Xeons and Opterons ...

[Mithoric]

Why don't many people get Opterons or Xeons as their processors?

 

[dexvx]

Why doesnt everyone just drive a BMW?

 

[dguy6789]

They are more expensive plain and simple. If a dual based system was as cheap as a single cpu based system, then everyone here would have a dually. It has been said that once you go dual you never go back. Price is the reason. I myself would rather have a Dual Opteron 240 system then a single Athlon 64FX 2.8Ghz system. Although the 2.8ghz athlon 64fx is faster in single tasks, but gaming, running anti virus scan, burning a cd, downloading music, encoding or decoding music and defraggin harddrive all at the same time the athlon 64fx 2.8 would fall flat, while a dual 1.4Ghz opteron system would be just as fast with one game playing, or a game and all of the above mentioned at the same time without even the SLIGHTEST bit of slowdown(assuming you got the ram to do the above at once). That is the beauty of duallys, it takes an enourmous amount of work to even get the system to blip for a second. it is very smooth.

 

[Mithoric]

Yeah I figured price was the reason .... Myself I would never have thought of getting anything better than a 2.8Ghz cpu at the very best, however I have a friend who wants to buy me a computer ($18,335 US limit) .... so with that sort of money I was going to get a dual opteron 248 with a few gigs of ram and setup some big raid 0 array with the biggest fastest hdd's I can get.

Whilst I thought that dual processors were excellent and would suit my development needs and my avid gaming needs I couldn't help but wonder if I was correct in thinking that the incredible price for the components was indeed what held back most people from getting such as system ...

Would you recommend opteron over xeon? The stuff I've read on both seem to suggest opteron is superior by quite a bit ...

Also, if I get an opteron system I'm likely to get a Tyan mobo seeing as I can't find any other dual opteron boards with agp except one from MSI. The MSI one has a via chipset though, and I have been lead to believe that the usb problems on this computer are due to that chipset ... and I really need the usb/firewire ports on my new computer to work because I'm going to buy a digital video camera and a new digital still camera.

 

[mechBgon]

I recommend limiting your computer to no more than about $5000 and put the other $13000 into your retirement fund. Compound interest is your friend. If you do want to splurge on something... multiple large monitors and some 15000RPM SCSI hard drives come to mind.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Mithoric
Yeah I figured price was the reason .... Myself I would never have thought of getting anything better than a 2.8Ghz cpu at the very best, however I have a friend who wants to buy me a computer ($18,335 US limit) .... so with that sort of money I was going to get a dual opteron 248 with a few gigs of ram and setup some big raid 0 array with the biggest fastest hdd's I can get.

Whilst I thought that dual processors were excellent and would suit my development needs and my avid gaming needs I couldn't help but wonder if I was correct in thinking that the incredible price for the components was indeed what held back most people from getting such as system ...

Would you recommend opteron over xeon? The stuff I've read on both seem to suggest opteron is superior by quite a bit ...

Also, if I get an opteron system I'm likely to get a Tyan mobo seeing as I can't find any other dual opteron boards with agp except one from MSI. The MSI one has a via chipset though, and I have been lead to believe that the usb problems on this computer are due to that chipset ... and I really need the usb/firewire ports on my new computer to work because I'm going to buy a digital video camera and a new digital still camera.

Xeons and Opterons are used in highend workstations, and servers, thus they are priced accordingly. As for Opteron vs Xeon. Its depends on the task at hand, Xeon can beat the Opteron on some tasks, but yes overall the Opteron wins. However Nocona comes out in Q2 with 3.4 at the begining and 3.6 at the end, with 800Mhz FSB and SSE3.

 

[Mithoric]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I recommend limiting your computer to no more than about $5000 and put the other $13000 into your retirement fund. Compound interest is your friend. If you do want to splurge on something... multiple large monitors and some 15000RPM SCSI hard drives come to mind.

Retirement fund? I'm only 17, besides I've got a pretty nifty program in development ... there isn't anything like it and I can guarantee it will find it's way into lots program developer's toolkits.

