[plug] decent INTEL SMP boxes in Perth?

[David Griffiths]

I have to agree with the points made re reliability for production systems -
at least one of the 4 (?) systems would be used in a mission critical
situation.
Useful info for a home system though since I'll be upgrading once the price
of memory
comes back down to earth.


We're in the fortunate position to be able to afford a bit higher end processor
(if I spend the money before someone else snaffles it) - probably Xeon
550's with
512 K cache.

I discovered that the secondary cache size makes a HUGE difference in the
price of these critters
eg very rough pricing -

	xeon 550 MHz 512k cache ~ $2,000 tax inc
        xeon 550 MHz 1M cache   ~ $5,000 (lots of variation here, due to
different kits?)
        xeon 500 MHz 2M cache   ~ $11,000 ex tax - ouch!

cheers,

Dave.


>I haven't used this, and perhaps if there is experience in the group, someone
>might like to comment on reliablilty..
>
>Abit makes a dual Celeron board, will take any of the Celerons, and they are
>apparently best served by the 300A chips. These give easier options for
>overclocking, I am told.
>Been told the dual 300As overclocked to ~450Mhz on an OS that understands
>multiprocessors fairly hums.
>
>There is a dealer in Manning (saw in the weekend paper) doing a deal with the
>Abit BP6 m/b and 2 x celeron 300A chips for ~$500 I think.
>
>Garry.
>
>
>David Griffiths wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have a good knowledge Perth suppliers of reliable dual (or
>> better yet, quad!) cpu systems that run linux happily? (Or better yet,
>> actually support linux on the systems provided).
>>
>> So far I've looked at the Dell and HP (XL550 looks promising shipping with
>> Red Hat) offerings, have yet to check out IBM, Acer, Gateway and Compaq.
>>
>> The only quad capable system I've seen so far is SGI's 1400L server - but a
>> system with 11 fans is probably a bit of overkill for what we want to do
>> (photochemical smog modelling).
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Dave.
>>
>>  ==========================================================================
>>
>>   David Griffiths                               griffith at environ.wa.gov.au
>>
>>   Systems Manager
>>   Air Quality Management Branch
>>   Department of Environmental Protection            Phone:   61 8 9222 7151
>>
>>   Westralia Square                                  Fax  :   61 8 9222 7099
>>   141 St Georges Tce
>>   Perth 6000
>>   Western Australia
>>  ==========================================================================




 ==========================================================================

  David Griffiths                               griffith at environ.wa.gov.au

  Systems Manager
  Air Quality Management Branch
  Department of Environmental Protection            Phone:   61 8 9222 7151

  Westralia Square                                  Fax  :   61 8 9222 7099
  141 St Georges Tce
  Perth 6000
  Western Australia
 ==========================================================================