Building 10 systems - Any experiences or recommendations

[WienerDog]

I'm upgrading 10 (maybe only 5) systems for software development. Here is what I'm planning:
From GoogleGear
$79 Abit KR7A-RAID Via KT266A Athlon(XP)/Duron SktA DDR ATX Motherboard w/ ATA/133 RAID Retail
$75 IBM Deskstar 120GXP 40GB ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
$84 AMD Athlon XP 1800+ 1.533GHz Processor Retail
$111 Kingston 512MB DDR266 PC2100 Memory Retail

From NewEgg:
$28 Allied 350W Power Supply ATX350P4 ***AMD APPROVED good to 2100+ *** UL, CSA, FCC Approved ( item N82E16817154003 )
$4 AOC 80X80X25mm FAN, Ball Bearing, comes with 3pin adapter-OEM ( item N82E16835117008 )

That comes to $381. Shipping from googlegear is $17 (not bad) for the 10 systems I need, shipping from Newegg is $49 (holy smokes).

I have cases with floppy drives, keyboards, mice, and monitors. I don't need RAID, but it is the same price for the same Abit mobo without RAID. Should I consider the

369.30 + 3507 = $3876.30 to upgrade 10 machines.

 

[Czar]

I guess you are new here

dont buy IBM disks!

 

[MournSanity]

IBM? Are you crazy?!!

 

[WienerDog]

Jan 2001, 45 posts, not new here but not a local. So what should I go with? I can't think of the last harddrive recommendation that wasn't followed up with 5 people saying "my xxx was DOA and sent back 5 times, they are crap".

 

[WienerDog]

No problem, IBM is out. Personally, I thought the IBM problems were specific to a particular line of HDs, not every IBM drive made. My bad, what is the alternative?

 

[mcveigh]

seagate is my first ide choice nowadays.
WD and maxtor close second

 

[Tripleshot]

Seagate or Maxtor. I have had no trouble with maxtor. They run fast and quiet. (once I got a model that was not quiet,and maxtor replaced it,no questions asked! super service)

 

[Fatt]

Well, you asked for recommendations, in other words, what would other people do...

Personally, I'd go with different hardware with an eye toward stability and long term endurance with the least trouble possible. Not to mention better compatibility with your OS.


*Asus P4TE Socket 478 400MHz 512k Cache ATX Motherboard with AC97 Audio Retail Box
$139.00

*Major Brand RDRam RAMBUS 64MB 800MHz Non-Ecc - $25.00 x 4
$100.00

*WD 120 GB WD1200BB 7200 RPM ATA 100 Hard Drive
$148.00

*Intel Boxed Pentium P4 1.8 1.8A GHz 512k 400MHZ FSB Retail Box - Socket 478
$166.00

Shipping = $70.00

Total= $623.00

Now that's about $250 more than the system you were thinking about. BUT, remember two things:

1)This was all from one vendor. I just went to my regular vendor and looked up some parts rather quickly. By going to Pricewatch.com I'm sure I could knock a significant amount off that price.

2) If you are talking about a commercial use system, basically a production machine then IN MY OPINION you are better off with a system like I described than with a box that you might build for your own use.

 

[Tripleshot]

What is this, a battle between Intel and AMD, or Asus against Abit?

And at a $250/per machine price increase? Are you crazy!?!

Rambus sucks at that level. No rambus solution has outperformed DDR at this level and will not for some time to come. Rambus is dead.

And Abit KR7A 's are just as damn reliable and stable as an Asus P4 choice , if not more so. I run them both. I am not biased. I judge by fact, not emotion.

I can't believe I read this from you Fatt.

Thanks for the laugh.

 

[Fatt]

Originally posted by: Tripleshot

And at a $250/per machine price increase? Are you crazy!?!

Well, yes. I am.

But what has that got to do with anything?

I made a specific recommendation regarding what I would do and why I would do it.
Nobody is obligated to listen to me of course.

And the $250 price difference, if I shopped through Pricewatch.com, would probably drop to $100-150.
I did mention something to that effect...


For me, it all comes down to this:

If I were shopping for two cars, one to impress my friends and one to serve as a taxi, I would buy two very different vehicles.

 

[MysticLlama]

Well, though I can't say this for my personal box.. both home and the office I have P4s... All of the other boxes I have at work are standardized to a basic point.

