Who knew this would be hard?
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I want to buy a computer for virtualizing and entire development network and I can't seem to find what I want! Basically, a newer i7 with 12+gb ram, integrated graphics, and a dvd drive. I don't want to spend money on fluff like graphics cards and blueray players or fancy cases with blinky lights. I may just build it myself but I would rather have a pre-assembled unit. (Dell is out because, well they suck) Any suggestions?
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
Is there no place to assemble to spec? We use M&M[^] - which is a local provider - which is ok for just that. Of course, shipping from germany... I'd pick an equivalent Xeon, with checked RAM (e.g. W3580) for anything servery, though, esp. with 12G+.
Agh! Reality! My Archnemesis![^]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchymodified on Sunday, August 15, 2010 3:21 AM
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Henry Minute wrote:
His Billness is reputed to have stated that 640KB of RAM is more than anyone should ever need.
I find that to a certain extent, MS has done a wonderful job in supporting the hardware industry, from a sales point of view. People forgot just what X Billion instructions per second mean, what a RAM space in the GB is worth. Vista was a prime example. 7 being, IMO, infinitely better, is still quite resource hungry. Why? For the "Ooh shiny!" factor? Well, yes, but GNOME and KDE are doing some pretty nifty things with no where near the kind of resource consumption that Windows needs. Ditto on the server front, I can, and am, running some pretty decent servers on slices of 256 MB RAM + 10 GB HDD. There is no way on this polluted earth can you do that with a Windows server, be it 2003 or 2008. On a daily basis, I'm losing the faith I had with MS. The only thing that I find MS has that has me wondering whether to skip all the way is VS and they're doing a fine job of botching that up in VS 2010, from what I hear.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
The only part of that I might disagree with is the VS2010 part. My only 'evidence' for that though is from looking at the Express versions of the modules and taking the C# module for a reasonable workout. I am getting far fewer unexplained crashes/lockups etc. in WPF than in VS2008. My workouts are likely to be a little less strenuous than some though. :-D
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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Henry Minute wrote:
His Billness is reputed to have stated that 640KB of RAM is more than anyone should ever need.
I find that to a certain extent, MS has done a wonderful job in supporting the hardware industry, from a sales point of view. People forgot just what X Billion instructions per second mean, what a RAM space in the GB is worth. Vista was a prime example. 7 being, IMO, infinitely better, is still quite resource hungry. Why? For the "Ooh shiny!" factor? Well, yes, but GNOME and KDE are doing some pretty nifty things with no where near the kind of resource consumption that Windows needs. Ditto on the server front, I can, and am, running some pretty decent servers on slices of 256 MB RAM + 10 GB HDD. There is no way on this polluted earth can you do that with a Windows server, be it 2003 or 2008. On a daily basis, I'm losing the faith I had with MS. The only thing that I find MS has that has me wondering whether to skip all the way is VS and they're doing a fine job of botching that up in VS 2010, from what I hear.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
I nearly agree - except that Linux rocksTM until you starting different things with it, then the wheels start falling off. HD sound is a great example - remember to make a separate copy of all the sound hard hardware options before updatign the driver as the system forgets the I/O mapping of your manufacturer then "Hey it's Linux just hack it"... X| If you have a working install never update it.
Join the cool kids - Come fold with us[^]
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The only part of that I might disagree with is the VS2010 part. My only 'evidence' for that though is from looking at the Express versions of the modules and taking the C# module for a reasonable workout. I am getting far fewer unexplained crashes/lockups etc. in WPF than in VS2008. My workouts are likely to be a little less strenuous than some though. :-D
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is hearsay, I haven't tried it myself, but when you hear very conflicting reports, sometimes from the same people, that reeks of a certain inconsistency.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
modified on Sunday, August 15, 2010 7:14 AM
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I nearly agree - except that Linux rocksTM until you starting different things with it, then the wheels start falling off. HD sound is a great example - remember to make a separate copy of all the sound hard hardware options before updatign the driver as the system forgets the I/O mapping of your manufacturer then "Hey it's Linux just hack it"... X| If you have a working install never update it.
