Which processor / machine for heavy duty work?

[mossmotorsport]

Hi all,

I'm after a new machine for running Virtual Machines, heavy Web Development useage, as well as programming using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and also Adobe Flash work. Budget is very tight - so I have been looking at Dell Precision Workstations (second hand). Many of them seem to have Xeon processors.

Not sure which would be best, 2x Dual Core Xeons or one Core 2 Quad processor. One workstation spec is listed below:

"750W power supply, 2 x dual core Xeon 5160 processors, 8Gb DDR2 667 quad channel FBD memory (made up of 8 x 1Gb modules), 4 x 146Gb 15,000 rpm SAS drives"

Clearly if budget was not so bad I would be looking at I7's but what are your thoughts on Xeon processors vs Core 2 Quads?

Not really looked much into AMD...

Thanks in advance!

 

[bifday2k]

As you hav'nt given a budget, i would say for your uses, a 6 core Amd would be just fine, and be abit cheaper then I7 or even 2nd hand Xeon.

 

[p3ndldqny2]

Hi all,

I'm after a new machine for running Virtual Machines, heavy Web Development useage, as well as programming using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and also Adobe Flash work. Budget is very tight - so I have been looking at Dell Precision Workstations (second hand). Many of them seem to have Xeon processors.

Not sure which would be best, 2x Dual Core Xeons or one Core 2 Quad processor. One workstation spec is listed below:

"750W power supply, 2 x dual core Xeon 5160 processors, 8Gb DDR2 667 quad channel FBD memory (made up of 8 x 1Gb modules), 4 x 146Gb 15,000 rpm SAS drives"

Clearly if budget was not so bad I would be looking at I7's but what are your thoughts on Xeon processors vs Core 2 Quads?

Not really looked much into AMD...

Thanks in advance!

Intel Xeon e5620 is 260 pounds (might be able to get one from the US and swindle import tax totalling about 190 pounds). Its got a 12MB L3 cache and 2.4GHz clock speed, nehalem architecture. I think its a quad core.

so two of those is about 400-500 pounds. Why dont you get 2x Intel 160GB x25-M which would be about 350 for the pair? If you need more storage, just add a non-RAID 7200 RPM drive.

You may as well build your own PC, ive looked at the dell website and they seriously overcharge for each component.

 

[mrteabag]

Define 'tight budget' ?
How much we talking

 

[Metroid]

Xeons are the best for such task and is compatible with the LGA1366 socket.

 

[Fourstar]

In addition to "tight budget", when you say "Heavy Web Development" what do you mean?

The usage pattern will have huge effect on what hardware is required.

Will it just be you, running several VMs with test servers which only receive light usage from you or maybe a couple of people who want to look informally look at the product. Most of the work will be done on the host machine with you running VS/Flash/Photoshop/other dev apps.
or
Will the machine be acting as a dev/test server for a team of 20 people. The provides a source repository, maybe acts as a compile server. Test releases are pushed out to VMs, inc web servers, DB servers, maybe some middleware then subjected to stress testing.