I'm looking to rotating my machines around a bit and that leaves me in need of a new computer for work. My silent computing experiences are from P3 and P4 era. I've spent a couple of evenings on SPCR and have been reading about the newer processors etc. I'm thinking of an Intel system and for realibility and budget reasons I think LGA775 would be best choice. The usage is stricly business, mostly typing sql queries, so no need for fancy graphics cards etc.
I need:
-processor with reasonable improvement in performance to P4 2.4 GHz, and also vt support
-support for 16 GB of memory
-integrated lan and audio
-two hard disks
-graphics card
-linux compatibility (that's the main OS, I also use VmWare)
-realibility (I'm not going to reboot every month)
So this is what I'm thinking:
1. Processor. I don't think I have much use for quad core, so a near top dual core. E8500 maybe?
2. Heatsink. Thermalright HR-01 Plus.
3. PSU. Nexus Value 430.
4. Motherboard. This is the hardest part. Gigabyte EG45M-UD2H -mATX seems to have everything I need and also integrated graphics, which probably are fine. On the other hand if I have a big ATX case, might as well get a proper ATX board. Maybe Asus P45 something. The problem is that there are lots of models that seem to differ only slightly. I want something reliable (Intel) but also with some silencing (undervolting etc.) options, so maybe Asus or Gigabyte would be better options.
5. Graphics card. No idea about this one. For years I have used Matrox cards. Now I have G550 in both of my computers and they have worked flawlessly. Since their Linux hostile attitude that's no option anymore.
6. Memory. Kingston something (once bought a whatever cheap memory and never again).
7. Hard disks. WD 1.5 TB might be the best value.
8. Case fans. I have Noctua fans in my current P182 and I like them very much.
9. Case. I have a spare Sonata case which I could use. A new P182 would be an option also. I won't have lots of hard disks or such, so smaller case would also be sufficient, but the extra room doesn't hurt.
I think that if I could get some kind of handle of the processor/mainboard issue, then the other parts would fall into places. Graphics card recommendations would also be welcome, especially from the Linux perspective.
Pasi
CPU/motherboard advice for a new workhorse
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Lots of things i cant recommend on your post sorry but one thing i can is the processor.
Ive just upgraded from a P4 2.4 ghz to a E8400 dual core and the performance is just amazing. The extra for the E8500 for me wasnt justifiable as it was 0.1ghz faster and i also found that if speed was my thing later on it was overclockable alot.
I also run a P5 board with a 775 socket. but i cant give anything on reliablity yet as its only been up 2 weeks on and off, my P5Q deluxe also doesnt have a intergrated graphics. running kingston Hyper x 4gb 1066 mhz.. again i just cant get over how fast it boots up. Its running XP so im sure running linux it will be faster! *thats my experience with ubuntu on my old rig even booting from a cd it was faster then xp booting from hhd*
Will you being going to the extreme to suspend the hhds?
Again from a linux perspective im probably not the best to recommend but i have just purchased a Ati sapphire radeon 4670 passive heatsink, altho i havent played any games yet. its been able to handle everything i have thrown at it so far with ease.. i guess for what you need a low power idle is necessary as its not needed for gaming etc..
Hope i have been of some help to you.. if not.. dont worry someone else will come along and be better
Ive just upgraded from a P4 2.4 ghz to a E8400 dual core and the performance is just amazing. The extra for the E8500 for me wasnt justifiable as it was 0.1ghz faster and i also found that if speed was my thing later on it was overclockable alot.
I also run a P5 board with a 775 socket. but i cant give anything on reliablity yet as its only been up 2 weeks on and off, my P5Q deluxe also doesnt have a intergrated graphics. running kingston Hyper x 4gb 1066 mhz.. again i just cant get over how fast it boots up. Its running XP so im sure running linux it will be faster! *thats my experience with ubuntu on my old rig even booting from a cd it was faster then xp booting from hhd*
Will you being going to the extreme to suspend the hhds?
Again from a linux perspective im probably not the best to recommend but i have just purchased a Ati sapphire radeon 4670 passive heatsink, altho i havent played any games yet. its been able to handle everything i have thrown at it so far with ease.. i guess for what you need a low power idle is necessary as its not needed for gaming etc..
Hope i have been of some help to you.. if not.. dont worry someone else will come along and be better
Random thoughts:
mATX motherboards typically are the only Intel-based motherboards that have integrated graphics.
If want to go with an ATX motherboard, there are plenty of passive graphics cards available though. Gigabyte's P45 range have gotten good reviews.
I can't remember which graphics card maker has better Linux support, but if you want to consider an Nvidia option, the 8400GS would be a pretty good choice. For ATI, the 4550 or something even lower powered would be fine if you can get it in a passive card.
E8400 is probably all you need. VT support is hit-and-miss for lower model Intel CPUs so be wary of this.
As for cases, if you dont want to re-use the spare Sonata (which is probably going to work just fine) I don't think you can go past the Antec Solo. With its included suspension mount options for HDDs, it is probably ideal for your intended use.
