Splash: What are you using for new systems at work?

[Adcadet]

Where does the average civilian get a full-auto MP5?

I believe it's pretty much a case of paying the ATF a bunch of fees, and paying the big bucks for a "transferable" gun, auto MP5s going for about $10K IIRC. It helps if you live in the right state too.

Exactly. I guess you need a willing sherif to sign some paperwork. He said it cost about 10K for the gun at 12K all together. Yeeeeouch! But it felt good to rock on full auto
3-5 round bursting was very fun. And the load was light enough that I could keep most of the 3-5 rounds on the target (10 m mostly).

 

[Santilli]

https://www.tsw.berkeley.edu/eStore...NSdatarq=51&--SECTIONSword=ww&&id1=46&id2=51&

Should I go with Server, for this price, or an OEM of XP pro, for about 170 bucks, from the shop who is putting together the system?

s

 

[ddrueding]

https://www.tsw.berkeley.edu/eStore/default.tpl?cart=1074584421767555&action=searchproducts&startat=15&max=7&--woSECTIONSdatarq=51&--SECTIONSword=ww&&id1=46&id2=51&

Should I go with Server, for this price, or an OEM of XP pro, for about 170 bucks, from the shop who is putting together the system?

s

Depends on what you're doing with the system 90% of the time XP Pro will be fine, 70% of the time XP Home will be fine.

I used to live on the corner of Euclid and Virginia (north side) BTW...

 

[Pradeep]

https://www.tsw.berkeley.edu/eStore/default.tpl?cart=1074584421767555&action=searchproducts&startat=15&max=7&--woSECTIONSdatarq=51&--SECTIONSword=ww&&id1=46&id2=51&

Should I go with Server, for this price, or an OEM of XP pro, for about 170 bucks, from the shop who is putting together the system?

s

Perhaps become a reseller and purchase an Action Pack subscription for less than $300? Giving you the Servers, XP Pros and all the Office goodies.

 

[Santilli]

Adadcadet:

4 X 15's equal 3.9 ms access times, plus 16mb total drive cache, and, it's a noticeable improvement over a single, newest generation X15.3.

Would I do it again? Probably not. However, it is addicting, and I've already got it setup, so why not use it?

With the increase in scsi drive speeds, a single X 15 is as fast as most two drive, or 4 drive raids used to be.

Plus, dual channel cards add two processors for data transfer, a nice feature that goes unnoticed when scsi is discussed.

Using bulk X 15's in a sca/backplane for storage, and swapfile certainly would increase my Photoshop speed, since currently I don't have a designated paging drive, since there is nowhere to put one.

I do have a 29160N that I could hook up to a single X 15 for swapping, and that would give me three processors transfering data.

With a bigger box, that might be a good, temporary solution for storage.

s

 

[Santilli]

Exactly. I guess you need a willing sherif to sign some paperwork. He said it cost about 10K for the gun at 12K all together. Yeeeeouch! But it felt good to rock on full auto
3-5 round bursting was very fun. And the load was light enough that I could keep most of the 3-5 rounds on the target (10 m mostly).

Actually, the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution gives the Feds jurisdiction on automatic weapons. This means you have to have BATF approval, and, from what I understand, they have froze Class 3 permits because of terrorist concerns.

The amount of paper work, and the fees, make it pretty much the only people who can get them law enforcement officers, or, former LEO's, and very rich people, or both.

One more errosion of the Constitution.


s

 

[iGary]

Found a server case for 179 dollars with 17 drive bays. I can run my drives, plus the optical stuff, plus the rackmount SCA setup.

Probably be about 330 after PS, and fans, for case and 550 watt, plus cooling fans. Looks a bit like the Supermicro R2D2 model, but half the price.

Does it look like this one?

I personally would not want such a beastie around in my living space.



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~



By the way, at home, I will take delivery of a new case tomorrow for use at home with my multi-drive setup. I am dumping this chassis:

Supermicro SC-760P4



...in favour of this chassis, without any SCA rack, though:

Supermicro SC-942i

Should I go with Server, for this price, or an OEM of XP pro, for about 170 bucks, from the shop who is putting together the system?