Join the cool kids - Come fold with us[^]
Without a doubt, there are issues with Linux, but I have found that the major distros offer reasonably good support. Of course, there's not much "special" hardware that I'm using except for some Sangoma and Digium cards and since I'll be moving to FreeSwitch soon instead of asterisk and VOIP rather than E1/J1 based comms, I won't even need those. The single biggest bone I want to pick with Linux is the relative inability to move applications from one distro to another. For that, my preference is FreeBSD. There is a formal structure that EVERYONE uses and sticks to. Having said that, I'm currently building my PoC on FreeBSD 8.1 which is smoooooooooth like you will not believe.
Trollslayer wrote:
If you have a working install never update it.
Yeah, I made that mistake once. Thank the heavens I had cloned it prior to committing that atrocious act!
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
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Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is hearsay, I haven't tried it myself, but when you hear very conflicting reports, sometimes from the same people, that reeks of a certain inconsistency.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
modified on Sunday, August 15, 2010 7:14 AM
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is heresy
Psssst! I think you might have meant "Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is heresy hearsay" Although the MS fanbois might think your original statement correct. :)
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is heresy
Psssst! I think you might have meant "Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is heresy hearsay" Although the MS fanbois might think your original statement correct. :)
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Me typo? Impossible! :-O thanks for pointing it out!
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is heresy
Psssst! I think you might have meant "Everything I go by regarding VS 2010 is heresy hearsay" Although the MS fanbois might think your original statement correct. :)
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Hi Henry, I think Mustafa nailed it: the interverse is infested with heretics, schismatics, open-sauce addicts, open sorcerers. Popular culture is infested with open sauciness in such drive-by-shooter mutant forms as Lady GaGa. These groin-kicking satanic minions that attempt to defile Visual Studio cry out for bringing back the Inquisition, the Auto Da Fe, the Iron Maiden (not the band or their horrid music, but the torture instrument). They brought down the CEO of HP after he doubled the stock price on dubious charges of hanking-the-pank after the Palm OS virus was injected into the company's culture. The sky is falling. You will see more of Ballmer jumping up-and-down: hope his golden parachute does not fail to open. best, Bill
"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844
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I want to buy a computer for virtualizing and entire development network and I can't seem to find what I want! Basically, a newer i7 with 12+gb ram, integrated graphics, and a dvd drive. I don't want to spend money on fluff like graphics cards and blueray players or fancy cases with blinky lights. I may just build it myself but I would rather have a pre-assembled unit. (Dell is out because, well they suck) Any suggestions?
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Basically, a newer i7 with 12+gb ram, integrated graphics,
i7 CPUs or motherboards don't come with integrated graphics. Either lower your requirements to i5-6xx or learn to live with a graphics card.
I have been so used to integrated graphics I never stopped to even consider the possibility that the latest boards wouldn't have them .
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
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I have been so used to integrated graphics I never stopped to even consider the possibility that the latest boards wouldn't have them .
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
Jeesh. sometimes the way questions get hijacked into a series of jokes is entertaining, but not this time. Are you in a hurry, or just don't want to bother with the details (not into getting your hands dirty)? For what you want to do, you need a good motherboard, support lots of ram, and a fanless ePCI card.
Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
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Jeesh. sometimes the way questions get hijacked into a series of jokes is entertaining, but not this time. Are you in a hurry, or just don't want to bother with the details (not into getting your hands dirty)? For what you want to do, you need a good motherboard, support lots of ram, and a fanless ePCI card.
Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
I don't mind building it myself but if I could find a manufactured system that was what I wanted it would likely be cheaper than me ordered the components piecemeal. However, if I can't find what I want from a reputable builder at a competitive price I will just build it myself.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
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First machine I actually remember "working" on its internals with my dad was an XT. The awesome part was when we installed a hard disk for the first time. Now when I wanted to play my games get to work, I didn't have to do that pesky 5.25" floppy swap thingy at the beginning :) I remember from MS-DOS 2.0 till 6. I remember another machine, a 387 (386 with math co-processor) that ran on 16 MHz and when I clicked the Turbo button, it went up to a wopping 25 MHz! (not that you could feel any change in ability mind you) I remember :)
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
I had the same machine.At the time ( '93 ) i was at high school and it was one the most powerful machine we could get hands on!
Behzad
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Without a doubt, there are issues with Linux, but I have found that the major distros offer reasonably good support. Of course, there's not much "special" hardware that I'm using except for some Sangoma and Digium cards and since I'll be moving to FreeSwitch soon instead of asterisk and VOIP rather than E1/J1 based comms, I won't even need those. The single biggest bone I want to pick with Linux is the relative inability to move applications from one distro to another. For that, my preference is FreeBSD. There is a formal structure that EVERYONE uses and sticks to. Having said that, I'm currently building my PoC on FreeBSD 8.1 which is smoooooooooth like you will not believe.
Trollslayer wrote:
If you have a working install never update it.
Yeah, I made that mistake once. Thank the heavens I had cloned it prior to committing that atrocious act!
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
the major distros offer reasonably good support
Unfortunately, that's not true for Ubuntu...you'll pull all your hair out trying to get a wireless card to work. Switched to Linux Mint, and had much more success, although still some issues. Linux + wireless is still a bit iffy. I even bought a wireless card that had the driver supposedly in the kernel since 2.6.30, and both Ubuntu 10.4 and Linux Mint 9 (both with 2.6.32) can't see it, no matter what I try. But, Dell wireless on my laptop worked without a hitch in Linux Mint(but not Ubuntu).
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
with 12+gb ram
Do you remember the day when 256 megs of ram was simply awesome?! Moore's law is still going strong!
Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home.
My Articles Developer's Best FriendI still have a working BBC Micro. It's amazing what you could do in 16KB. I upgraded to 32KB and was really glad I did! I also have an Acorn RISC machine which STILLdoes more in 4MB than a lot of PCS can do in 1GB! My PC is a simple homebrew 4GB with Weven, so I don't just have out-of-date equipment.
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
the major distros offer reasonably good support
Unfortunately, that's not true for Ubuntu...you'll pull all your hair out trying to get a wireless card to work. Switched to Linux Mint, and had much more success, although still some issues. Linux + wireless is still a bit iffy. I even bought a wireless card that had the driver supposedly in the kernel since 2.6.30, and both Ubuntu 10.4 and Linux Mint 9 (both with 2.6.32) can't see it, no matter what I try. But, Dell wireless on my laptop worked without a hitch in Linux Mint(but not Ubuntu).
Eh? Ubuntu is one of three my primary OSes I uses from the Linux camp, the other two being Debian (Lenny) and CentOS (5.2+). Ubuntu usually goes for the desktop since its slightly easier to configure for users, the other 2 are servers and primarily Debian (and recently Ubuntu LTS) for everything except proprietary software; that gets CentOS because of the RHEL compat. I have Ubuntu running on 6 machines at home, 3 of which are laptops (Linux is an awesome aqua re-vitae for old machines, so there are 11 machines throughout the house, each doing something with 4 clustered :cool:) and I have yet to encounter a wireless issue. The one issue I had was with my graphics card, but the was resolved when they released a patch. I'm not saying that you don't have a problem, but I'm wondering if you hit their forums? Linuxquestions.org? They really help out. What I find surprising is that they work on Mint but not Ubuntu, when Mint is essentially a new face on Ubuntu! They do almost no development on their systems. All in all, Linux is a lot better than FreeBSD when it comes to variety and quantity of drivers; FreeBSD on the other hand, when they release a driver, you can bet your pair that they work right. FreeBSD is hands down, my preferred server machine when I can use it.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
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I want to buy a computer for virtualizing and entire development network and I can't seem to find what I want! Basically, a newer i7 with 12+gb ram, integrated graphics, and a dvd drive. I don't want to spend money on fluff like graphics cards and blueray players or fancy cases with blinky lights. I may just build it myself but I would rather have a pre-assembled unit. (Dell is out because, well they suck) Any suggestions?
