Feedback on this setup woudl be appreciated...

[nip2655]

Hello, all.

First off, let me say that while I am new to the dual Opteron world, I have built many, many computers through the years. I would like the opinion of those folks who actually have some experience using a similar setup, i.e., MUCHO RAM on the dual-Opteron/K8WE platform.

This is what I would like to purchase for my company's engineering workstation needs. We will be running dual-boot between XP SP2 and XP 64:

(1) K8WE
(2) Opteron 246s
(2) Thermaltake A1838s
(1) ATI FireGL V5000
(2) WD 74GB Raptor SATA HDD (RAID 0)
(2) 16X Dual-layer DVD+RW
(1) CoolerMaster CM Stacker Case

I haven't decided on a power supply yet, but I don't think I will have any problems with that. Are there any glaring problems with the above configuration?

My primary question is this: I would like to run 8GB or RAM in the machine using (8) Corsair CM72SD1024RLP-3200 modules. Is this a good idea? If not, why?

I can really benefit from the extra RAM as we use some proprietary 3D and CAD apps that are going to be re-compiled for Win64 within the next couple of weeks. They will be compiled to take advantage of 64-bit's extended memory addressing ability, so the 2GB (or 3GB with boot switch) limit under 32-bit doesn't apply to my scenario. In addition, these apps would benefit from utilizing the full 4GB available in Win64 for applications running in 32-bit mode (two of them are compiled in 32-bit with the increased addressing ability).

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[imported_Kensai]

:thumbsdown: It's a fair built but you should get a single Opteron 265, 270 or 275 instead. Or even get two if you can squish it into your budget.
8GB of ram is a fair ammount. It will be fairly helpful in memory intensive tasks.

Don't even bother with two single core Opterons, it just isn't worth it.
~If you do get only one dual-core CPU, you'll be limited to using four DIMMs.

 

[nip2655]

Thanks, Kensai.

What is your recommendation based on as far as the dual-core? First-hand experience or info available on web? The dual-cores are only recently available and I would like some input based on real-world experience. Benchmarks can be misleading, as we both know and this system is used for CAD and engineering apps, not games, 3D content creation (though similar requirements) or business apps. It will also likely host these apps for a number of remote users.

The dual-cores come at a premium cost and as you said, the build would require 2 procs for all 8GB of memory. The apps we will be running will benefit more from the additional memory than from the increased processing power of the dual-core. Also, as this is the company's 'test bed' machine, I need to be able to prove this is the platform for us to upgrade to.

As soon as I can clearly show the benefits of dual 64-bit CPUs running under Windows64, I am gonna be handed a nice check for our ultimate application server....quad opterons with as much memory as I can jam in it and dual-cores will definitely be my choice for that! ...

I don't think I want or need to spend a premium to prove my point to the company's money men. Cost is a factor for the 'testbed' machine. Success means cost becomes no factor at all in the future. Being able to reduce processing times by 3 or 4-fold will easily offset the hardware costs, as I am sure you know.:clock:

Your feedback is appreciated.

 

[SirAllen]

Nip, as long as you're not using XP 32 bit, it'll be fine. Do a search on the net for a guy named Venturi, he's been runnning this board w/ 16GB for months now along with dual dual core 275s.

Also, I'd definitely say get the 2x246 Opterons over a single dual core. You'll need that 2nd CPU slot filled to take advantage of the other nForce chip and associated memory slots and PCI-e slot, etc. and may get headaches from only having one. Plus, just one CPU would limit you to the 4 memory slots of CPU#1, and unless you want to spend a ton on 2GB modules this would limit you to 4GB.

Also, you said you hadn't decided on a PSU yet, just don't go cheap here as it's probably the most important component in a setup like this.

I have a lot of your proposed build BTW, but only 2GB ATM:
--
Tyan S2895 K8WE, (2) Opteron 246, (2) Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu, eVGA 6800GT 256MB, Lian Li PC-V2000B, (2) 74gb WD 10K Raptors - RAID 0, (4) 300gb Maxtor DM10 - RAID 5, Broadcom RAIDCore BC4852D, (2) NEC ND-3520A 16x DL DVD+-RW, OZC PowerStream 520W & Antec Truepower II 550W, (4) 512MB OCZ OCZ400512SSER Buffered ECC, Audigy 2 ZS Plat