I'm shopping for a new developer machine for which I'll be using Fedora as the development platform. Its been about about 7-8 years since I built a machine from scratch but since then I've accumulated a lot of parts that ultimately could contribute to a nice box if I had the right motherboard.
I'm partial to AMD chips. I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals and decent sound. I've got a good video and sound card now but they are both 7-8 years old. I suspect things have changed a lot and almost wonder if newer motherboards don't offer better on board now. I plan on taking advantage of virtualization so I imagine memory and processing speed would be indicated. Over the long run I always seem to run out of PCI slots or USB ports so that would be a premium. Economy is also a bonus. I don't mind paying for performance and extensibility but if I could get something pretty decent at a low cost maybe I could buy a couple and replace another older board I have running. I also like BIOS's that are tweak friendly.
Right now the fastest machine in my fleet is an Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz running on a dell laptop. My desktop (development) is running an old AMD Thunderbird which I don't even think breaks 1GHz and has only .5Gb of onboard memory.
Sorry for off topic, just thought this might be the best place to get an idea of what everybody else is using since we all share interest in the same development platform. Flame me directly, spare the list :)
Thanks - Tod
In my eyes AMD has fallen way behind the times. The Phenom X4 quad core processors don't have much on-die L2 cache and the different package profiles are a real pain. I don't know what is selling better for AMD, their ATI-branded graphics boards or their processor lines.
http://products.amd.com/en-us/comparison/DesktopCPU.aspx
I just priced a very nice Dell Vostro 420 system. The Intel Q6600 quad core processor offers 12M of L2 and based on my work with slower versions of the Q6600...that is a lot of speed. It's probably cheaper and more gratifying (in terms of real development products you produce) to buy one of these rather than going with a self-built AMD system. Most of my exposure is to the low end of both Intel and AMD consumer-focused processors. I don't think I've worked with either Opteron or Xeon processors for example. I wanted to build an Opteron system for myself, but then I became really interested in building circuits and physical computing.
I don't know if the AMD Opteron processors are any better than the Phenom X4. It's hard to get through the hype on AMD's website and look at some Opteron comparison charts.
Bob
On 05/02/2009 02:40 PM, Tod Thomas wrote:
I'm shopping for a new developer machine for which I'll be using Fedora as the development platform. Its been about about 7-8 years since I built a machine from scratch but since then I've accumulated a lot of parts that ultimately could contribute to a nice box if I had the right motherboard.
I'm partial to AMD chips. I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals and decent sound. I've got a good video and sound card now but they are both 7-8 years old. I suspect things have changed a lot and almost wonder if newer motherboards don't offer better on board now. I plan on taking advantage of virtualization so I imagine memory and processing speed would be indicated. Over the long run I always seem to run out of PCI slots or USB ports so that would be a premium. Economy is also a bonus. I don't mind paying for performance and extensibility but if I could get something pretty decent at a low cost maybe I could buy a couple and replace another older board I have running. I also like BIOS's that are tweak friendly.
Right now the fastest machine in my fleet is an Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz running on a dell laptop. My desktop (development) is running an old AMD Thunderbird which I don't even think breaks 1GHz and has only .5Gb of onboard memory.
Sorry for off topic, just thought this might be the best place to get an idea of what everybody else is using since we all share interest in the same development platform. Flame me directly, spare the list :)
Thanks - Tod
On Saturday 02 May 2009 12:12:44 pm Robert L Cochran wrote:
In my eyes AMD has fallen way behind the times. The Phenom X4 quad core processors don't have much on-die L2 cache and the different package profiles are a real pain. I don't know what is selling better for AMD, their ATI-branded graphics boards or their processor lines.
http://products.amd.com/en-us/comparison/DesktopCPU.aspx
I just priced a very nice Dell Vostro 420 system. The Intel Q6600 quad core processor offers 12M of L2 and based on my work with slower versions of the Q6600...that is a lot of speed. It's probably cheaper and more gratifying (in terms of real development products you produce) to buy one of these rather than going with a self-built AMD system. Most of my exposure is to the low end of both Intel and AMD consumer-focused processors. I don't think I've worked with either Opteron or Xeon processors for example. I wanted to build an Opteron system for myself, but then I became really interested in building circuits and physical computing.
I don't know if the AMD Opteron processors are any better than the Phenom X4. It's hard to get through the hype on AMD's website and look at some Opteron comparison charts.
Bob
On 05/02/2009 02:40 PM, Tod Thomas wrote:
I'm shopping for a new developer machine for which I'll be using Fedora as the development platform. Its been about about 7-8 years since I built a machine from scratch but since then I've accumulated a lot of parts that ultimately could contribute to a nice box if I had the right motherboard.
I'm partial to AMD chips. I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals and decent sound. I've got a good video and sound card now but they are both 7-8 years old. I suspect things have changed a lot and almost wonder if newer motherboards don't offer better on board now. I plan on taking advantage of virtualization so I imagine memory and processing speed would be indicated. Over the long run I always seem to run out of PCI slots or USB ports so that would be a premium. Economy is also a bonus. I don't mind paying for performance and extensibility but if I could get something pretty decent at a low cost maybe I could buy a couple and replace another older board I have running. I also like BIOS's that are tweak friendly.
Right now the fastest machine in my fleet is an Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz running on a dell laptop. My desktop (development) is running an old AMD Thunderbird which I don't even think breaks 1GHz and has only .5Gb of onboard memory.
