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Very High End Workstation

J

jleves

Member
My company standardizes equipment as much as possible and it's time to update our high end workstation. These are used mostly for CAD and some power users who run multiple apps, program, and run VMWare machines on their desktops. These are never overclocked and there is no gaming involved. Typically they are used with dual displays. For approx $5000, what would you configure? Dual Xeon? This is for the box only, no monitor, speakers or peripherals and either through Dell or HP so we can't use exotic cases, etc.

Thanks
 
dual woodcrest if they are out. im not too up on the server market, but i know that these would be the best right now. however, i heard the amd server chips are pin compatible with the quad core k8ls that are coming out, so you can potentially go from 4 cores to 8 or something like that.
 
Here's a link that will give you all the options a professional CAD workstation or server.

I believe you can use different configurations to better understand the workings of your new build.

If you are considering getting it from HP or Dell, then my suggestion is lease, not buy.
 
If your application requires a "blessed system" (ex Unigraphics) then by all means make sure you choose a vendor that's qualified.
 
Actually - we just have certain contracts in place that are used for this - so it's HP or Dell.

Does anyone have any idea on the performance difference between these two configs:
Two Dual Core AMD Opteron 2.8GHz, 1MB core
Two Dual Core Intel Xeon 5150 2.66Ghz 1333 MHz FSB 4MB L2

Assume everything else is the same.

Thanks
 
Dual Dual Core Xeons. Something like 4 or 8 GB of memory, the highest end Quadro you can afford.
Something like a 3 or 4 Raptor raid 5.
 
Originally posted by: Ayah
Dual Dual Core Xeons. Something like 4 or 8 GB of memory, the highest end Quadro you can afford.
Something like a 3 or 4 Raptor raid 5.
Click to expand...

We got Fujitsu MAU's from Dell. Very quiet and fast drives. 🙂 Quadcore Xeons are going to rock. 8 cores in taskman with two sockets and far less power consumption than our outdated Nancona 3.6 precision workstations. 🙂
 
How this as a possibility? From Puget Sound Computer recommendations:
SYSTEM CORE
Motherboard Supermicro X7DAE
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon (Core 2 Duo) 5130 2.0GHz 1333 FSB 4M
Ram 4 x Kingston DDR2-667 1GB FB-DIMM
Video Card Gigabyte GeForce 7300GS 256MB Silent
Storage
Hard Drive Western Digital SATA Raptor 74GB
4 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB SATAII
Floppy Drive NEC 3.5inch 1.44 Floppy Drive (black)
CD / DVD Plextor 16x DVD-RW Dual Layer SATA (black)
Case / Cooling
Case Lian-Li V1000B Mid-Tower Black
Power Supply Seasonic 650W High-Efficiency Power Supply
CPU Cooling 2 x Stock Intel Pentium4 Xeon CPU Fan
Accessories
Controllers Promise FastTrak TX4310 RAID Controller
Services Warranty: Lifetime Labor, 1 Year Parts
Software
OS Windows XP Pro OEM SP2


Subtotal: $4543.39
 
Originally posted by: Ayah
Dual Dual Core Xeons. Something like 4 or 8 GB of memory, the highest end Quadro you can afford.
Something like a 3 or 4 Raptor raid 5.
Click to expand...
Unless the CAD app will run in X64, 8GB is useless.

CAD is not disk speed bound, so Raptors are overkill. Getting the Server rated SATA drives is the best bet and bang.
 
With a $5K budget per workstation, you should definitely wait for Clovertown. When that comes out, you can get a Dell Precision with dual clovertown.
 
If time is not a factor, then the new Intel Clovertown would be an excellent option.
Otherwise, 5K for a workstation is more than enough. Recommend leasing as an option too.
 
Originally posted by: jleves
My company standardizes equipment as much as possible and it's time to update our high end workstation. These are used mostly for CAD and some power users who run multiple apps, program, and run VMWare machines on their desktops. These are never overclocked and there is no gaming involved. Typically they are used with dual displays. For approx $5000, what would you configure? Dual Xeon? This is for the box only, no monitor, speakers or peripherals and either through Dell or HP so we can't use exotic cases, etc.

Thanks
Click to expand...
BTW, I played with the Dell site and the build a dream machine for about $6500 for editing (using 24" dual monitors - but the video cards are not ideal for my suite). So, it would be very easy to build a $4-5k system that will be productive. Do include a good method of backup and I suggest tape over DVD.

Edit - the backup assumes that your company does not have a backed up version control system. Your company SHOULD have that already.

 
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