This is an update of sorts to a similar "technical article" prepared last fall on this topic. (Please see this link for that article). The basic trends remain consistent, namely,
- dual-core CPUs are very common and very affordable, and should be considered as the baseline for a workstation - unless you know for certain that you prefer to save ~15% on the workstation price at the expense of losing significant performance boost for anything remotely demanding.
- RAM prices have continued to decline (albeit slowly), as have hard drive prices (again, slowly but surely)
The net result, is that a very robust workstation can be had for very reasonable prices (pre-tax):
- $882 for 2.4ghz DualCore AMD, 4 gigs RAM and 320gig SATA HDD
- $205 for 19" WideScreen LCD Monitor
- $176 for WinXP Pro, or even better, why not:
- $0 for CentOS 5 (RedHat Enterprise Linux, effectively)
Note that this system will run Windows or Linux very well (you can even "dual-boot" if you want both available).
Finally: See FOOTNOTE BELOW for a "Cheepo WinXP Workstation" option that TDC is fond of now as well.
SYSTEM SPECS
Case: Thermaltake Matrix Black Mid-Tower Case Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2 Power (W0070) 430-Watt Power Supply Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4GHz / Socket AM2 / 64-Bit Motherboard: Asus M2N-MX Socket AM2 Motherboard Memory: 4x Kingston 1024MB PC2-4200 533MHz DDR2 Memory Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda / 320GB / SATA/300/ 16MB / 7200RPM / Hard Drive Optical Drive: LG GSA-H50N 16x Dual Layer DVD Burner (Black) Video: On-Board Sound: On-Board Sound Network: On-Board LAN Card Reader: Vantec Internal Card Reader USB: 3 x USB 2.0 connector supports additional 4 USB 2.0 ports KB / Mouse: Black PS/2 Keyboard / Black PS/2 Optical Mouse
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Win XP CHEEPO Workstation:
As an aside of some relevance, TDC has found a good Ebay supplier who can provide a very decent price "basic robust WinXP workstation" box for an absurdly good price, as follows:
- WinXP Pro COA bundled with machine ($176 effective value)
- P4-2.4ghz / 512mb RAM / 40gig HDD / CDRom Drive / integrated sound-video-lan
- VERY Quiet and Compact PC, Major Brand Quality (Compaq)
- All this for ~$200, shipping included. (monitor, KB, Mouse extra)
Given the fact that WinXP is bundled, it is an absurdly good value for a basic workstation. I've got two of these in late-april and they work very well. Additionally, Linux (CentOS and Ubuntu) install VERY smoothly on this hardware so you can have a nice dual-boot setup if desired.