Hard drive

(dual 2.4s would be about $300 less)

I've done some looking around at other system builders, but most I've found (monarch.com, eCollegePC.com, cyberpowerinc.com, etc.) either don't do dual Xeon or dual Opteron rigs, or their prices are greater than Dell, even for such a barebones system.

I plan to snag a Soundblaster Audigy from my existing rig, as well as a Lite-On 52x CDRW and Panasonic LVD-511 DVD-RAM drive, and a 120GB 7200RPM data drive. I also have an external firewire 4x DVD+RW that I'll switch over.

I don't have any specific CPU-intensive apps, but I tend to have a zillion different things running at once and switch amongst them. I do a lot of image scanning and manipulation as well as MP3 encoding.

Any suggestions in the $1500-1800 range that I haven't thought of?

Thanks for your time.

-Dan
 
asus pc-dl - $201
2x3.06 533 xeons(oem) - 670
1gig kingston ram(2 dimms) - 177
1x74 gig raptor -$188
1 sparkle 550 eps12v ps $95

all off new egg

still leaves 369 for case and vid card and heatsinks for processors

no scsi, but you should be fine with the raptor
the pc-dl also has onbard sata raid if you want to add that later.

I know you said you dind't want to scratch build it, but you'd probably be far better off.
 
Doing some more hunting, put together this config at Adamant.com for $1364 shipped:

Server, Antec PLUS1080AMG, 430W ATX Power Supply
Motherboard, MSI K8T Master2 FAR for Dual AMD Opteron
Dual AMD Opteron 242, 64-bit with Heat sink and fan, 3 year Mfr warranty
512MB ECC Reg. DDR
HDD, Western Digital, 74GB SATA/150 10000RPM, 8MB Cache, WD Raptor
Gigabyte, ATI Radeon 7000, 64MB DDR, 4xAGP
Floppy Drive, Mitsumi 3.5", 1.44MB, Black
Built-in Dual 10/100/1000 LAN Controller
Case Fan, Thermaltake, 80mm BB Smart Fan
Keyboard, Adamant KB-WK-888, PS/2, Black Color
Mouse, Lite-ON, Optical, Wheel, Black
1 Year Parts and Labor Warranty

Since it has an AGP slot I can pul the Radeon 9700 TX from my Dell (not a real big gamer, so I'm not as gaga for FPS as many ;) ).

Think this would be a better building block than the dual Xeons?

-Dan
 
I would go for the Opteron system myself.
In a year or so's time you could upgrade to a pair of dual cored CPU's.

If possible go for 2x512 sticks of memory.
That way each CPU will have its own stick.
Then when you could afford it get a couple more for dual channel memory.

Luck....... :D
 
opteron all the way. 64bit for when it matters, faster in 32 bit. build it without the video card if you can, if you're just gonna swap it out... will that void warranty? I don't usually care about it, but you might. the msi board you mentioned doesn't _have_ dual gigE, is it another board? single gigE only on this board

i would go for more hd space, get a seagate 200;. quiet and fast and big. use for data storage.
 
Im not going to be biased: $1750 is a damn good price for Dell, or anyone else for that matter for a pre-built server with dual 3.06s, and you could upgrade the memory yourself later, for cheaper than dell, and you also get that one year warranty :)
 
dont get the dell... most newer PCI video cards will NOT work in it... trust me, its not a workstation
 
You don't have the time to build another system, ordering the parts doesn't take very long if you do it all online. Only takes a few hours to put together, that is if you've done it before enough times.

Gav
 
You don't have the time to build another system, ordering the parts doesn't take very long if you do it all online. Only takes a few hours to put together, that is if you've done it before enough times.
Click to expand...

That's just it, I've only done it once, and I'm deathly afraid of f*cking things up and frying something. It only takes one switched or reversed connection to make something go *KERBLOOEY* I'm not exactly the most nimble of finger, nor do I have any electrical knowledge per se, so I'm at the mercy of manuals written in Korenglish...

-Dan
 
Get a dual Opteron box, that it it.


Bet suggestion of to visit amd.com and view their list of partners that build boxes. This should give you some different ideas price wise. Also why not visit a local shop and have them build something for you?

