Building a badass workstation

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ERage

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Nov 7, 2005
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So I'm looking for input. I have just been granted a pretty sizeable budget to build a multi-processor workstation to run some heavy stat software that we just acquired (stata/mp) for those interested.

So here is what I need to do, I need to build the fastest multi-processor workstation possible within the bounds of $10,000. The only thing is that I need to be sure that the board has at least 1 PCI Express x16 video card slot to support a specific triple head video card. Besides that everything else is wide open.

What is a good server board to run dual or quad processors? I really like the AMD Opterons. I want to be sure not to cheap out on the board, CPUs, and Memory. Multiple dual-core CPUs are really what I'm going for here. Storage is less of a concern to me, I'll probably just put in a couple of 250ish GB HDDs not even in a RAID config.

Audio and fancy graphics are not a priority, i'm going for pure business processing power here.

Your thoughts?
 
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ceiling fly said:
Get that new Intel Core Duo2 thing or whatever its called. :drool:
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has intel gotten their heat output down yet? the 3.8 p4 I have under my desk is like a furnace
 
ceiling fly said:
Get that new Intel Core Duo2 thing or whatever its called. :drool:
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Second vote for the new Intel chips. The Xeon 5100 is smoking. Intel mobo chipsets have always been more stable than any AMD I've used, although I love the hell out of my SN25P. I get a Supermicro or Tyan board, 2 or 4 procs (depending on your needs), 2 Samsung NAND drives in RAID 1 for boot and 3 Seagates in RAID 5 for data, a PC Power and Cooling supply, that specific video card you mentioned and 3 NEC LCD20WGX2 (AS-ISP :drool:) for displays if you want quality or 3 Dell 2407 rev. A2 if you want sheer size, and then spend the rest on as much of the highest quality RAM you can afford. You can never go wrong with buying more RAM.
 
What do you think about the OS, this machine has to run software that is supposed to be running on Win XP Pro. The max CPUs that XP Pro (32 or 64 bit) will support is 2, but does that mean 2 single cores or up to 2 dual cores. Can XP handle 4 cores?

Of course XP Pro 32bit has a limit of 4GB of memory, 64bit will support up to like 128GB I think...So maybe I should go with getting a copy of win xp 64bit.

Here is the amd version of what I was looking at. It was built on the assumption of the limitations of Win XP Pro 32bit.
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...istNumber=3488088&WishListTitle=Crow+Power+PC

I'll price one out now with the new Intel goods. Keep your input coming, it is much appreciated!

Edit: the Xeon 5100s don't even seem to be available for purchase anywhere I know of. The release date was just 2 days ago. hrumph.
 
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ERage said:
What do you think about the OS, this machine has to run software that is supposed to be running on Win XP Pro. The max CPUs that XP Pro (32 or 64 bit) will support is 2, but does that mean 2 single cores or up to 2 dual cores. Can XP handle 4 cores?

Of course XP Pro 32bit has a limit of 4GB of memory, 64bit will support up to like 128GB I think...So maybe I should go with getting a copy of win xp 64bit.

Here is the amd version of what I was looking at. It was built on the assumption of the limitations of Win XP Pro 32bit.
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...istNumber=3488088&WishListTitle=Crow+Power+PC

I'll price one out now with the new Intel goods. Keep your input coming, it is much appreciated!

Edit: the Xeon 5100s don't even seem to be available for purchase anywhere I know of. The release date was just 2 days ago. hrumph.
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You can always throw Win2k3 on there and I'm sure it'll run just fine if you're worried about your multi-proc. setup. As for 32 vs. 64 bit ... depends on your app and the drivers for your need-to-have video card. Does it even come in a 64 bit flavor? If not, you have your answer.

Since the app was designed to run on WinXP, I'd imagine the program isn't able to use more than 4GB of RAM and 2 physical processors (or 4 logical ones), since that's the limit of the OS. I wouldn't stress trying to cram more into it.

FWIW - I'm told you can order the processor directly from Dell right now, but its phone order only.
 
Stata/MP claims to run on these OS

* Windows (32-bit)
* Windows (64-bit x86-64)
* Windows (64-bit Itanium)
* Macintosh OS X (Intel-based Macs)
* Linux (32-bit)
* Linux (64-bit x86-64)
* Linux (64-bit Itanium)
* Solaris (64-bit SPARC)

This software has also been performance tested on machines running up to 16 processors although it does not specify if those are physical or logical. So the software can handle the potential 4 logical processors I'm dropping in on this build.

Oh well, i'll just build it, if it doesn't do what he needs it to I'll put it on my desk :drool:
 
ERage said:
Stata/MP claims to run on these OS

* Windows (32-bit)
* Windows (64-bit x86-64)
* Windows (64-bit Itanium)
* Macintosh OS X (Intel-based Macs)
* Linux (32-bit)
* Linux (64-bit x86-64)
* Linux (64-bit Itanium)
* Solaris (64-bit SPARC)

This software has also been performance tested on machines running up to 16 processors although it does not specify if those are physical or logical. So the software can handle the potential 4 logical processors I'm dropping in on this build.

Oh well, i'll just build it, if it doesn't do what he needs it to I'll put it on my desk :drool:
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Does the 10k include the OS and Stata? I noticed there is an $800 difference between the 2-proc version and the 4-proc version.
 
Our Stata license is already owned. So that's covered. The OS won't add that much in the scheme of things. What does an XP Pro license go for these days like 125-150?

Edit: the $10k is a general figure, I can go a little over or of course a little under.
 
ERage said:
Our Stata license is already owned. So that's covered. The OS won't add that much in the scheme of things. What does an XP Pro license go for these days like 125-150?

Edit: the $10k is a general figure, I can go a little over or of course a little under.
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Since its already owned and they licence per processor, wouldn't you build the machine to the license?
 
heh, I actually didn't scope that part out. I found out the boss owns a license to the base software, will be paying an upgrade price to upgrade to the MP version. for 2 dual cores it will run us $1,200 for the upgrade. He wants to cram as many processors in there as possible without building a behemoth machine. I'd say 2 dual cores is plenty sufficient for what he'll be doing.
 
buy my machine for 10k and well call it even! it has a toothpick holding it together with lots of burnt wires and a mesh case, sooooo badass man
 
elpmis said:
dude the company you consult for has kick ass spending habits :drool:
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You would't drool if you knew the money I was spending was US Tax Dollars. It's actually my full time job that has this wealth of cash, I do have a lot of toys in the office :D
 
wr3kt said:
Ten thousand dollars for a friggin' work station?????

Holyf uck.
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Justified, the statistical process we are running is so complex that a single core processor machine takes hours to crunch through the data.

On the up side, the stat process we are testing is one that I wrote. If it works Stata has expressed interest in incorporating it into their software package. It's just so damn CPU intensive.
 
ERage said:
Justified, the statistical process we are running is so complex that a single core processor machine takes hours to crunch through the data.

On the up side, the stat process we are testing is one that I wrote. If it works Stata has expressed interest in incorporating it into their software package. It's just so damn CPU intensive.
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You could build a hella machine for half that.
 
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