I don't actually get the cash, a mate is buying me the computer and he'll pay for it over the net so splurging is what I want to do ...


Anyways, I know they're for high end workstations which is what this is supposed to be except instead of a quadro I'm getting a 9800XT because I'd rather spend time playing games than rendering something ... I don't get much graphics work requiring 3d stuff usually it's just some photoshop eye candy and flash that people want so I only open 3dsmax every now and again ...

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Mithoric

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I recommend limiting your computer to no more than about $5000 and put the other $13000 into your retirement fund. Compound interest is your friend. If you do want to splurge on something... multiple large monitors and some 15000RPM SCSI hard drives come to mind.

Retirement fund? I'm only 17, besides I've got a pretty nifty program in development ... there isn't anything like it and I can guarantee it will find it's way into lots program developer's toolkits.

I don't actually get the cash, a mate is buying me the computer and he'll pay for it over the net so splurging is what I want to do ...


Anyways, I know they're for high end workstations which is what this is supposed to be except instead of a quadro I'm getting a 9800XT because I'd rather spend time playing games than rendering something ... I don't get much graphics work requiring 3d stuff usually it's just some photoshop eye candy and flash that people want so I only open 3dsmax every now and again ...

Man, if you are splurging, why don't you just sit back for a month or two and wait for the real fireworks show to begin....Socket 939 Athlon 64's w/ Dual Channel memory and higher clock speeds against Socket 775 Prescott's at high clock speeds and the new Intel chipsets that will accompany them.

 

[Pistolero]

I think the idea of a splurge contradicts waiting.
I vote for a dual Opteron System with 248s.

 

[Mithoric]

That's always the case with computer components, if I wait a few months they'll release new stuff and then hint or release info about some other cool super stuff and then I'll wait again and so on and I'll be using this 2400xp and radeon 7000 for the rest of my life...

My 2400 is a toy compared to the opteron, my system is nothing to a single opteron based system let alone a dual one and a 9800XT 256mb makes my 64mb 7000 look like an intel onboard so I see no reason not to get the 248s now.

 

[Cygni]

Tyan Thunder K8W
2x Opteron 246
Radeon 9800XT 256mb
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
4x 512mb Corsair XMS Low Latency ECC/Registered
4x WD Raptor 10,000rpm 74gb SATA
2x NEC/Mitsubishi LCD1980SX-BK 19in Flat Panel
Antec Performance Plus Full Tower case w/ Allied 500wt PS
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1's
2x Alpha PAL8150M81 HSF
Plextor Black 8X DVD-RW/+RW Drive
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth
Dlink 54Mbps 2.4GHz Wireless Card
Dlink Xtreme G 2.4GHz 4-Port Wireless Router

Total from newegg: 6687 shipped with OVERNIGHT FedEx (shipping alone was $285.13, haha)

Heck, might as well get a whole second computer or 6 with the left over money. I guess you could fill out the ram slots, get bigger LCD's, maybe watercool, or get more drives... but my god man, that is the system of my DREAMS! /jealousy

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Mithoric

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I recommend limiting your computer to no more than about $5000 and put the other $13000 into your retirement fund. Compound interest is your friend. If you do want to splurge on something... multiple large monitors and some 15000RPM SCSI hard drives come to mind.

Retirement fund? I'm only 17, besides I've got a pretty nifty program in development ... there isn't anything like it and I can guarantee it will find it's way into lots program developer's toolkits.

I don't actually get the cash, a mate is buying me the computer and he'll pay for it over the net so splurging is what I want to do ...


Anyways, I know they're for high end workstations which is what this is supposed to be except instead of a quadro I'm getting a 9800XT because I'd rather spend time playing games than rendering something ... I don't get much graphics work requiring 3d stuff usually it's just some photoshop eye candy and flash that people want so I only open 3dsmax every now and again ...