Edit:
These are all AMD Validated Partners, so good warrany and service.

http://www.elitepc.com/pages/S-8900I-Tower.asp
http://www.cbwnet.com/
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=80140
http://www.boxxtech.com/asp/cf_step1.asp
 
I appreciate the suggestions. Unfortunately:

http://www.elitepc.com/pages/S-8900I-Tower.asp
Click to expand...
Best prices of those you list, but hardly any options re: motherboards, hard drives, etc. Configuration too rigid, e.g., cannot remove RAID controller or get one configured without RAM, Raptors not an available option, etc.


http://www.cbwnet.com/
Click to expand...
Do not appear to offer any opteron systems.


http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=80140
Click to expand...
Probably the best option of those listed, but none of the mobos listed support PC3200 DDR (at least according to the specs listed). Only Arima and Tyan Tiger/Thunder offered as mobo options. They REALLY overcharge on shipping.


http://www.boxxtech.com/asp/cf_step1.asp
Click to expand...
About $1,000 more than what I'm looking at for a barebones system.


Still looking for the perfect solution... am thinking I'm not going to find it. I may just have to suck it up and build one.... ergf.

-Dan
 
if your really that desperate to have one built for you pop me an email,
i can build one for you... [email protected]

im in Miami Florida, but will ship anywhere inside the US
 
yea I'd also build you a barebones or etc system, in DFW, texas: [email protected]

It's not hard to do but you're right it can be sensitive to small mistakes. My suggestion is find someone who's experienced and run through it with them a few times on different machines if possible. Mostly I watch out for ESD (electro-static discharge) which can kill components with just one touch of the finger to a chip or metal peice on pcb.

GL

~Adam
 
yaya, but i need money to pay for books :p
 
What about using a Nocona based Xeon? They are the new XeonDP CPUs from intel. Quote xbitlabs:

"The new Intel Xeon “Nocona” processors will be fairly different compared to the Xeon CPUs shipping now from numerous micro architectural points of view. The main difference is certainly support for 64-bit extension technology; however, there are numerous factors that will drive speed of Xeon products upwards. Firstly, Nocona’s L1 cache is two times larger compared to the current Xeon DP processors’ and equals to 16KB. Secondly, Nocona includes 16K uOps Trace Cache, a substantial improvement over current 12K uOps. Thirdly, 90nm DP products will make use of Prescott’s new, more efficient branch prediction mechanism. Fourthly, the fresh Xeon 1M microprocessors will feature SSE3 technology. Fifthly, the innovative Xeon chips will have 1MB of L2 cache compared to 512KB L2 cache on current offerings. Finally, the new Intel Xeon “Nocona” will boast with enhanced efficiency of the Hyper-Threading technology. Additionally, the new Xeon chips will have 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus, a boost over Intel’s present Xeon chips’ that feature 400MHz or 533MHz processor system bus."

According to the INQ, the new Nocona Xeons will be 30% faster b/c of the cache and the Bus (basically what Prescott could have been :( Thus I can guess that the pipeline for the Nocona core is indeed around 20 stages. (the Inq stated that Prescott’s tweaks were able to make it run 30% more efficiently then the Northwood, but because of the increased pipeline length, everything was undone)
 
IF you do chose to go with the opteron systems. Just don't get an ati video card with any motherboard with the amd 8151 chipset. They don't play well together.
 
hotrodsun said:
IF you do chose to go with the opteron systems. Just don't get an ati video card with any motherboard with the amd 8151 chipset. They don't play well together.
Click to expand...

link?
 
The x800 works fine with the tyan thunder k8w (it's what i run at home), the 9800 hase been reported with severe stability issues though, depends on who you talk to, supposedly if you run all the latest mobo and vid drivers it's ok
 
Take another look at Dell, but in the workstation area.

You can get the new Precision 470 for $1,573

Dual Xeon 2.8ghz 1MB L2 with EMT64 (64-bit)
512MB (2-DIMM's, but you can upgrade or buy after-market)
gigabit ethernet
40GB hdd
AGP Quadro gfx
Floppy
48X CDROM
3-year Dell warranty (it's been good in my experience with the 400SC, anything breaks and the overnight me new parts)

The best part IMO is that you get a real workstation in the sense that it has been tested to higher standards and MTBF should be higher as well. Dell cases are also great to work with and are really quiet. (You can sometimes return parts that you don't need for credit, thus saving you even more money. I have done with with my 400SC and got it down to real barebones for less than $220)
 
Thanks for that last post; I hadn't checked Dell's price on the new 800fsb Xeons. Does anyone know if these mobos will take Registered ECC RAM? I've got a gig of Mushkin PC3200 already coming, and this may end up being a good way to go...

I may do the daily Dell coupon hunt for a few and see what specials they've got coming down the pike.

-Dan
 
Physically building a machine takes all of an hour or more. Installing software. 2 hours max. Unless you have a retarded amount of apps to install. In which case any machine you buy isn't going to have that on thier either.

So your out time no matter what. Might as well build it yourself and save.
 
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