Spec me an i7 workstation

[StevenRaith]

Right you scabs,

in my attempts to get a new workstation at work [I'm currently working with a pair of XW8200 machines with two Nocona [90nm netburst based] 3.6ghz processors each, and 4gb RAM which are basically space heaters with the ability to run an OS as a side benefit....] I'm looking at prebuilds from Dell and HP, but I'mn considering a self build as well, as it will be my own workstation, not a hot desk, etc.

As I alluded to elsewhere, I'm ordering comms cabs for a new server room, and the plan is to back up the important parts of the XW8200s, shove four terabyte SATA drives in them with proper XOR powered RAID cards, and let OpenFiler [google it, it's great] Linux based NAS servers look after them as iSCSI stores for VMs.

So obviously I need a replacement machine, or two.

The general plan is to get a rack server to run the VMs and have a single box under my desk that will primarily run *nix as my dev/day to day machine.

So given, say, £1500-2000 [the price of a reasonable spec, single drive, single CPU Nehalem based workstation], what can the OCUK crowd suggest to me as a good spec for a self-build machine?

Disk storage can be left to one drive at the moment as I have a small NAS I can use, drive speed unimportant but should be as stable as possible in all respects.

Ideally will have a chunky GPU [workstation class not important - don't fret about whether it's a Quadro or a 260GTX] for future GPGPU stuff should that be useful.

Machine will be used for running level two hypervisers [IE virtualbox as opposed to VMware ESX], application compiling, web development, video editing, and wathcing high def p*rn, er, I mean, monitoring my servers.

So, go wild. If you think there is something I need that isn't on OCUK [IE quad port LAN adapters] then just tell me the model name, and ballpark price, I can google it.

This is still pie in the sky at the moment [probably not best to float this after being off sick for a week then turning up at 2pm on my first day back...] but it's be nice to have some specs and numbers to throw at the beancounting classes should I need to.

So Core i7, 6gb RAM minimum, single SATA disk, decent connectivity, good GPU, and as quiet and cool as possible as it'll be in the office.

GO!!

 

[satriani1412]

If youre looking at pre-builts have you taken a look over at the pre-builts on this site? Or one that you customise yourself also on here?

 

[RJC]

Any use:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM + Battlefield 2 Bundle £243.98
(£212.16) £243.98
(£212.16)

Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £234.99
(£204.34) £234.99
(£204.34)

BFG GeForce GTX 275 OC 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (BFGRGTX275896OCE) £218.49
(£189.99) £218.49
(£189.99)

Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £85.99
(£74.77) £85.99
(£74.77)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £71.99
(£62.60) £71.99
(£62.60)

Lian-Li PC-7B PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £68.99
(£59.99) £68.99
(£59.99)

OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3G1333LV6GK) £61.99
(£53.90) £123.98
(£107.80)

Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £54.99
(£47.82) £54.99
(£47.82)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £975.11 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £148.14 Total : £1,135.75

 

[StevenRaith]

Sorry, I am referring to the offerings from Dell and HP.

I'd really, really rather build my own and have control over the components though. Nothing worse than not knowing who made your mobo. Or having vendor specific revisions of disk adapters that haven't had BIOS updates in five years, despite the original part supplied by LSI having had ten revisions in that time to fix known problems, etc. etc.

Some of the Dell Precisions are nice, but I don't like paying over a grand for a GPU for features [such as the CAD optimisation] that I'll never use as well.

Also, pointing the beancounters to an overclocking site for machines with names like Ultima OC Dominator and Titan Goliath when speccing a workstation might give them the wrong idea. Reeling off a list of high quality parts however, gives a much better impression!

Incidentally, regards to the case, I should point out that the current XW8200s are built like tanks - I could throw them down the stairs, and the components on the inside might be mashed, but the external appearance would only haveb small chunks out of it. Seriously strong build.

Chassis should be subtle, no side panels [or cold cathodes, etc... ], and built like the proverbial brick outhouse.


RJC - I like that, can I also add a good monitor to that list as well? 1600*1200 min res, with good contrast and refresh. Again, the more subtly/professionally designed the better. Feel free to give yourself up to £400-500 on that

 

[satriani1412]

Chassis should be subtle, no side panels [or cold cathodes, etc... ], and built like the proverbial brick outhouse.

you sure you meant OUThouse and not something else?

ill have a quick looksie around

 

[cmndr_andi]

It this around the area you are looking for?

I went for a nice cool case, with some nice quiet fans. Also added a powerful Graphics card for GPGPU goodness.


Edit, if you are looking for an amazing monitor, this is definitely one. I'm using one now and its perfect.