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
Why wouldn't you build it yourself? I've built every one of my desktop systems (and a few for friends and family) over the past 15 years, probably a total of 10 or so. It's easy, and to me, the only way to get exactly what I want. One potential drawback is if something breaks on it, there's no calling someone to fix/replace it, it's all on me... But good luck no matter what your decision!
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Eh? Ubuntu is one of three my primary OSes I uses from the Linux camp, the other two being Debian (Lenny) and CentOS (5.2+). Ubuntu usually goes for the desktop since its slightly easier to configure for users, the other 2 are servers and primarily Debian (and recently Ubuntu LTS) for everything except proprietary software; that gets CentOS because of the RHEL compat. I have Ubuntu running on 6 machines at home, 3 of which are laptops (Linux is an awesome aqua re-vitae for old machines, so there are 11 machines throughout the house, each doing something with 4 clustered :cool:) and I have yet to encounter a wireless issue. The one issue I had was with my graphics card, but the was resolved when they released a patch. I'm not saying that you don't have a problem, but I'm wondering if you hit their forums? Linuxquestions.org? They really help out. What I find surprising is that they work on Mint but not Ubuntu, when Mint is essentially a new face on Ubuntu! They do almost no development on their systems. All in all, Linux is a lot better than FreeBSD when it comes to variety and quantity of drivers; FreeBSD on the other hand, when they release a driver, you can bet your pair that they work right. FreeBSD is hands down, my preferred server machine when I can use it.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Playing Star Craft II. Don't bother me, eh? Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
I guess I was just unlucky...but I tried to install Ubuntu on 4 different computers (2 desktops, 2 laptops), and I couldn't get a wireless card to work on any of them. Linux Mint worked for me...who knows. I did hit the forums, but not specifically linuxquestions.org, I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for the tip. I'm pretty happy with Linux Mint, in general. That's one of the things I like about Linux, lots of 'flavors' for everyone! :cool:
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Why wouldn't you build it yourself? I've built every one of my desktop systems (and a few for friends and family) over the past 15 years, probably a total of 10 or so. It's easy, and to me, the only way to get exactly what I want. One potential drawback is if something breaks on it, there's no calling someone to fix/replace it, it's all on me... But good luck no matter what your decision!
If a pre built machine existed within my requirements it would likely be cheaper than building it myself. I am not opposed to building one; I am just in the research stage atm.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
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I want to buy a computer for virtualizing and entire development network and I can't seem to find what I want! Basically, a newer i7 with 12+gb ram, integrated graphics, and a dvd drive. I don't want to spend money on fluff like graphics cards and blueray players or fancy cases with blinky lights. I may just build it myself but I would rather have a pre-assembled unit. (Dell is out because, well they suck) Any suggestions?
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
I went through this last year when I decided to virtualize my home network. To get what I wanted, building it myself was the easiest way to achieve the level of price/performance I was after. I put together a Core i7 with 12 GB of RAM, and about 6 TB of disc space. I built it all myself, which I've been doing for two decades, so that was no hassle. I used an ASUS motherboard that is capable of going to 24GB. I stopped at 12 GB because none of the local stores stocked the 4GB memory, and special orders were too expensive. I used the free VMWare ESXi 4.0 bare-metal software for the base OS, and have the system sliced up about 6 ways between Windows and Linux servers. It's great to have an entire network of servers running on a single box. I've got IIS and Apache web servers going, plus SQL Server and MySQL, serving up about 4 or 5 domains. All of this is accessible from a client on my Windows 7/64 desktop, so I can flip from environment to environment with little more than a mouse click.
