PC VS Workstation

I started looking around on certain sites to see about how much it's going to run me if I were to get a new machine, and then I remembered something from a Speech I was watching where the speaker brought up the fact that they had an HP machine, but it wasn't a PC, it was a Workstation.

I started looking up what they were like for HP, and since everyone I know basically uses PCs and nothing else, I had no experience with them. I saw on HP they had a decent list of them, and a few low end ones that were super cheap, but I don't want that, I looked up the Alphas... Obviously lol.

For some reason they don't list any prices on these things at all. Only the super low end Vista Workstations actually show up with a price. The Alpha Workstations didn't though. does anyone here ever buy Workstations? How do you get a price list you can look at? I was thinking I'd probably like an Alpha Workstation with Tru64 Unix on it and a couple Nvidia cards.

The other ones I looked at were all from Sun. Sun obviously is nice, and I was looking at them and saw that for about 1500 dollars, I could get a Sun Workstation with Solaris 10 on it, and it would be decent, but not quite like the Alpha. I don't have any Non-PC hardware, so one reason I REALLY like the HP Alpha is the processor being an Alpha, and of course it coming with Tru64.

Do any of you know of any Workstations like this? I don't think the ones I'm talking about are high end or anything, they're fairly basic.

HP has the ones I mentioned, and Sun has a decent list, any others?

I prefer Unix, but Linux is OK too, (I say Unix because the Workstations come pre-installed with it, and only the Linux ones don't).

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does anyone here ever buy Workstations? How do you get a price list you can look at?

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I've bought them in the past for a few clients that required us to use them for our work on their site.
They are nice, but expensive. I prefer the sun hardware over the HP. Better value (and I am more familiar with solaris.)

The reason Hp doesnt list the prices, is because you dont buy them direct. You need to buy them from a reseller (e.g. VAR/VAD). Here are some prices for the Alpha DS you like... Ouch.

http://www.vistacomputer.net/index.p...FVlM5QodQC53KQ

Why Alpha? How do you plan to use it? e.g. apps, services, games

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Originally Posted by Cheap Scotch Ron

I've bought them in the past for a few clients that required us to use them for our work on their site.
They are nice, but expensive. I prefer the sun hardware over the HP. Better value (and I am more familiar with solaris.)

The reason Hp doesnt list the prices, is because you dont buy them direct. You need to buy them from a reseller (e.g. VAR/VAD). Here are some prices for the Alpha DS you like... Ouch.

http://www.vistacomputer.net/index.p...FVlM5QodQC53KQ

Why Alpha? How do you plan to use it? e.g. apps, services, games

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Thanks, I was wondering how that worked. I figured an Alpha wouldn't be cheap, I mean they're amazing little machines to say the least heh.

But anyway, the reason for an Alpha... Well, first, it would be a neat machine to own since I've only ever owned PC hardware, along with most of the people I know, and an Alpha CPU would be awesome to work with. And of course coming with Tru64, that's also a plus. Basically I've wanted a machine that wasn't a standard PC, and Alpha is not only that but more.

The usage would be basically everything. Music production, video, storage and network services.... A lot really. I'd love to give a good sized load to see if these things really do all they're supposed to.

A friend of mine once had an Alpha and always went on and on about how great it was, how cool it ran even though it had a huge system load, and I was jealous as crap.

I know I'll probably have a Sun; My Wife and I both want a Sparc Station to toy with and probably will just get a cheapie off Ebay as we want it mostly for toying.

The Sun machines are awesome too, and Solaris is great, I've just wanted an Alpha for a long time since I can't afford an SGI...Which I REALLY want... (I want it with Irix, not Linux though).

This is more or less a geek wet dream to me:

http://cgi.ebay.com/SGI-Altix-450-Un...d=p3286.c0.m14

Or this which isn't exactly pricey either:

http://cgi.ebay.com/SGI-750-Itanium-...d=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Silicon-Graphics...d=p3286.c0.m14

This is neat too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/SGI-Fuel-700MHz-...d=p3286.c0.m14

I've wanted an SGI box for so long it's like silly. They've got to be some of the most beautifully designed Computers to ever be made.

A lot of people in my area think Sun has some of the more amazing machines, and I do love Sun, I really do, but if I had a choice between a Brand new top of the line hundred thousand dollar Sun machine, and a 10,000 dollar SGI, I'd pick the SGI. As long as it had Irix. I know it's dated now, and they support Linux, but I want an SGI with Irix because it's what they made to run on these pieces of nerd art lol.

I did see some of the old machines on there that are SGI boxes from a long time ago for pretty cheap. If I can find one cheap enough that still works and has Irix on it, I think I'm going to try and get one.

My Wife says Sun has the most beautiful machines, and even though Sun has some great server and workstation stuff, it just doesn't really compare to an SGI. When I first showed my Wife an SGI workstation, She was like whoa! They are amazing. And if you've only ever seen normal beige and White computers, seeing a neon Colored case with so much power The Weather Channel uses them to do their radar system is quite an experience.