 

[StevenRaith]

Satriani - I have some decorum. you [CENSORED] badger [CENSORED]ing [CENSORED].

CMDRANDI - I like it, I like it a lot. However, tell me sir, where do I shove the kettle plug?

I'm guessing, giving that it'd probably end up with four large HDs [possible high speed] and a couple of optical drives, etc, that a 750w+ PSU would be a good idea, ja? And 1000+ if I decided to SLI/Crossfire, given the rest of the eventual, multidrive spec?

Anyway. that's a staggering spec for £1500, especially as it'd happily go to 3.6ghz and kick out about 90Gflops [the nocomas only throw out 7GFLOPs each from what I have found my home machine outperforms both XW8200s put together!] given that the Nehelams will out out 70 at sstock speeds*. And I am aware of that moniter. I ordered one for a mate in the office, and I covet it, dearly...I need something bigger and with more pixels for my desk. Justification being monitoring multiple virtual machines in VMWare Infrastructure

*could someone kindly run Intel Burn test on their i7 with Max RAM usage, and tell me what GFLOPS they get out? Using 6.75gb of RAM on a Q6600 at stock I get 30GFLOPS....

 

[shinester184]

Personally, if it's a 24/7 workhorse that other people are relying on, I think you should go for a high specced Dell. You can customise it yourself, and if anything went wrong, you just send the whole lot back! Simple and easy.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi steven, You are quite right, I totally missed that crucial component.

I have heard a lot of good things about the BE Quiet PSUs. If multi GPU and many HDDs is a good chance in the future, this psu is a good bet.

another good option is the pc power & cooling 860w psu. it can be seen here and a very positive review is here. Personally, I use the PC Power & Cooling 750 in my rig and i'm very impressed.

Edit: If you are looking for a bigger monitor with more pixels, this is the one to go for. It horrendously expensive, but the jump up from 1920x1200 is a massive one.

 

[StevenRaith]

Personally, if it's a 24/7 workhorse that other people are relying on, I think you should go for a high specced Dell. You can customise it yourself, and if anything went wrong, you just send the whole lot back! Simple and easy.

Only me relying on it really - the ESX server will most likely be a dual Nehelam based Dell 2U rackmount running off the SATARAID'd up XW8200s heartbeating to each other for failover, with a second rack server and and full ESX pro further down the line for full on, 'it only breaks if some muppet cuts the fibre, or they bomb the building' redundancy.

I could just use a Pentium Dual Core for myself [I have an Optiplex GX620 mit dual boot XP/Ubuntu in the cupboard in case of catastrophic hardware failure] about 60% of the time, but I'm a sysadmin and demand respect. And the occasional requirement to edit videos at very short notice, and such like....such as today. And the dual Nocomas were a hot, noisy pain in the ring for that.

And while I don't want to **** Dell off, I could quiet easily diagnose a fault, order a replacement part and have it in the office before the Dell machine even arrived at their depot - I won't go through my IT history, but suffice to say I singlehandedly - that is, from desktop machines through to servers, comms cabs and fibre network - support an entire test network for a substantial government department. I wouldn't be there if I didnae know my onions

I've been working too hard on that sort of corporate level infrastructure tat lately though, so I have missed out on the very latest hardware developments, hence coming here for OC and bleeding edge tech info, such as stuff like this

Andi - I really like that monitor. Must. Find. Better. Justification.

I do like the Dell kit [not contrary to what I said about about their support BTW - it's fine - it's just that I can do it in-situ, and deal with it myself faster, I reckon, seeing as I have a budget code and can warrant pre-9am delivery on replacement parts from any vendor I decide to...], they have a pretty good performance/price ratio, and their central govt sales team are all good sorts.

I just want to have more degree of control over the kit that goes in there, have the right to tweak it, and be utterly confident that every part is standards compliant. I can remember back in teh day when Compaq and Dell used non-standard mobos, with either the same ATX power connector with different pinouts, or a different physical plug. Lenovo have done this too. Many of my professional contacts blew up at least one machine back in those days by plugging the wrong type of replacement mobo or PSU in

All your input is appreciated guys

 

[D D Danneh]

It's £300 over budget, and doesn't include a case (personal choice), but damn it's a nice monitor, and would be perfect for a workstation. If you don't want that monitor, you could quite easily cut that out, or go with someone else's spec.

You've got your i7, noctua cooler (for either overclocking or low temps + noise), good GPU (with space to add another), an SSD (optional, but would make booting up OS and programs faster), 6GB of ram (can be upgraded to 12GB later), and a terabyte of storage.