After reading the Powermac G5 article at Anandtech, few questions sparked in my mind. The article suggested that for the $3000 spent on the Mac, it would be possible to build a Dual Opteron workstation, and probably get more performance out of it.
But how does one go about doing it? I have built two computers, a Pentium 100Mhz rig probably 7-8 years ago, and the Athlon XP 2500+ rig that I built a few months ago. Do motherboards such as Tyan Thunders have different power connectors? Are memory modules just as compatible, or are workstations more prone to hardware conflict issues?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of building a workstation? Is it logical to think that because you have 2 (or 4) processors, that you will get twice (or 4 times) as much performance out of it. Some articles I have read suggest that due to the overhead inherent in managing 2 or more processors, 1 CPU might perform better at times.
Is it also logical to think that a workstation is more future proof than a PC, because you can upgrade 2 CPUs, have more slots for RAM (sometimes up to 16GBs and more), and use faster SCSI hard drives. Imagine if one were to build a workstation for about $3000 right now (Dual Opterons, 2 GBs of RAM, 15K rpm SCSI hard drives), it would be possible to survive a Longhorn upgrade maybe with just a graphics card upgrade.
The questions to be answered are:
1) Where do you find a guide to build a workstation?
2) Does the cost of a more expensive motherboard, memory and 2 processors justify the increase in productivity/performance?
Surely, I am aware that workstations are made for people for higher computational needs. 3) What I am trying to say is, if it costs just as much to buy a PowerMac G5 or high-end system today than to build a mid range-workstation, why not build a mid-range workstation?
But how does one go about doing it? I have built two computers, a Pentium 100Mhz rig probably 7-8 years ago, and the Athlon XP 2500+ rig that I built a few months ago. Do motherboards such as Tyan Thunders have different power connectors? Are memory modules just as compatible, or are workstations more prone to hardware conflict issues?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of building a workstation? Is it logical to think that because you have 2 (or 4) processors, that you will get twice (or 4 times) as much performance out of it. Some articles I have read suggest that due to the overhead inherent in managing 2 or more processors, 1 CPU might perform better at times.
Is it also logical to think that a workstation is more future proof than a PC, because you can upgrade 2 CPUs, have more slots for RAM (sometimes up to 16GBs and more), and use faster SCSI hard drives. Imagine if one were to build a workstation for about $3000 right now (Dual Opterons, 2 GBs of RAM, 15K rpm SCSI hard drives), it would be possible to survive a Longhorn upgrade maybe with just a graphics card upgrade.
The questions to be answered are:
1) Where do you find a guide to build a workstation?
2) Does the cost of a more expensive motherboard, memory and 2 processors justify the increase in productivity/performance?
Surely, I am aware that workstations are made for people for higher computational needs. 3) What I am trying to say is, if it costs just as much to buy a PowerMac G5 or high-end system today than to build a mid range-workstation, why not build a mid-range workstation?
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