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Need a new "Cost is not a barrier" computer

S

statetech

Senior member
Well, someone came to me and was asking for the following, and since I haven't been up to date with the hardware scene, I'd thought I'd ask you experts.



<< What is the opinion of the list for the fastest and most reliable mobo, cpu, & dual head video card combination,
either intel or AMD cpu. I really want this machine to a
speed demon. cost is not a barrier. >>



When you said "cost is not a barrier", I was like WTF! Heck ya!

The OS will be either win2k or xp and it'll be a dedicated machine for his financial analysis.
I was going to suggest a dual AMD Athlon MP 2000 1.67GHz PROCESSOR CPU system. Or should I opt for two AMD ATHLON XP 2100+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU ?

The rest I'm completely clueless 🙂 The importance of stability can not be over stated, and there will not be any overclocking no matter how much more ummpphh there is, *sigh*
 
The main reason not to go Intel is the cost. If that's not a problem, I see no reason why not to get a watercooling kit and get him a 2.4 GHz P4 and oc it to 3+ GHz. Certainly more useful than dual solutions, which, asside from the lack of overclocking options, doesn't help in some cases, whereas a 3+ GHz would be faster than the default clock in all cases. A GF4 Ti4600 with that would be nice along with a nice dual channel U160 SCSI setup with 15k rpm U160 drives and some 2 GB of RDRAM oced to 1066 MHz or beyond, some cooling for the ram as well, and possibly an aluminum case. I'm thinking Coolermaster ATC-201.

Hell, if cost is not an issue, tell him to do some weird ass self-built thing. Order some HFE from 3Com (or was it 3M that made it) and have him build his own air-tight case where he can just dip his entire hardware (minus the HD's, CD-Roms and PSU of course) into the liquid (it's completely inert so it does not cause a short or rust). HFE is just as conductive of heat as water but doesn't have any of the harmful effects such as rust.
 
though he said "cost is not a barrier," I think we can presume that it should be "reasonable barrier" 🙂

He's not as hardware profecient as many of you so this would have to be a "set it and forget it" system, more or less.

I too was thinking SCSI but I've always ran IDE due to budget constraints. So if you guys mention SCSI, please take that into account.
 
I have a dual p4 2.4 xeon.. actually have a quad but 1 processor had problems and is being rma to intel... I think the amd are faster but heck.. i dont have time to tweak so I only got intel..
 
I think the amd are faster but heck.. i dont have time to tweak so I only got intel..

VERY viable answer. In the past I couldn?t go one week without having to ?tweak? or fix little problems I was having with my AMD system. While my current one has only been plagued by dead part?s, I still feel Intel systems are always a best bet when building a computer for someone other than yourself. I?d say wait a little while until you can get your hands on a i850E motherboard(make sure it?s a non-intel board, go for Asus or the like), buy some 32ns RD-Ram, and a 533mhz FSB P4. DO NOT overclock the system. Overclocking has the potential to cause a whole slue of other problems, which IMO, is not a wise move.

 
I like the idea of quad now that you mention it. Didn't ever cross my mind but now I'll have to take this into account.
 
Some suggestions, if I may?

As for dual AMD's, the 2000 and 2100+ models have the bridges cut, so you can't use the XP processors in dual, you'd have to go MP, which is considerably more expensive, and since you're spending that much money anyway, you'd be better off with some of the latest generation of Xeons.

As for Overclocking and water cooling, that is a bit of a moot point to begin with since this system is for someone I presume isn't entirely computer savy. Stability is more important here, for a financial analyst, and if cost is not a barrier and there is even less of a reason to tweak.

Why does a financial analyst NEED something this powerful to begin with? I would find out more about the needs of the user and use the budget to cater to that. IE a RAID array that fits redundancy needs for sensitive data, dualhead displays for multitasking, etc. There is a lot more to building the perfect computer for the job than sheer processor power. Quad Xeons would require an OS that is likely not a viable option for the person using it.

Just my 2¢



 
Do yourself a favor and direct your friend to Dell. They have some real nice workstations with Dual Xeons, fast SCSI drives, and good warranties. Suppose you do build this computer for him, and it costs 6 or 10 K. Then he has some instability or something. Do you want to be in the postion where you need to troubleshoot it for him, send bad parts back for RMA and have the machine inoperable until they come back, etc, or do you want a Dell rep onsite in 4 hours fixing it?

I know it would be fun to build such a PC, but since this PC will be depended upon for business, spend the extra money for a Dell and sleep easy because you have a nice warranty.
 
What would avrage joe do with quad processors?
rolleye.gif
 


<< What would avrage joe do with quad processors? >>



Wound't say he's an average user. I think I noted that machine would be used for heavy financial analysis as well as some heavy duty real time data collection, but maybe I didn't 🙂
 


<< Do yourself a favor and direct your friend to Dell. They have some real nice workstations with Dual Xeons, fast SCSI drives, and good warranties. Suppose you do build this computer for him, and it costs 6 or 10 K. Then he has some instability or something. Do you want to be in the postion where you need to troubleshoot it for him, send bad parts back for RMA and have the machine inoperable until they come back, etc, or do you want a Dell rep onsite in 4 hours fixing it?