Server 2000 or Server 2003 will not necessarily run any and every "desktop" application. There is plenty of desktop application software that looks at the operating system environment during installation and/or during execution, which will halt themselves once they see they are being installed / executed on Server (as opposed to Workstation).

Otherwise, in this day and age of MS Winderz, you should definitely be running XP Pro -- or XP Home, but only if you NEVER plan on running a dual-processor box, NEVER plan on joining a NT Domain or being an Active Directory client, or if you are an economic hardship case.

 

[Mercutio]

I can count the number of programs I haven't been able to install on NTish Server machines on one hand. Heavy SMP users nowadays - guys with 4 CPU workstations - are stuck with it. It's not like you run into programs that don't run on server. You have to work at it.


Also: "Erroding the constitution" though it may be, there aren't a whole lot of legitimate uses for a fully automatic weapon; it makes a great deal of sense to restrict access to them. This certainly does fall into the purview of the BATF. There's a legal mechanism available for getting such weapons, and last time I looked there wasn't anything that said the mechanism has to be easy. Cripes, I had to jump through 101 hoops just to form an LLC and last I checked I couldn't kill anyone with one of those.

 

[iGary]

I've loaded all 9-each 5-1/4 inch drive bays with an assortment of ATA hard drive hot-plug drive bays (2-each), SCSI hard drive hot-plug drive bays (3-each), a Yamaha CRW-F1 ATAPI CD-R/W, a Pioneer DVR-104 DVD-R/W, and an LS-120 floppy in a 5-1/4" drive bay convertor.

A Koutech 7102 internal USB2 + FW hub takes the 9th slot. The stock Supermicro USB+Floppy bay was replaced by a Koutech USB2.0 / Firewire internal hub unit, which uses conventional *external* USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 cables to attach to the *internal* USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 connectors on my Firewire Direct USB2+FW PCI host bus adaptor -- which also has external connectors for USB2 and Firewire.

I swapped in my old power supply from the SC-760P4 case -- a 420-watt power supply with 20-pin / 4-pin mobo power connectors -- for the 550-watt power supply that came with the SC-942i chassis. This 500-watt power supply has a standard SSI mobo power arrangement with 24-pin / 8-pin / 4-pin connectors. My Supermicro P4SGA requires a 20-pin + 4-pin mobo power connector arrangement.

So... What's plugged into my P4SGA?

First of all, it has 1 GB of 533 MHz DDR-RAM and a 2.26 GHz (533 MHz FSB) processor, and...

• A "still fast enuf" Adaptec AHA-3950U2 (Dual-channel, Ultra2 SCSI for hard drives)
  
• A vintage (i.e. -- "compatible") Adaptec 2940 (narrow SCSI for my Nikon flatbed scanner)
  
• A Matrox P-650 AGP graphics card
  http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_pseries/p650.cfm
  
• Acard ATA-133 dual channel host bus adaptor
  http://www.acard.com/eng/product/adapter/mac/ide/aec-6280m.jpg
  
• FirewireDirect 6-port USB2+FW internal/external host bus adaptor
  http://www.firewiredirect.com/firewire/products/adapters_pcicombo.shtml
  
• LynxONE audio interface
  http://www.lynxstudio.com/lynxone.html
  
• Matrox RT.X10 motion video processor / interface
  http://www.matrox.com/video/products/rtx10suite/home.cfm

 

[iGary]

I can count the number of programs I haven't been able to install on NTish Server machines on one hand. Heavy SMP users nowadays - guys with 4 CPU workstations - are stuck with it. It's not like you run into programs that don't run on server. You have to work at it.

It's been a while since I've ran into this "Server" problem with desktop apps. The problem is, I can't recall which ones they were!

Also: "Erroding the constitution" though it may be, there aren't a whole lot of legitimate uses for a fully automatic weapon; it makes a great deal of sense to restrict access to them...

I could never understand why someone in this day and age in the USA would need any sort of automatic or semi-automatic weapon for personal use, and that's not considering the steep cost of obtaining one. You'd be a hell of a lot better off puting all that money into a down payment on the upcoming nVidia G-String 6000/512MB.

