Re: [Fed-Talk] Dell equivalent to base-MacPro
Re: [Fed-Talk] Dell equivalent to base-MacPro
- Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Dell equivalent to base-MacPro
- From: Peter Link <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:07:08 -0800
Michael,
I looked around for other comparisons and found one at
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/01/08.4.shtml almost at the
bottom. From Intruder, Jan 8, 2008, 9:50pm. He puts together a
stripped down T7400 running XP. His comments include not knowing
anything about the Dell video card.
I checked the Dell website,
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/precn_t7400?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04,
and they say the quad-core CPU has a 1600 FSB. All of their video
cards are from NVIDIA and I didn't want to try and compare specs with
the standard ATI card. This monster can hold five SATA drives
although the photo looks like they're stacked with normal disk cables
instead of nice cartridge drives. As usual, the inside of the Dell is
a real mess.
I configured one (list price) using:
two X5450 (3GHz, 2X6M L2, 1333-less cache)
std. 256MB nVidia NVS 290, dual monitor DVI (will this drive two 30" monitors?)
2GB DDR2 800MHz ECC memory
16X DVD+/-RW DVD
320GB SATA drive
(to add more drives, I believe I'd also need the PERC6/i hardware
raid card--extra $599)
(no monitors, they only allow you to get 4 monitors so not sure if
their setup is capable of driving 8 monitors)
std. 3yr service
added Keep your hard drive, 3 yrs (we don't send anything back so
this is included in our contracts)
I got all the way through and it said my memory speed didn't match
the processor. I had to downgrade to 667MHz memory so the 3GHz
X5450's aren't the same as the ones Apple uses.
So, bottom line with their instant savings puts this monitor-less box at $4393.
I took the standard Mac Pro configuration, upgraded to 3GHz, added
Applecare and the price is $3848. This is without Dell's $400 instant
savings. Of course, Federal pricing will be less. I would also check
for third-party memory upgrades to hold the ultimate price down. For
either computer, I'd start with 4GB RAM and go up from there.
I'm not saying this is an exact comparison and I'd rather price it
against an HP but that's just me. Personally, I'd never buy this Dell
because I'd also have to purchase a whole team of support people to
run interference from network malware but that's a different story.
At 9:51 AM -0500 1/31/08, Michael wrote:
For reference purposes I was trying to find a Dell workstation or
server that was as close as possible to the base MacPro.
The key sticking points are dual quad-core 5400 series Xeons with
1600 FSB. The closest I came was a server with dual quad-core 5400
series with 1333 MHz FSB $6000+. In our line of work the difference
in memory speed & FSB is key, for example, using the commercial
CFDTD code a coworker demonstrated that the difference between 400
MHz and 533 MHz RAM is roughly factor two wall clock time--in that
test both machines had 800 MHz FSB and the machine with 400 MHz RAM
was a higher end Dell.
I'm trying to think ahead in case someone recommends Dell instead of
Apple for a series of machines we're planning on buying.
Michael
ps. I'm not calling Dell, already I'm on their call list and they
called to ask about "my organization's Vista deployment plans", half
my Windows using coworkers find that very funny, all for the same
reason, especially the one with Vista at home, his next machine will
be OS X.
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Fed-talk mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
--
Peter Link
Cyber Security Analyst
Cyber Security Program
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
PO Box 808, L-315
Livermore, CA 94550
email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Fed-talk mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden