Workstation advise needed
 

My brother needs to buy 3 new workstations, but he doesn't now what to get. My knowledge of Xeon/ MP procs is limited, so what do you guys think?

Main application: photoshop and alike
* lot's of ram needed
* +19" CRT
* 2 swappable disks (doesn't need to be hot-swappable) and 2 main disks for OS and progs

These are the possibilities so far:
* Dual Xenon 400FSB, 2.0Ghz + SCSI RAID for OS + 2*120GB WD 8MB cache DATA + 2GB ECC DDR SDRAM = €4000

* Single Xenon 400FSB, 2.0Ghz + IDE RAID for OS + 2*120GB WD 8MB cache DATA + 1GB ECC DDR SDRAM = €3000

* Dual XP2000+ +same as above = €2000

* Single P4 2.66 533FSB + same as above = €2000


Is Dual Xenon worth it's price? It's amazingly expensive, and only 400FSB...

this would be my choice (if money is available)
Dual Xenon 400FSB, 2.0Ghz + SCSI RAID for OS + 2*120GB WD 8MB cache DATA + 2GB ECC DDR SDRAM = €4000

Money is available... but price must be justified. If the Dual Xenon rig is only 10% faster than the Dual XP2000+ rig (which is half the price), the XP2000+ will be bought.


Also, why would someonbe advise a single Xenon proc? ???
It's far more expensive than a "normal" p4, and has 400 instead of 533FSB.

price/speed : dual xp
performance : xeon

multiprocessoring in photoshop& cad/cam is highly supported and the extra budget you need is small

€0,02 de moi

heat!
 

if you buy those two atholon's there will be lots to much heat into your case and xeon are much more powerfull if you ask me!

Dual XP with some good clip on HS (AX7 ?)
make that 2x XP2400+ , unlock them for MP use and you have ONE fast workstation

sure to outperform the Dual Xeon 2ghz workstation, no doubt

check these stats
Dual Xeon 1.7ghz
http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1472&p=12

that is a SINGLE AMD 1.2ghz as comparison...


http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1680&p=2
Oct 2002