 

[Santilli]

The box I found does look a LOT like the first case you posted. I can mount the raid in the back, and all the drives in the front, along with the SCA/SCSI backplane.
I'm not jazzed having all my different towers around here. One, big box, with everything in it, is appealing.

I'm stalling a bit, since I'm wondering what new chips, and speeds we will see.

Also, the Supermicro boards, and the Xeons seem to be topping out, speed wise.

Anybody have speed tests on the SCSI raid card that adaptec sells, that goes into the SUPER X5DA8?

As for full automatic weapons:
The reasoning behind the founding father's position was to having a standing militia, the people of the US, capable of fighting any invasion, without the expense of, or threat, of keeping a standing militia.

There are currently organized gangs, that import a variety of illegal substances, and people, in and out of the US, that are better armed, and manned, then the Police they face. One gang has well over 4 million members, and covers 13 states.

Suffice to say, that in times of anarchy, like the riots in LA, etc. these people do have automatic weapons, and containing the threat they represent is difficult.

What comes to mind is the police, and fire department pulling out of LA, and leaving everyone there on their own, and setting up a containment line. Likewise the rich in the Pacific Palisade's, barricading their community, and setting up their own self-protection situation, trying to keep anyone with the intent of raping, stealing or destroying, out of their community, with the threat of rifle and firearms fire. In these situations, automatic weapons have a place, and should not be restricted.

The height of hypocrisy came when the LA DA's and police, prosecuted store owners who protected themselves from roof tops, after the Police abandoned them to the gangs, and thugs.
I promise you the gangs will ALWAYS have auto weapons available, despite the laws in their countries, and ours. As always, the laws do nothing more then make it more difficult, and expensive for law abiding citizens to protect themselves, or to fire full auto weapons for enjoyment, while allowing the criminals access to such weapons.

Many veterans learn to enjoy firing automatic weapons in the service of their country, and view this as part of the rights in our Constitution. Having a government agency, running around prosecuting American veterans who enjoy automatic weapons, but cannot afford them legally
is not what I think the founders had in mind.

s

 

[Fushigi]

The reasoning behind the founding father's position was to having a standing militia, the people of the US, capable of fighting any invasion, without the expense of, or threat, of keeping a standing militia.

I always though it was so that we, the people of the US, would be able to overthrow our own government if it changed too much from the founding father's ideals. Another form of checks & balances, if you will.

And with the ever-growing loss of privacy and personal freedom, and the lack of ethics in the government, that time may come.

My personal feeling is that, gangs or no gangs, there's no real justification for semi-autos to be available outside the military and police force.

BTW, one thing being considered here in IL is to limit gun purchases to one/30 days.

 

[ddrueding]

BTW, one thing being considered here in IL is to limit gun purchases to one/30 days.

Hell, make it one/90 days...I don't change my mind that often!

 

[Mercutio]

Santilli, following the logic "We need to be as well armed as the criminals", will lead to unceasing escalation from law enforcement, gangs AND citizens. You get a full-auto Mac-10. The local cop gets an M16. What're the gangs gonna do? Give up? Or find something crew-served?

Who needs a new gun every 90 days, even?

 

[Fushigi]

There are gun collectors. While not something I would do, I can't see limiting the legit purchase of weapons for a collection. The "30 days" limit seems quite fair to me. Even most collectors probably don't add more than 12 guns a year to their collection. And also, for collectors, I would say that a 1 for 1 trade of an owned gun for another shouldn't count against the 30 day ticker. Otherwise, gun-shows would be hard pressed to stay in business and gun collectors would not be able to enjoy a legit hobby.

 

[CityK]

I do. I lose them like umbrellas. I'll be on the subway when the need arises to go through my bag to find a book or pen or something like that, and in the process I inadvertaintly end up taking some of the contents out, including my handgun, and place it on the seat next to me while I continue to scour for what I'm looking for. Don't know how many times I've lost some good steal that way after forgetting, in the rush to get off at the next stop, to restore all the contents to the bag.