Do you really need much storage space? If you don't an SSD would be a great option. Absolute silence and blazing fast performance - if you can fit it in your budget!
Intel SSDs and SSDs from other manufacturers that use an Indilinx controller are the SSDs you should look at. Just figure out what types of work you will be doing in SSD terms - i.e. random small read/writes or sequential read/writes etc and choose accordingly.
Is your SQL database hosted locally on your machine or on a server somewhere? (If locally, you should consider an SLC-type SSD if you want to go down this route. Intel is pretty much your main option for an SLC SSD).
Hope some of the above helps!
mATX motherboards typically are the only Intel-based motherboards that have integrated graphics.
If want to go with an ATX motherboard, there are plenty of passive graphics cards available though. Gigabyte's P45 range have gotten good reviews.
I can't remember which graphics card maker has better Linux support, but if you want to consider an Nvidia option, the 8400GS would be a pretty good choice. For ATI, the 4550 or something even lower powered would be fine if you can get it in a passive card.
E8400 is probably all you need. VT support is hit-and-miss for lower model Intel CPUs so be wary of this.
As for cases, if you dont want to re-use the spare Sonata (which is probably going to work just fine) I don't think you can go past the Antec Solo. With its included suspension mount options for HDDs, it is probably ideal for your intended use.
Do you really need much storage space? If you don't an SSD would be a great option. Absolute silence and blazing fast performance - if you can fit it in your budget!
Intel SSDs and SSDs from other manufacturers that use an Indilinx controller are the SSDs you should look at. Just figure out what types of work you will be doing in SSD terms - i.e. random small read/writes or sequential read/writes etc and choose accordingly.
Is your SQL database hosted locally on your machine or on a server somewhere? (If locally, you should consider an SLC-type SSD if you want to go down this route. Intel is pretty much your main option for an SLC SSD).
Hope some of the above helps!
Thanks for the replies. Here are a few comments. First of all the machine will not be a server. Mainly it's just me and bunch of xterms. Aqua data studio for sql work. But sometimes I need to test different things and I need VmWare for that. And then I need the cpu/memory/disk space.
I checked the processor prices and they are approximately:
E8400 - 157 e
E8500 - 177 e
E8600 - 255 e
So the big gap comes after E8500, so the choice between E8400 and E8500 is not a big issue. If there aren't any other differences between these, but by looking at the specs it doesn't seem so.
SSD is not an option at this time. I don't really need 3 TB of space (as I planned 2 x 1.5 TB). But I have this daily snapshot type of backup thing, so the second drive is just for backups. Since the current primary 400 GB drive is full, I might as well get a decent upgrade on hard disk space also.
One TB is plenty enough however, and I just checked the prices seem to support theory also:
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB - 75 e
Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB - 124 e
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB - 194 e
I have been thinking about SSDs in that kind of configuration where you put the software to SSD and have home directories/data on normal disk.
Then something like 64 - 80 GB would be enough. And that would not be ridicculously expensive either. But thats's a whole another project.
I haven't thought about suspension of hd's. Haven't been bothered with the hd noise at the current P182. The machine sits under the desk in the office, so the need for extreme spcr-level quietness is not needed. On the other hand, while doing this upgrade, might as well do it properly. And since the gear eventually gets recycled to home use, the option for suspension would be nice. Solo looks like a nice case. But I'm wondering if that really is a big upgrade to Sonata, since the PSU is placed on top there also.
Sonata - free (since I already have one available)
Solo - 94 e
P183 - 161 e
I checked that there were 16 different versions of Asus P5Q motherboard listed at the webstore I'm using. P5Q deluxe looks good: support for 16 GB of DDR2 and dual lan, which would be nice. I need to look at this closer. If the tuning features a sufficient, this might be exactly what I need.
The graphics card issue is still open. Now I think I'm going to have a full ATX board, so integrated graphics are out of the question. As I don't need (or I don't know that I do) an upgrade from the Matrox G550, I think any of the passively cooled low power cards would suit me fine. I'm an Icewm user and I'm not going to run any of these fancy 3D desktop environments. This is basically then a driver/compatibility issue. I'll look into this closer and search some Linux forums.
Thanks again for the tips. This has been helpful already!
Pasi
I checked the processor prices and they are approximately:
E8400 - 157 e
E8500 - 177 e
E8600 - 255 e
So the big gap comes after E8500, so the choice between E8400 and E8500 is not a big issue. If there aren't any other differences between these, but by looking at the specs it doesn't seem so.
SSD is not an option at this time. I don't really need 3 TB of space (as I planned 2 x 1.5 TB). But I have this daily snapshot type of backup thing, so the second drive is just for backups. Since the current primary 400 GB drive is full, I might as well get a decent upgrade on hard disk space also.