I understand, but just FYI: start saving as soon as you can. If you save X dollars per year from the age of 20 to 30 and then stop, and just let the investment keep compounding, you'll have significantly more money at retirement than if you save X dollars per year from the age of 30 to 60 (that's three times as long). Think about this

 

[Mithoric]

hehe, could almost afford 3 of those on my budget at that price. $18,314.03 is the budget in USD (£10k and nearly $24K AUD for us Aussies who read this) ... So I can afford to spend a bit on tricking this system out to the max.

This isn't the system of my dreams, it's better.

 

[Mithoric]

Hehe, I plan on saving soon enough ... I'm finishing my last year at school this year and elective studies include business and economics so I'm sort of planning the next 10 years already. From the studies I've done so far I predict I will benefit quite well from my application I'm developing as long as I can handle all the support I will need to give until I get enough cash to hire a few people if needed, the price I've quoted to a few people got some good reactions and after a year or two I'll have enough dosh to invest in some property. With the way that the housing sector is going in this area in about 2 years if you purchase land and wait a year you'll be have a comfortable bank balance.

I'm going to uni next year for 4 years and seeing as I live pretty close to it I'm staying here until I finish (or decide to move) which means I won't have to support myself which will improve my savings a lot.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Cygni
Tyan Thunder K8W
...
Antec Performance Plus Full Tower case w/ Allied 500wt PS

The K8W requires an EPS/SSI compliant power supply (24-pin connector, and some other bits). I didn't check this one, so it may work or may not. But it's something to keep in mind while shopping.

 

[Cygni]

Hmmm... didnt know that. Well, its not like im ever gonna be able to hit "order" on that bad boy order. :brokenheart:

 

[Mithoric]

hehe yeah, the TruePower PSU is the best one I found for the job 550W also which is good for all those juice gobbling components, a big power buffer. ..

 

[DeeKnow]

your 'friend' who's offering to spend 10k quid on a PC obviously doesn't know a whole lot about PC's ... you should pass him my contact email. tell him I have a few bridges that are going cheap (not to mention some marshland in Florida)...!

 

[Mithoric]

lol.. 10k includes the money for a laptop, an upgrade for my current box and software, he can easily afford 10k and in fact I'm just 1 out of a group getting a computer. Originally it was to get an Alienware we would customize to the max but that's a bit of a rip and it'll take forever to get to Australia and then I'll have to source out a few new power bricks for stuff because of the difference in the power systems.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Pistolero
I think the idea of a splurge contradicts waiting.
I vote for a dual Opteron System with 248s.

That's low beans. Go for some 848s!

-Por

 

[Mithoric]

848?

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Mithoric
848?

Eight processors.

2xx = Dual Compatible
4xx = Quad Compatible
8xx = Octo Compatible (if there is such a thing)

-Por

 

[Alptraum]

There is not much you can acutally use in a personal PC thats going to get up around 18k. 5-7k will be you an absolutly top nothc system. That will cover fastest CPU(s), memory, vid and all. The only real way I can see adding another 10k or so is by building a big array of drives. But not many people have any need to have over a TB in storage for personal use. It just seems pointless. When I need to purchase new servers for work they frequently run anywhere from 5k to 50k+. But there is really no use spending that kind of money for a personal PC. And you will actually have a semi hard time doing it. More monitors and drives are about the only way to get past 10k.

Why is some guy giving you and some other people 18k computers?

 

[Mithoric]

I could have more than 2 processors?!! That'd be sweet, pointless most likely but sweet!

[edit:] I haven't seen anything other than 2xx being sold though, where are the 4xx and 8xx processors?

 

[Alptraum]

Originally posted by: Mithoric
I could have more than 2 processors?!! That'd be sweet, pointless most likely but sweet!

[edit:] I haven't seen anything other than 2xx being sold though, where are the 4xx and 8xx processors?

In servers If you want to run a Microsoft OS with 8 cpus you are going to need Windows Advanced servers as well. Expect to pay over 3k just for the software (though you will get a 25 user CAL with it, lol. I am pretty sure thats the smallest one for advanced server). There is pretty much no consumer market for 4+ cpu machines. There is a small one, but its VERY small. Its all servers basically.