There was also the time I while I was on a crowded bus and my cellphone went off. The stupid thing had managed to wiggle its way right to the bottom of my bag. In order to get to it (I was expecting an important call) I had to pull some stuff out. My new Glock was in the way so I asked the kid beside me to hold it for me (don't worry, I told him to be careful first). Anyways, I got yaking and got off the bus. When I hung up I realized I forgot to get my gun back Can you believe it, that stupid kid got a brand new Glock for nothing. I ended up filing a police report and said that it was stolen from my home. Insurance eventually covered the expense, so in the end, I was happy.

 

[Mercutio]

Would it be unfair of me to say that someone who loses a handgun probably shouldn't be allowed to have another?

 

[CityK]

No way. That would imply that its a privilege, as opposed to a god willing constitutional right.

 

[Mercutio]

It's not a right for everyone. Criminals aren't supposed to be able to buy them. I'm merely proposing a second case for disqualification.

How about: If you lose a handgun, you shouldn't be allowed to have kids. Would that be too much? :|

Seriously: Where do you live/work that you feel the need to be carrying around a gun that you can lose? And if you're bothering to burden yourself with a firearm, why put it someplace it's going to be hard to get to?

A handgun is an easily concealable device that anyone can use to hurt someone else very easily. If you own one and it let leave your possession without good cause, I think that's a very serious indictment of your personal responsibility.

 

[time]

Merc, I've assumed that CityK is exercising the gentle art of satire. I can't tell if you're entering into the spirit or not.

I think it's perfectly obvious why gun collectors should have some sort of special exemption with semi-automatic weapons. After all, I collect bugs as a hobby: Anthrax, Smallpox, SARS. I'm waiting eagerly for the fantastic new bird flu/human influenza cross that's been announced.

There's no risk to anyone; I keep them in a locked room at home in double-skinned test-tubes. When I take out one of those babies and hold it, it just feels soooo good.

It would be a gross breach of my constitutional rights if we collectors couldn't exchange our bugs. How else could they get around?

 

[Howell]

Hmmm, defense from the government through contagion. Have you got a license for that thar bug, boy?

 

[Pradeep]

Damn this thread turned into guns and I didn't notice

1). I can agree with a waiting period for a first gun. But say you already have 5 guns. Why on earth would you buy a new gun/ waiting period if you were going to go out and murder someone etc? Wouldn't it be easier to use the ones you already have? Completely illogical.

2). There's more to guns than just personal protection. Target shooting is an Olympic sport (not that NBC would ever show such a thing to US viewers of course). Millions enjoy target shooting safely each weekend. No one dies.

3) more later

 

[Pradeep]

A handgun is an easily concealable device that anyone can use to hurt someone else very easily. If you own one and it let leave your possession without good cause, I think that's a very serious indictment of your personal responsibility.

Agreed. People like that should face severe penalties. But let's not assume that everyone is devoid of personal responsibility.

 

[Santilli]

Why limit gun sales? It's just a slippery slope, and if you allow the first few kiddee steps, it goes major. We, in Kalifornia, have already experienced this slow errosion of the first amendment.

I can't own my own God Damn Government's issue battle rifle, the AR-15, in semi-auto. WTF is that?
Anything that looks wrong to our government weenies, that resembles a
military weapon is now off limits.

And, yes, I think the citizens should be BETTER armed then the criminals.
Florida's radical drop in violent crime, once they legalized concealed carry for normal citizens, is a great example.

The answer for gun control is to control guns in criminal hands, not law abiding citizens.

I love that scene in Airplane 2 or something when the terrorist pulls the gun on the plane, and EVERYONE on the plane pulls out their guns, and, everyone has at least one. This is my idea of gun control, or hitting your target.

And, while I don't think much of mac -10s for target weapons, they have a wonderful place as a home defense weapon, close combat weapon.

I also think the 7000 grains they put out in 1.5 seconds would make an excellent woods gun, when in grizzly country.

Apparently no handgun has been successful in stopping a grizzly charge.

A mac-10 would be the lightest, most effective solution to a close grizzly encounter.

This situation is a prefect example of why I don't believe in gun control.
Full auto weapons do have a place in defense of home and person, period.

By the way, Mac 10s are worth, really about 300 dollars. That's how well they are constructed, and manufactured. The obscene amounts you have to pay to get a full auto one, caused by government regulation, makes me want to puke.

s

 

[Santilli]

FINALLY TOOK THE JUMP!!