One TB is plenty enough however, and I just checked the prices seem to support theory also:
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB - 75 e
Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB - 124 e
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB - 194 e
I have been thinking about SSDs in that kind of configuration where you put the software to SSD and have home directories/data on normal disk.
Then something like 64 - 80 GB would be enough. And that would not be ridicculously expensive either. But thats's a whole another project.
I haven't thought about suspension of hd's. Haven't been bothered with the hd noise at the current P182. The machine sits under the desk in the office, so the need for extreme spcr-level quietness is not needed. On the other hand, while doing this upgrade, might as well do it properly. And since the gear eventually gets recycled to home use, the option for suspension would be nice. Solo looks like a nice case. But I'm wondering if that really is a big upgrade to Sonata, since the PSU is placed on top there also.
Sonata - free (since I already have one available)
Solo - 94 e
P183 - 161 e
I checked that there were 16 different versions of Asus P5Q motherboard listed at the webstore I'm using. P5Q deluxe looks good: support for 16 GB of DDR2 and dual lan, which would be nice. I need to look at this closer. If the tuning features a sufficient, this might be exactly what I need.
The graphics card issue is still open. Now I think I'm going to have a full ATX board, so integrated graphics are out of the question. As I don't need (or I don't know that I do) an upgrade from the Matrox G550, I think any of the passively cooled low power cards would suit me fine. I'm an Icewm user and I'm not going to run any of these fancy 3D desktop environments. This is basically then a driver/compatibility issue. I'll look into this closer and search some Linux forums.
Thanks again for the tips. This has been helpful already!
Pasi
Thread i saw not too long ago makes me wonder if its a good choice or not. I have the 500gb version of the caviar green and with the thread below has made me abit wary of my choice of hhd..pojanisu wrote: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB - 75 e
Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB - 124 e
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB - 194 e
viewtopic.php?t=51401
After my choice of P5Q deluxe, i think it went over board and probably should have gone for the lesser model.. the specs are near identical after a closer look.. but the bios is easy to navigate and play with from that point of view. but from a business point of view it maybe a bit overkill especially at the price and no need to overclock. The Deluxe and E look very very similar and not much difference in spec.. Would the P5Q-E still meet your needs? and cost you less albeit by 20euros or so
For me id utilizes the Sonata. Again all down to cost and how much/if its worth the change.
If everything is hosted locally, I would not use a 5,400rpm drive as your main HDD then. A good 7200rpm HDD would be better. Have a look at the HDD reviews in the Storage Section of the main site and see which HDDs there are 7200rpm but still quiet. My Samsung F1 1Tb is pretty decent.
You could try buying a WD Velociraptor and suspending it, as it is apparently fair quiet once you remove it from the IcePack HDD cage.
Then go with a quiet 5,400rpm drive as back up and data storage for things you don't access much.
If you are feeling a bit adventurous, you could try modding your Sonata.
This threat has some great ideas. If your case is going to sit on the floor though, you may need to open up the front bezel a bit more.
Otherwise, it's up to you if the Solo is 94 euros worth of better case. (IMO it is a fair bit better than a stock Sonata, with an option for built in HDD suspension and a pretty good internal layout.)
You could try buying a WD Velociraptor and suspending it, as it is apparently fair quiet once you remove it from the IcePack HDD cage.
Then go with a quiet 5,400rpm drive as back up and data storage for things you don't access much.
If you are feeling a bit adventurous, you could try modding your Sonata.
This threat has some great ideas. If your case is going to sit on the floor though, you may need to open up the front bezel a bit more.
Otherwise, it's up to you if the Solo is 94 euros worth of better case. (IMO it is a fair bit better than a stock Sonata, with an option for built in HDD suspension and a pretty good internal layout.)
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mozartrules
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:37 am
- Location: NJ, US
I would think that a quad-core would be useful if you want a good VMV machine (at least one that can use 16Gb). The Q9xxx are not much more expensive that the E8xxx. The i5-750 and S1156 motherboard will give better performance for similar cost if you can wait a little, I have found that the Nehalem processors are far superior for server style work (mostly comparing Xeon 5450 and 5540 at work, the latter is much faster despite being 2.53GHz vs. 3GHz).
An alternative is to actually run a server board with ECC memory, not sure whether your requirements warrant the extra cost. A socket 1366 motherboard is close to $300, but it makes it simpler to put all the memory in (16Gb forces you into the 4Gb modules whatever else you do). An E5504 Xeon is $230 at Newegg.
I really like my Sonata (the white one), impossible to detect whether it is on without ducking under the desk and listen to the exhaust fan. The HD suspension is really nice.
An alternative is to actually run a server board with ECC memory, not sure whether your requirements warrant the extra cost. A socket 1366 motherboard is close to $300, but it makes it simpler to put all the memory in (16Gb forces you into the 4Gb modules whatever else you do). An E5504 Xeon is $230 at Newegg.
I really like my Sonata (the white one), impossible to detect whether it is on without ducking under the desk and listen to the exhaust fan. The HD suspension is really nice.