mskin Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 i know this has been covered a number of times, but things are always changing and honeslty, im not that well versed in hardware issues. i can put a machine together and get it to work, but that doesn't mean i know what im doing. my boss told me to get what i want, im sure price is an issue and im guessing it will be around 2200$. the specs so far (as told to me by our IT consultant) are: QTY (1) Intel® Workstation Board S5000XVNSATA QTY (2) Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5310 QTY (2) Samsung D2-667 2GB/128x4 ECC/FB-DIMM Original Memory QTY (1) ATI FireGL V5100 128MB Dual-DVI PCI-Express Video Card i dont know much about motherboards. I read the thread discussing quad core vs dual core and am a bit confused about performance comparisons. Im told that currently this configuration will run me about 2100$. i don't know if that includes additional periferals which still need to be decided. i already have monitor, cd/dvd etc.... regfardless... does this seam like money well spent or should i be looking at a different configuration? thanks in advance guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 That sounds very nice. I've got that ATI card and it's 2 or 3 years old. I don't know what it costs now, maybe it's on sale or something, but you probably see more bang per buck from a newer gamer card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskin Posted June 18, 2007 Author Share Posted June 18, 2007 This is what my IT guy told me he is going to get me - told me to make any changes i feel necessary. I think it looks pretty good, i may suggest an upgrade on video, but my two concerns are the following.... RAM, because i know nothing about it, and VISTA because i've hard bad things here. He is trying to move the office to VISTA so should i just shut up and take this or will it cause that much of a problem. Intel® Workstation Board S5000XVNSATA Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5310 1.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5310 1.6 GHz Samsung D2-667 2GB/128x4 ECC/FB-DIMM Original Memory Samsung D2-667 2GB/128x4 ECC/FB-DIMM Original Memory ATI FireGL V5200 128MB Dual-DVI PCI-Express Video Card Lite-On LH-20A1L-06 LightScribe 20X DVD+/-RW SATA Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB SATA 10K rpm 16MB Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB SATA 10K rpm 16MB Sony Floppy Drive Microsoft Basic Black Keyboard and Mouse Value Pack In-Win IW-X710.410BFU2 Dual Xeon 430W Full-Tower Microsoft Windows Vista Business X64 Edition (1-Pack DVD), OEM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Lose the Vista if at all possible. It's still got a bunch of issues with the Autodesk products, and with drivers. I talked with my office's IT guy and we were in agreement that we should wait at least 2 years before trying Vista. There's a reason why Dell, after offering a bunch of models with Vista only, went back to letting you choose Vista or XP on most of their configurations. And why tech support people have reported in surveys that they're getting way more requests for help with reversing Vista upgrades than they ever expected. And why it's not currently outselling the Playstation 3. (Okay, I made that one up, but it's probably true.) Vista plus an older FireGL is a particularly losing combination due to Vista purposefully sucking at OpenGL. OTOH, XP64 plus an older FireGL and a newer CPU is a winning combination. I'm doing it with a v5100 and a Core2 Duo 2.84GHz and it's pretty damn fast. Cinebench OpenGL scores in excess of 5000. Even so, I bet with new software a new Geforce card is better in the medium-to-long term, especially if Vista is going to be forced on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Herbert, Im looking at machines like the one youre getting. However, when going on custom pc builder websites, I can only seem to find dual qual configurations in server boxes. Could I ask where youre getting this machine and what its costing? I would really like a dual core 2 quad rather than xeon, but I also heard that the processor is essentaily the same, is this true? thanks, Tom. By the way, I would ask for better peripherals. Get a super-duper mouse and a left hand input device. I find these are low-cost, high impact on workflow options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 There's no such thing as a motherboard with dual 775 sockets - you can't have a dual Core2. That's the only good reason to buy Xeons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskin Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 Wait!!!! (by the way - thanks a ton for your help) I just read about memory limits of windows xp being 2G - is this true? in that case isn't it dumb for me to get 4G of ram, or if i go with 4G - don't i need Vista? i just told the guy to install xp64 instead of vista.... are you sure about this move? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskin Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 i dont know final cost yet - 2200? ish. Our it guy is building it for me.... kind of a quasi in house job. the final cost will include his labor, ill let you know what the final damage is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 XP32 is limited to 4GB. 64 isn't. Look here - they do a better job explaining it than I do. The problem with Vista64 is that it's got a nasty case of driver deficiency. XP64 has much better driver support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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