I know it would be fun to build such a PC, but since this PC will be depended upon for business, spend the extra money for a Dell and sleep easy because you have a nice warranty. >>



This would probably be the best solution, but just for fun:

$600 Supermicro P4DC6+ (Dual P4 Xeon, onboard SCSI u160)
$984 Intel Pentium 4 Xeon 2.2GHz (2)
$928 SAMSUNG (Origional) 512MB RAMBUS 800Mhz (4)
$375 Seagate X15-36LP 36.7GB 15,000RPM
$9 Sony 1.44mb Floppy Disk Drive
$135 PLEXTOR PX-W4012TA/SW 40x12x40 CD-RW
$47 PIONEER INTERNAL ATAPI 16X DVD-ROM MODEL 106S/2
$369 GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4600, 2.8ns, Twin-DVI, 128MB DDR
$208 Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX
$209 Lian-Li PC-70 USB, 15-Bay, Aluminum ATX FULL Tower Case
$83 ENERMAX EG465P-VE(FC). 431W Power supply for AMD K7 & Pentium4

Enjoy, have fun!

 
BuckleDownBen, good suggestion. I think I'll do that as a primary source.

As others have pointed out the limitations of win2k, looks like we'll be getting a dual cpu system, no larger.
ahsia, nice! I'll recommend those to him if he doesn't opt for the Dell way.

BTW, I won't be building it for him, unless I get lucky 🙂
 
HFE (someone's been watching too much TV 😉) is made by 3M

As for wondering if a Financial Analyst would utilize MP. Ummm, yeah. If they run any sort of stat apps like SPSS or SAS, or other similar apps. Although, I'm kinda wondering why the company he works for doesn't have a fairly nice server dedicate to doing this kind of stuff all ready. Just remember that if you opt for dual CPU's, check to see if the more intensive applications he'll use actually support MP, otherwise it's a waste 🙂
 
Exactly what does "financial analysis" mean? If he's gonna browse the stock quotes on the net a Celeron 700 will do just fine but maybe there's something a little more advanced going on 🙂
 


<< HFE (someone's been watching too much TV 😉) is made by 3M

As for wondering if a Financial Analyst would utilize MP. Ummm, yeah. If they run any sort of stat apps like SPSS or SAS, or other similar apps. Although, I'm kinda wondering why the company he works for doesn't have a fairly nice server dedicate to doing this kind of stuff all ready. Just remember that if you opt for dual CPU's, check to see if the more intensive applications he'll use actually support MP, otherwise it's a waste 🙂 >>



Not really.

Windows does a pretty decent job of splitting up tasks between applications, & if you think you're smarter than Windows you can always set processor affinity yourself.

Even running solely single threaded apps my SMP system is quicker & more responsive than it's single CPU counterpart.

Viper GTS
 


<< Even running solely single threaded apps my SMP system is quicker & more responsive than it's single CPU counterpart. >>



That's the reason why. What do you guys think of ahsia's suggested specs?
 


<< Keep in mind that Win 2K Pro will only support dual CPUs, to run quad you'd have to go to Adv Server IIRC.

Viper GTS >>



2k server will actually support 1-4.



I'd agree with a few others here, if you're looking for a reliable high end workstation I'd look at the Dell Precision 540s. You could probably get away with building a good system from the ground up, but with a company like Dell you're paying for the warranty/onsite support.
 


<<

<< Even running solely single threaded apps my SMP system is quicker & more responsive than it's single CPU counterpart. >>



That's the reason why. What do you guys think of ahsia's suggested specs? >>



I"d get SCSI CD-RW and SCSI DVD players. I wouldn't get the NVidia. A Matrox might be more stable. Definetely don't get a Creative sound card. Lots of problems with those and SMP. Get a Turtle Beach instead. I'd also get a large IDE drive or two for backups.
 


<< What do you guys think of ahsia's suggested specs? >>



$9 for a floppy drive is highway robbery!! don't do it!😉

actually the best bet would be dell, I'd want a dual dvi card with say 18inch lcd's,

here is a little sumpin sumpin from dell
Dell Precision?Workstation 530:

2x Intel® Xeon? Processor, 2.40GHz, 512K Cache
2GB Memory with Riser PC800 ECC RDRAM®(8 RIMMS?)
Enhanced Performance, USB, for Windows® XP
2x 20 inch Dell (20.0 inch vis) 2000FP Flat Panel Monitor 2000FP
nVidia, Quadro4 900XGL, 128MB, VGA/DVI 900XGL
1st Hard Drive: 36GB Ultra 160/M SCSI, 1 inch (15,000 rpm)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
MS IntelliMouse® Explorer, USB, Optical (4-button, w/scroll)
16X DVD-ROM w/Decode-for Quadro2 EX? or Radeon? VE 16DVDXP
harman/kardon 19.5 Speakers
Hardware Support Services: 3Yrs Same Day 4Hr Response Parts + Onsite Labor (7 Days x 24 Hours)

$11,048.00

you can raid that if you want to.
 
thanks guys, especially on the specific models from dell.
Looks like I might be saying "DUDE, you're getting a DELL!"

😀
 
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