Gaddis, Jeremy L. <> wrote on Monday, June 25, 2007 12:05 PM: > Sorin Srbu wrote: >> <grin> I agree, but what if you want to build your own >> monster-workstation with high-end components? None of the >> brand-names in the industry (Dell, HP whatever) are that >> well-known for providing really fast stuff. So I'm left with >> building my own machine(s). Granted, I found some usable >> hcl-lists on linuxquestions.org but that doesn't feel that >> official, just some geek's word for it, that it will work. Know what I >> mean? 8-] >> >> How do you guys do it? Only brandnames in the server-room and on >> the desks? > > That's how we do it. I work at a .edu so we get decent pricing on both > servers and workstations. With the servers, sticking with what we > already have means we're already familiar with the hardware and we know > that it works. For workstations, sticking to the same hardware "family" > means we don't have to build new images for new hardware. It's > extremely nice to be able to only install the OS and applications once, > make an image of it, and deploy that out to hundreds or thousands of > workstations. Having similar hardware means we also have spare parts > on-hand in the event of a hardware failure. In addition, we have great > support from our vendors which comes in handy at times. > > Years ago, I had the "build it myself so I know what it's in it, plus I > can do it cheaper" mentality for my own machines, but I don't even do > that anymore. It's to the point where just about any machine I buy will > support Linux (keep in mind I don't play games, do any high-end graphics > work, etc.) and the price of PCs has came down so much it's not really > that economical to build it yourself anymore. I don't even have a > custom-built box at home anymore -- they're all machines purchased > direct from the likes of HP or Dell (though I've added larger HDDs and > more RAM to all of them). > > My newest workstation, an HP xw4400 (Core 2 Duo, SATA HDDs, DVD-RW, > nVIDIA, etc.), has no problem running XP, Vista, Ubuntu, Fedora or RHEL > out of the box. We've really came a long way (with regards to Linux > hardware support) in the last several years, thanks in part to companies > like Red Hat. Well, that's really the gotcha' over here. We mainly use the RHEL-machines to do molecular modelling and calculations related to the modelling. That's why they need to be really fast and preferrably have a high-end (nvidia) gfx-card. Our windows-park is a bit more heterogenous, but lately I've begun buying 2-3 year old Fujitsu and Dell SFF-machines with the same basic hardware layout, as the desktop park is really old and needs to be upgraded over the next year. The Linux-machines are a bit more complicated, but will still last longer. 8-] Thx for your reply. I think I have all I need for now! -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