SUPERMICRO x5da8-0
Intel Xeon 2.8 ghz 533 fsb
Netserver 17 drive bay case
SPI Xeon 550W Power Supply
Matrox Parahelia Video card, 128 mb
XP Professional Edition

Adaptec 2110S SCSI raid card: 230 dollars.

About 2100 dollars, for the above, and, going to swap in my scsi parts, plus 1 gig ecc reg 2100 ram, I already have.

Next on the list is either a 21 inch monitor, or a 19 inch LCD. Idea is to watch movies while I do the endless scanning required for work.

What's the fastest scanner going out there?

thanks

gs

 

[ddrueding]

Re: FINALLY TOOK THE JUMP!!

What's the fastest scanner going out there?

I use a Xerox multifunction that can scan @ ~ 40ppm (just a guess) and send them to your inbox. It's a pretty happy thing if you want to get the equivalent of a book into PDF before lunch.

 

[Santilli]

Scanner only. I have a Workcentre, but it's a printer/copier only
Fast, portable, and doesn't take up much desk or floor space?

s

 

[Pradeep]

Re: FINALLY TOOK THE JUMP!!

SUPERMICRO x5da8-0
Intel Xeon 2.8 ghz 533 fsb
Netserver 17 drive bay case
SPI Xeon 550W Power Supply
Matrox Parahelia Video card, 128 mb
XP Professional Edition

Adaptec 2110S SCSI raid card: 230 dollars.

About 2100 dollars, for the above, and, going to swap in my scsi parts, plus 1 gig ecc reg 2100 ram, I already have.

Next on the list is either a 21 inch monitor, or a 19 inch LCD. Idea is to watch movies while I do the endless scanning required for work.

What's the fastest scanner going out there?

thanks

gs

I would perhaps swap the Adaptec SCSI RAID for an LSI 320-1 or similar, a few $$$ more but good performance.

 

[Fushigi]

Re: FINALLY TOOK THE JUMP!!

Next on the list is either a 21 inch monitor, or a 19 inch LCD. Idea is to watch movies while I do the endless scanning required for work.

Unless you're work area has very limited depth for a CRT I would still go that route over LCD. CRTs can be calibrated to have better color representation and are still much cheaper than 'equivalent' LCDs. The power savings of an LCD would probably take over a decade to overcome the price difference. Some CRTs are even available with DVI inputs. Screen depth is, at this point, the only differentiator.

When push came to shove & I needed a new display, I had a basic requirement: a resolution of at least 1600x1200. LCDs that do that are still around $800 and up. I bought a NEC-Mitsubishi SB930BK 19" CRT for $329; it does 1920 x 1440 x 75Hz. The surprising thing was how fast it warms up. My older Trinitron always took at least 15 seconds or so before an image was usable; the new CRT warms up in only 3-6 seconds.

BTW, will the new box be on a UPS?

 

[Santilli]

Pradeep:
Is the LSI card designed to work with the Supermicro motherboard, raiding it's onboard channels into raid 0?


Not sure how this thing works, but it's not like a standard PCI setup.

http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/E7505/X5DA8.htm

1 8x/4x AGP Pro
1 64-bit 133MHz PCI-X
2 64-bit 100MHz PCI-X
2 32-bit 33MHz PCI

Onboard Devices Support U320 Zero-channel RAID (Adaptec 2010S), card not included
Dual EIDE ports support Ultra DMA 100MB/s of Burst data transfer rate, supports UDMA Mode 5, PIO Mode 4 and ATA/100
Onboard Adaptec AIC-7902 dual channel Ultra320 SCSI controller
Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet controller

The more I look at this card, the more of a value I think it is. It's amazing all the stuff that's standard on this board, that if bought apart, would add up way over the cost of the card.

s

 

[Santilli]

BTW, will the new box be on a UPS?

Yes:
APC Back-UPS Pro 1000

s

 

[iGary]

Is the LSI card designed to work with the Supermicro motherboard, raiding it's onboard channels into raid 0?