Sorry for off topic, just thought this might be the best place to get an idea of what everybody else is using since we all share interest in the same development platform. Flame me directly, spare the list :)
Thanks - Tod
I use a self-built system with a Tyan s2932 motherboard. This is a dual opteron box with room for 64 gigs of RAM. I started using it a year ago with one cpu and 2 gigs. I wanted to not need to change the system for at least 5 years except by adding to a working unit. So this way I can add a socket F cpu and lots of RAM. The socket structure is the same one used for servers so is stable. The AMD vs Intel controversy is producing more heat than light but what I especially like about the Opteron design is that they behave well under extreme loads, they degrade gracefully when maxed out.
I've been pretty happy, too with the TJ-09 case, it is roomy and aluminum is an excellet cooling material, unlike steel. Will hold six drives in the case in snap-out enclosures. I'm using an Antec Trio 600W supply, ATI graphics. Everything works well with F7, just about to go to F11 next month.
Dave
On 05/02/2009 03:12 PM, Robert L Cochran wrote:
I just priced a very nice Dell Vostro 420 system. The Intel Q6600 quad core processor offers 12M of L2 and based on my work with slower versions of the Q6600...that is a lot of speed.
I meant the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650, 3.0 GHz, with 12M of L2. A slightly older Vostro 410 system has a Q6600 with 6M of L2.
Bob
Tod Thomas wrote:
I'm partial to AMD chips. I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals
Well, then maybe you should stop being partial to AMD and looking for Intel chipsets with integrated graphics. :-) Intel integrated graphics just work in Fedora (just keep your hands off the "Poulsbo" stuff with the GMA500, that one is not supported yet) and they offer decent performance for things like desktop effects. (Even simple 3D games get pretty high FPS scores with them.)
Kevin Kofler
Kevin Kofler wrote:
Tod Thomas wrote:
I'm partial to AMD chips. I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals
Well, then maybe you should stop being partial to AMD and looking for Intel chipsets with integrated graphics. :-) Intel integrated graphics just work in Fedora (just keep your hands off the "Poulsbo" stuff with the GMA500, that one is not supported yet) and they offer decent performance for things like desktop effects. (Even simple 3D games get pretty high FPS scores with them.)
Kevin Kofler
My experience with Intel graphics has been less than satisfactory. I've got an Intel MB with X3500 video. It claims to support full HD, 1080P, but it's glitchy has hell, lots of visible dropouts, sync issues, ...
I added an Nvidia 9600, 1080P video is perfect. I suspect a Radeon would have been just as good.
I wouldn't recommend Intel integrated graphics to anyone requiring HD video support.
Regards,
John
Tod Thomas wrote:
I'm shopping for a new developer machine for which I'll be using Fedora as the development platform. Its been about about 7-8 years since I built a machine from scratch but since then I've accumulated a lot of parts that ultimately could contribute to a nice box if I had the right motherboard.
I think the cost and performance/$ have to be balanced to fit you goals and budget. At the moment I think the i7 Intel series, like the 920, is a good way to go. I've been running ASUS for years, and while I've occasionally had a BIOS issue on new boards, I've done that with SuperMicro as well. Some people will have problems with some brands, but I'm comfortable suggesting ASUS. A vendor such as Newegg will put you in a nice machine for about $800 for CPU, M/B, and 12GB RAM. That's my goal for my next system, four cores, eight threads, two previous host machines based on those vendors, I can't justify the dual Xeon.
For real low $ operation, the old Q6600 is a good CPU, a big step up from what you have, or TigerDirect has AMD dual core and ASUS on sale for $200 this weekend (still need memory).
I'm partial to AMD chips. I'm not a gamer but I do like nice visuals and decent sound. I've got a good video and sound card now but they are both 7-8 years old. I suspect things have changed a lot and almost wonder if newer motherboards don't offer better on board now. I plan on taking advantage of virtualization so I imagine memory and processing speed would be indicated. Over the long run I always seem to run out of PCI slots or USB ports so that would be a premium. Economy is also a bonus. I don't mind paying for performance and extensibility but if I could get something pretty decent at a low cost maybe I could buy a couple and replace another older board I have running. I also like BIOS's that are tweak friendly.
Right now the fastest machine in my fleet is an Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz running on a dell laptop. My desktop (development) is running an old AMD Thunderbird which I don't even think breaks 1GHz and has only .5Gb of onboard memory.
Sorry for off topic, just thought this might be the best place to get an idea of what everybody else is using since we all share interest in the same development platform. Flame me directly, spare the list :)
I think the Intel i7 is the better choice, but it would be hard to go really wrong either way.
Bill Davidsen davidsen@tmr.com writes:
A vendor such as Newegg will put you in a nice machine for about $800 for CPU, M/B, and 12GB RAM. That's my goal for my next system, four cores, eight threads,
12 Gig? You really want to run with 3 sockets filled and one empty?
I'm partial to the low-power 65watt x4 chips.
Asus M3A78-T ~$140 AMD Phenom X4 9350E 65W AM2+ ~$200 Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) ~$90 total: ~$430
If the OP already has the case and disks, this would be a cheap way to get a first class system.
-wolfgang
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:
Bill Davidsen davidsen@tmr.com writes:
A vendor such as Newegg will put you in a nice machine for about $800 for CPU, M/B, and 12GB RAM. That's my goal for my next system, four cores, eight threads,
12 Gig? You really want to run with 3 sockets filled and one empty?
I'm partial to the low-power 65watt x4 chips.
The I7 memory controller has 3 channels, the new MBs have 3 or 6 memory slots.
Regards,
John
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Bill Davidsen -
Dave Stevens -
John Wendel -
Kevin Kofler -
Robert L Cochran -
Tod Thomas -
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht