Out-spectacle a Mac Pro

BillytheImpaler

BillytheImpaler

BillytheImpaler

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I've been holding off until WWDC to get a new workstation for a coworker at the office. I was hoping the the new Mac Pros would have dual Woodcrests and to no one's surprise they do. I'm looking for some help from my fellow hardware nuts as I'd like to save some money. Can you fellows spec an equivalent or superior machine for the less than or equal the money we'd spend on a Mac Pro? The specs of the Apple follow.

Dual Woodcrest Xeons at 2.66 GHz
2 GiB ECC fully buffered RAM
160 GiB hard disk (He doesn't need much storage as everything important gets backed up to a server anyway.)
ATi X1900XT 512 MiB
Keyboard and Mouse
Fancy schmancy V1000 style case
$3,074.00

Feel free to source prices from anywhere you like but be sure not to mention by name OcUK's competitors.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
I've been holding off until WWDC to get a new workstation for a coworker at the office. I was hoping the the new Mac Pros would have dual Woodcrests and to no one's surprise they do. I'm looking for some help from my fellow hardware nuts as I'd like to save some money. Can you fellows spec an equivalent or superior machine for the less than or equal the money we'd spend on a Mac Pro? The specs of the Apple follow.

Dual Woodcrest Xeons at 2.66 GHz
2 GiB ECC fully buffered RAM
160 GiB hard disk (He doesn't need much storage as everything important gets backed up to a server anyway.)
ATi X1900XT 512 MiB
Keyboard and Mouse
Fancy schmancy V1000 style case
$3,074.00



Feel free to source prices from anywhere you like but be sure not to mention by name OcUK's competitors.
Click to expand...

i feel like crying at those prices :(
 
I was going to post myself about the new Mac Pro specifications. Which ever way you look at it, its a damn powerful piece of machinery.

Self build alternatives? I would look at a board from Tyan.

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/xeon.html

Looking at the overall package that Apple is offering though, its mighty tempting although as this is arguably a Revision A stab at an Intel box, there might be teething problems.

I reckon if i had the £3k i would drop the smackdown on one.
 
I just spec'd out an Apple on the UK site for a comparative price in £. It comes out to £2,078.23.

Back in US prices I'm having a go with some of those Tyan boards.
The Tyan S5382WAG2NRF motherboard is $574.64
The Xeon CPUs are $760.99 each or $1,521.98 in total.
A Sapphire X1900XT is $336.99
Crucial 1 GiB FB-DIMMs DDR2 667 are $194.49 each or $388.98 total.
An FSP 700W FX700-GLN is $170.99. (I'm sorta guessing at the power requirements. The Mac Pro's specs are not specific though it says that at 120V the maximum current is 12A. 12A * 120V = 1440 W. That seems a bit overkill.)
A Seagate 7200.10 200 GiB HDD is $77.99.
Add in a Lian Li V1000+ at $199.99 and I think I have a similar machine.

The total comes to $3,271.56.

I think I should be able to do better than that. Where can I save money?
 
BillytheImpaler said:
I think I should be able to do better than that. Where can I save money?
Click to expand...
Case.
PSU.
Memory (FB Mem isnt a must have imo.)
The difference of £$200 isnt really a difference at all, considering the price differences between a 7300 and a X1900XT.
 
Im assuming the Macpro would come with osx? So you would have the add the price of windows to make it fairer(Unless you went the linux route of course.)
 
We've a site license for XP and S2K3 so the OS is no issue.

What do you recommend, BoomAM? I was under the impression that FB memory is required by the chipset.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
We've a site license for XP and S2K3 so the OS is no issue.

What do you recommend, BoomAM? I was under the impression that FB memory is required by the chipset.
Click to expand...
I wouldnt have thought so. Might be worth checking up on though.
 
I've been reading some of Intel's technical documentation and it looks like FB DDR2 DIMMs are not backward compatible with old fashioned unbuffered DDR2. However, it looks like FB DDR3 will be compatible with the FB DDR2 slots.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
I've been reading some of Intel's technical documentation and it looks like FB DDR2 DIMMs are not backward compatible with old fashioned unbuffered DDR2. However, it looks like FB DDR3 will be compatible with the FB DDR2 slots.
Click to expand...
That description sounds like you cant use FBs on normal slots. Prehaps normal DDR2 can be used on FB slots?
 
It sounds like it's exactly the opposite to me. Regular DDR2 doesn't work but FB DDR3 will work in the mysterious future when it's available for purchase.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
It sounds like it's exactly the opposite to me. Regular DDR2 doesn't work but FB DDR3 will work in the mysterious future when it's available for purchase.
Click to expand...
Do you have a link to the original article you got the info off so i can have a proper look? :)
 
http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/processors/250634.htm
http://www.intel.com/technology/memory/fbdimm/spec/intel_fbd_spec_addendum_rev_p9.pdf (PDF warning)
http://www.intel.com/technology/magazine/computing/Fully-buffered-DIMM-0305.htm

It's all rather confusing. Somehow I don't think I'll be able to beat Apple's price by much. I think that even if I were able to beat it by a few hundred bucks the rest could be justified with Apple's warranty, service, and OS spit 'n' polish (dual booting OS X would be nice).
 
BillytheImpaler said:
http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/processors/250634.htm
http://www.intel.com/technology/memory/fbdimm/spec/intel_fbd_spec_addendum_rev_p9.pdf (PDF warning)
http://www.intel.com/technology/magazine/computing/Fully-buffered-DIMM-0305.htm

It's all rather confusing. Somehow I don't think I'll be able to beat Apple's price by much. I think that even if I were able to beat it by a few hundred bucks the rest could be justified with Apple's warranty, service, and OS spit 'n' polish (dual booting OS X would be nice).
Click to expand...
Thanks.
I'll give them a read over tomorrow at work. :p :)
 
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