Certainly NOT in the "Zero Slot" for RAID. Only a particular Adaptec model of RAID controller will work in the Zero Slot role, because the RAID coprocessor card (the little Adaptec RAID card you purchase extra) absolutely will not work with anything other than the onboard Adaptec SCSI chipset(s).

On the other hand, any standalone RAID controller will simply plug into a PCI slot just like any other typical PCI card. I do this all the time these days if onboard Adaptec SCSI is there -- "Zero Slot" RAID capability or not -- with various LSI Logic RAID controllers. The LSI Logic RAID controller has its own drivers and the Adaptec SCSI controllers have their own drivers and that's about all there is to it.

As far as LSI Logic goes, LSI makes several MegaRAID SCSI controllers. All of them, actually every single one of them, are pretty damned good. The MegaRAID SCSI controllers have long been the "Ferrari" HBAs in the SCSI RAID world, taking a back seat to nobody in performance and reliability. However, none of them are "cheap."

64-bit 66MHz PCI, 1-channel, Ultra320, MegaRAID SCSI 320-1 RAID Controller:
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/ultra320_scsi_raid/3201064.html
About US$350 street price

PCI-X/133, dual-channel, Ultra320, MegaRAID SCSI 320-2X RAID Controller:
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/ultra320_scsi_megaraid_storage_adapters/320x128.html
About US$700 street price

PCI-X/133, dual-channel, Ultra320, MegaRAID SCSI 320-4X RAID Controller:
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/ultra320_scsi_megaraid_storage_adapters/320x4128t.html
About US$1150 street price




All these have operating systems support for:

* MSDOS V6.22
* Netware V5.1 / 6 / 7
* Redhat Linux V8.0 / 9.0 / AS 2.1 / AS 3.0
* SCO UNIX 5.x / 7.x
* Windows 2000 Pro / Server
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows NT V4.0 Workstation / Server
* Windows XP Pro




As for Adaptec RAID controllers, I haven't used any of their standalone models. I keep hearing just how slow they are. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if much of this was due to poor RAID configurations on behalf of the person that put it together -- but, still, I suspect there's an element of Adaptec at work in some of these crap-performance cases.

A while back, in the golden days of the i440BX/GX chipset, I often used the Adaptec ARO-1130U2 "Zero Slot" Ultra2 RAID controllers mostly on Supermicro P6DGU mobos and some P6DBU mobos i workstation and low-end server setups. Those exhibited very good performance for simple 2-drive-member RAID-0 and RAID-1 implementations. The ARO-1130U2 was designed solely by Adaptec personnel. Just about the time the ARO-1130U2 came out, Adaptec bought a company in Florida called DPT for their RAID expertise. Well, in my opinion, that was a waste of money, because I long knew that DPT made some pretty damned crappy RAID controllers, though not as crappy as some expensive Mylex disasters-in-waiting were! Apparently, as I understand, at some point in time later, all of Adaptec's RAID controllers were designed by ex-DPT personnel, not Adaptec personnel. I can't tell you if that was a good thing in the long run or not -- maybe. But, I know things seemed to go downhill sometime afterwards as far as performance and compatibility goes. I don't know if they have since recovered -- maybe.

 

[iGary]

I'm stalling a bit, since I'm wondering what new chips, and speeds we will see.

Well... there are a few things coming soon and more just a bit later.

To be more specific, there should be new 800 MHz FSB Xeon processors coming in about 60 days time. With these, strangely enough, I'd be a lot more amenable to going with the SLOWEST of these, which will be 2.8 GHz. These are the new Xeons manufactured with the 90 nm process. They are faster in many ways (certainly in I/O throughput) than the current 130 nm Xeons. But, the disturbing thing about them is that they will run a tad on the hot side -- in essence, my preference for the slower end of this Xeon lineup, which will eventually go up to 4.0 GHz. This new 800 MHz FSB Xeon family will also require a new mobo + chipset, none of which are available at this point in time.

Also, the Supermicro boards, and the Xeons seem to be topping out, speed wise.

Well, it's actually the Xeon that's topped out (at 3.2 GHz / 533 MHz FSB).

Anybody have speed tests on the SCSI raid card that adaptec sells, that goes into the SUPER X5DA8?