I'd also buy a Next if I found one. Those were also well designed. And NextOS is awesome.

Sorry, little off topic, but not too much.

You funny. Buy an Amiga 4000 Tower with commodore unix and call it a day. People selling them because they cant find expensive, secondhand parts.


http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=h...miga_4000t.php
change the 2nd portion of the url.....you have cross-site scripting. ;)

Dell precision series.

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Originally Posted by ByTeWrangler

Dell precision series.

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I hadn't actually even thought of Dell for some reason. I just looked but all their Workstations come with Vista or XP. I know they do have some Linux stuff, but I didn't see any Unix based stuff. Do they have any?

Dell seems to be the only Computer company that hasn't or doesn't have their own version of Unix. Heh even Microsoft had Xenix.

As of right now, for price, The Sun boxes are #1, and if price didn't matter, SGI would be first pick, and if price was a concern but not a big one the Alpha would be #1... I saw the prices on those finally from CSR and at first, they look pricey, but then I remembered how much a top of the line AlienWare costed a few years ago and they were actually cheaper.

A few years ago I wanted to see how much a top of the line Alienware would be, and it was something like 22,000 dollars. The Alphas are pricey, but only the big ones are near Alienware costs. And of course, they're Alphas, heh.

Dell offers workstation's with Red Hat.. Dell might be the most expensive of the lot but i'm not really sure of it..

All dell workstations are ISV certified.

They also come in RACK mount format.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise...k&s=biz&cs=555


Here is the link to the workstation page:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise...t&s=biz&cs=555

I've been using Dell rack servers for several years now. Running a variety of Server OS. e.g. OpenSuSe, Win2k3, win2k8, solaris (intel). We have a mix of intel and AMD. We also have several of their small SANs md3000i. Incredible value, performance and very reliable.

did you try boxxtech? dont know how much they run, but you might find a good deal. there is a build your own option but you have to register or something.

https://www.boxxtech.com/products/Products.asp

Edit: haha. maybe not. after browsing they're site.....seems more geared toward media production. probably not what your lookin for

I noticed all those systems you guys posted only have 1 harddrive in the system. Bad enough to have both the system and personal files resting on the same partition. I also noticed Dell was brave enough to post Blue-screen-of-death comments in their forums. Tells me that those folks did not write those comments on their $10,000 lemon.

Would it not be cheaper to clone their specs, buy a high-end motherboard and raid the rig to secure your investment?

I believe Gore wants an out-dated system with a cool looking case that can heat the whole room.

I think that this whole discussion is slightly skewed.

Back in the day, you had a "terminal" or a "workstation".............modern PC technology has rendered this pretty irrelevant, other than for large corporate hardware investments.

Home computing has always been different anyways IMHO.

:)

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I noticed all those systems you guys posted only have 1 harddrive in the system.

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And don't forget redundant power supply and UPS?

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Originally Posted by nihil

I think that this whole discussion is slightly skewed.

Back in the day, you had a "terminal" or a "workstation".............modern PC technology has rendered this pretty irrelevant, other than for large corporate hardware investments.

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Im oldschool also. I define workstations to be servers designed to also be interactive with the console user. It must be raided and also have a backup solutions like tape backup. I didn't see tapebackup anywhere on those pricey machines. I assume they want you to backup your terrabye of stuff to DVD's :)

It can use network storage and clustering atwill. A turn-key system type of system.... a computer setup for complete CAD and computer setup for programming and debugging

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Originally Posted by Linen0ise

Im oldschool also. I define workstations to be servers designed to also be interactive with the console user. It must be raided and also have a backup solutions like tape backup. I didn't see tapebackup anywhere on those pricey machines. I assume they want you to backup your terrabye of stuff to DVD's :)

It can use network storage and clustering atwill. A turn-key system type of system.... a computer setup for complete CAD and computer setup for programming and debugging

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You're forgetting Hollywood Special FX, which for a long time were done on SGI machines. SGI was one of the very first Unix vendors to have a GUI standard.

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Originally Posted by gore

You're forgetting Hollywood Special FX, which for a long time were done on SGI machines. SGI was one of the very first Unix vendors to have a GUI standard.

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Yeah, I know.... you are old school. this is 2009, you can botnet alot of machines to make a simple movie scene. our supercomputers cant speak to aliens or wonder why things get diabled.

I think most people call it a cluster instead of botnet. Like in The Matrix, that was made on a FreeBSD cluster. The "Bastardization" of The Matrix made a joke about it being made later on an SGI box, and they had to add a note saying it was actually done with FreeBSD.

If you haven't seen the Bastardizations of movies, look them up, they're great. I have the one for "Hackers" saved because it's so funny. Basically they take a bunch of screen shots from the movie, and add in a new plot and words said by the people on screen, and it's pretty funny. Just don't look at them at work or school if you have "uppity" people like teachers or bosses, because they don't exactly hold back.

http://attrition.org/archive/www.detonate.net/hackers/

This is a shot: