Hello
I know this is a controversial subject AMD vs INTEL. However, after reviewing many of the issues on this and other forums I have decided on my configuration. I build these workstations while trying to get 2 or 3 years out of them. The last big one I did was 3 years ago and it is still working OK.
Components:
Supermicro X6DA8-G2 Motherboard with 7525 Turmwater Chipset
http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...800/?chp=E7525
Super Workstation 7044A-82 Case (645 watts Power Supply)
http://www.supermicro.com/products/s...S-7044A-82.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/products/c...C743S1-645.cfm
Dual 3.6 ghz 800 FSB Xeon with 1 Mb
4gb of DDR2 Ram @ 533mhz (I understand they are not available at 800mhz)
SCCI Raid 0 with two 73gb 15,000 RPM Seagates Cheeta's
One 300gb general storage drive possibly SATA
PNY Quadro 3400 with PCI Express (The Quadro 4400 is not available)
52x CDRW
16x DVD CDRW
NIC Card
2 Monitor LCD Viewsonic 17 inches
Does anybody has advise on this configuration? Is Raid 0 the way to go to optimize speed? Is the Supermicro 7044A-82 case a quiet and cool one. My last workstation sounds like a hurricane. Seriously, it is so noisy that is distracting and bothers everybody next to the computer. I am afraid of using water to cool down the Xeon's.
If I do some serious shopping around my local area and buy the different components from different vendors I could bring the price to around $5,800.00 to $6,200.00 If I buy from one single source (locally) it will go for about $6,500.00 plus 6% tax (no shipping).
Last time I had problems with some of the suppliers. One of them shipped (twice) the processors with broken pins. I took three weeks to get them to replace. Now I understand this is a common practice. Another vendor held my money for 3 weeks before he shipped the memory. I am afraid of buying over the internet to a fellow I don't know anyhting about. I once bought two laptops from an outfit in New Jersey (very expensive) they never worked right. The owner basically evaded all his responsibilities until he got me tired and I gave up. He was nice but his English was very poor, maybe that was a self defense mechanism.
There is an outfit called PC's for Every One in Cambridge, Mass. that will put it together for $6,900.00 plus 70.00 for freight and insurance and no tax and a one year warranty. I enjoy putting these things together, but I am getting too old and I am inclined to have them assemble the box.... Additionally the savings is not that much and somewhat offset by the warranty. Has anybody heard about this company? I understand their parent company is Source Code Computers or something similar. I searched the internet and found some average comments.
BOXX wants about $8,900.00 for the same thing. Dell can not even make it. A local guy can assemble for $6,500.00 but with 3.4ghz chips and a 550 watts power supply, everything else the same. Allienware claims not having access to the 3.6ghz and want about $8,000.00 with the 3.2ghz and a smaller power supply.
Any comments will be greatly appreciated. I used to be OK on all these things but now I am not very up too the technology. I am confused, for example, memory. They tell me the way to go is with DDR2. Supposedly the DDR2 fools the machines into thinking that it has more memory... or some story like that....
One of the tech's claims the AMD 64's is superior. Three years ago when I did the main workstation, I was so confused with the AMD vs INTEL issue that I did two workstations. One Intel and the other one AMD. I think the AMD was a little bit faster. However, my software seemed to crash more often with the AMD. This is not a scientific evaluation, it is based on my feeling. My nephew has that computer and it is still working perfect. SHould I buy the expensive video card or do what the ganers are doing, two video card link with some sort of attachment.
Thanks
Elliot