No, but I have used a number of these mobos as the basis for single-processor and a few as dual-processor technical workstations in the past months. None of them had RAID. They all had either a single 10K.6 or a 15K.3 hard drive. I was going to build one with both a 15K.3 and a 10K.6 hard drive setup as a dynamic disc JBOD under Windows 2000 -- with the 15K.3 as boot and the 10K.6 as data spillover. But the budget didn't happen for that.

On these, I've used 533 MHz FSB Xeons with clockspeeds of 2.6 GHz up to 3.0 GHz, including two with 3.0 GHz Xeons using the large 1 MB L3 cache. By the way, the 3.0 GHz Xeon with the large 1 MB indeed DID make a difference, but at a bit of a steep price.

I haven't built / configured any workstations in a little while now, just some servers. The Supermicro X5DA8 Xeon is a marvel in stability and features, but I'd probably go with the beefiest Tyan Thunder Opteron mobo at this point in time mainly because Intel-based mobos have ran out of steam (or firepower) for higher-end general computing. About all they hang onto at the moment is a slim lead in floating point and MMX computation speed. As soon as the AMD64 architecture starts double-clocking MMX / floating point / transcendental calculations like the P4 and P4 Xeon does now, that lead will be annulled.

As for servers, I have and still do use the Supermicro X5DP8-G2. The X5DP8-G2 is not any good for conventional workstation usage because it does not have AGP. With proper configuration and setup, an X5DP8-G2 with a pair of faster Xeons, enough RAM, an LSI Logic MegaRAID 320-2X or 320-4X coupled to an array of 10K.6 or similar modern SCSI hard drives, can push a hell of a lot of data at a hell of a fast rate!

 

[iGary]

I'm stalling a bit, since I'm wondering what new chips, and speeds we will see.

I forgot to mention that, obviously, there is an upcoming new Opteron lineup as well, but I don't believe the "new Opteron" will appear until close to the end of this year at th earliest.

At this point in time, AMD still isn't close to cranking out anything made at 90 nm. But, they should be able to do so in less than a year. When they do, there should be a whole new AMD64 lineup with Opterons, including Athlon64s of many types as well. These new 90nm Opterons should have base clock rates of at least 3.0 GHz, or 2.8 GHz worst case.

And, if AMD engineers decide to do some architectural enhancements, they just might be somewhat faster per clock tick than the current 130 nm Opterons are now, and might even have larger caches than current Opterons and Athlons. Pricing on the smaller 90 nm AMD64 microprocessors should also go down slightly, since they will be able to get a higher production rate with the transition to 90 nm upon 12-inch wafer fabrication (from 130 nm upon 8-inch wafer). Since these AMD64 parts have an on-die memory controller, there may (or may not) be support for newer memory such as 533 MHz DDR or even for DDR-2 type memories.

 

[Santilli]

Funny, but you've sold me on the Xeon and Supermicro. I've already ordered the stuff for the computer, and I'm sure it will do MORE then I need, but, you never know with Photoshop.

Finishing touches in a couple days.

GS

 

[GIANT]

...Finishing touches in a couple days.

I'm not sure if we coverd this, but, one thing to note when dealing with Supermicro mobos is that you can't compromise on RAM by going with low-bidder / no-name stuff, as it will likely cause performance or reliability hiccups. You are far better off going with a name brand RAM stick from Crucial, Viking, et cetera, that specifically mentions the Supermicro X5DA8 -- or at least one of Supermicro X5DA8 variants.

Like the ignition and cam timing in Porsche or Lotus, Supermicro tunes the memory settings in their BIOSes to rather narrow performance-oriented specifications. Tolerance for laggard RAM, variation in performance characteristics between modules, or RAM with somewhat-out-of-spec electrical characteristics (line impedance, etc) is very low in the world of Supermicro.

 

[Santilli]

Well, I forwarded this to the guy making the ram dimms. I told him if it's
questionable, I'll start from scratch, though that wasn't my intention when I bought the dimm.

I want this rig to be reliable.

s

 

[Pradeep]

The guy making the DIMMS? Is it some kind of backyard operation?

 

[CityK]

What, don't you make your own too Pradeep?

 

[blakerwry]

i always follow the family recipe