Enlight Mid-Tower
20-40gb HDD
128mb SDRAM for the older ones
256mb DDR for the newer ones
EPoX 8KHA+ on all the new ones. (can't remember the older EPoX model off hand)
nVidia video card of some sort
3COM NIC
Duron 800-1000 with a few TBirds/XPs for heavy users

Here's the thing, I would be quite a bit happier just giving everyone a P4, but with running the budget and all the economics just aren't in it. For the difference in cost I can keep a spare system or two for the same amount of money. Out of the 35 machines I've built in the last year and a half, I've lost all of this:

2 power supplies (bad circuit in the warehouse blew them up
1 Vid card (who knows)
1 Hard Drive
2-3 CD-ROM drives (I buy cheapies)

0 Motherboards
0 sticks of RAM

Here is the point though, I saved enough money with going this route on the systems that I just pulled the drive cages from the two power supply ones and stuck them in another case and the users were back up and running. Took me all of 5 minutes each.

Vid cards I keep around, so that's easy enough. The only time consuming failure is having to rebuild a hard drive. (I just don't have any good images set up yet)

What I'm getting at is that if you maybe save a little bit here and there, and/or tailor the box a little to each user (just keep all of the mobos the same for sure), then you can save plenty of money to bail yourself out real quick if you do have a failure anyways.

So it kinda turned into a rant, but that's my rationale for *not* going the P4 route for all of the boxes at work, yet using them for my personal machines. (And even on those two I use EPoX 4G4A+ boards because then if I lose a vid card or NIC or something I just flip on the onboard. )

 

[ScrapSilicon]

MysticLlama has the proper mindset on this as well ..interchangeability..with the eye on the $ bottom line..

 

[WienerDog]

Should I save $27 and go with the ECS K7S5A mobo from Newegg for $52.99 then? We have nics, and the EP-8KHA+ is $95.

 

[bjc112]

NO.

Not for business...

 

[Snoop]

WienerDog, I just built a few systems for a friends office, I used the MSI Nforce based K7n420. It is as solid a board for work enviroments and with the integrated Nic, sound and video save me a lot of hassle with picking separate components.

 

[owensdj]

WienerDog, if these systems are going to be used for software development or other serious use, I'd suggest you go with an Intel Pentium 4 processor and an Intel chipset motherboard made by Asus. The 2.26GHz P4 + Asus P4B533 motherboard would be a stable, well-performing choice for about $365. I just built 2 business workstations with this combo recently.

Also, have you looked at Comp-U-Plus for your components? I usually get most of my parts from them.

 

[Snoop]

WienerDog, if these systems are going to be used for software development or other serious use, I'd suggest you go with an Intel Pentium 4 processor

LoL, only P4's can be used for "serious use." I guess Athlons users need to stick to the "non-serious" stuff, ie. webbrowsing, pr0n, and solitaire.

 

[WienerDog]

Originally posted by: owensdj
WienerDog, if these systems are going to be used for software development or other serious use, I'd suggest you go with an Intel Pentium 4 processor and an Intel chipset motherboard made by Asus. The 2.26GHz P4 + Asus P4B533 motherboard would be a stable, well-performing choice for about $365. I just built 2 business workstations with this combo recently.

Also, have you looked at Comp-U-Plus for your components? I usually get most of my parts from them.

Thanks, I'll check out Comp-U-Plus. I don't agree about the Athlon though. I just finished a C#/ASP.NET assignment where I used my 1ghz Athlon/512mb RAM notebook. Development for the next project will be in-house, so we need to upgrade some computers. I really DO want to hear if there is a better price/performance choice in a P4 chip/mobo, so I appreciate your opinion. Right now I am still on the 1800+ track because of it's cost, the RAM it uses, and it's performance.

So, is the ECS K7S5A not a good mobo?
Is it worth $43 per system, $430 to go with EP-8KHA+ mobos over ECS K7S5A, or stick with the original Abit KR7A-RAID board?

 

[WienerDog]

The ABIT KR7A133 without RAID is $75 from Comp-U-Plus.
There is an ASUS A7S333 for $65 also.

I guess what I need is what I should be looking for. My goal is to put together cheapest stable system I can. Everyone here will understand this: the cheaper the system, the more systems I will be able to buy.

I already appreciate all of the help. I am planning on going with Maxtor hard drives instead of IBM. That info in itself is worth the time you have spent helping me. Thanks.

 

[owensdj]

Heheh Snoop. I like AMD's processors just fine. I just don't completely trust VIA or SiS chipsets based on my experiences with a VIA chipset P3 board and from reading this and other forums. Maybe I'm wrong to still feel this way.