Dual Xeon PC

[Mole]

Just been offered a dual Xeon CPU base unit, contains 2 1.7ghz xeon cpu's 1gb of ram, and 40gb hd (that doesnt worry me as i've got other HD's sitting about)

I'm currently using my laptop which is annoying, as I need a PC thats going to be left on, and the laptop is way too loud with its fan spinning up every couple of minutes.

I'll only be using it to surf the web, and do a bit of downloading and burn dvd's and cds, its just ive been offered this at quite a steal of a price.

Would it be fast? I had an AMD Athlon XP1700 and it was ok, but nothing special.

I'm guessing it'll be more than suitable for what i'd use it for lol, prob dont even need the dual cpu's

 

[dk]

they are server processors and at that speed quite old.

Its no games machine but will do office apps fine, as its dual xeon though it might be quite noisy, those processors will probably need a bit of cooling etc.

to be that spec i'm guessing its a workstation rather than a pc so will also be quite large, full or midi tower.

So really depends on how cheap, i wouldn't run something like that, too big and noisy, prefer my laptop.

 

[Mole]

lol trust me, anything will be quieter than this laptop. its only got an amd athlon 1700 in it, but it runs very hot, and the fan is constantly kicking in.

I used to have a full tower with plenty of stuff inside with fans, I can sort out the noise with low noise fans and acoustic stuff to stick on the case.

Never really got into games on a PC, prefer consoles for that, it is a workstation, and is a midi tower.

Lets put it this way, it'll cost me about as much as I'd spend on a friday night if i was going out on the lash (not that I do that anymore)

 

[dk]

should be ok then, just don't expect it to be like lightning, its still a fairly old spec, but should be faster than your athlon anyway.

 

[Darren S]

Would be good as a general purpose machine - one that you attach anything and everything too. If I bought something like that, I'd whack dual DVD-RW drives in there, connect my printer, iPod, and cameras, etc. I'd also cram it with cheap HDD storage - would be good to store loads of MP3s, downloads, etc. A general dogs-body, in other words.

Even Xeons of that vintage, still have a fair bit of clout.

D.

 

[cava83]

is it free?

 

[Mike_182]

Dual 1.7 Xeons aren't that old or slow?

 

[Mole]

Would be good as a general purpose machine - one that you attach anything and everything too. If I bought something like that, I'd whack dual DVD-RW drives in there, connect my printer, iPod, and cameras, etc. I'd also cram it with cheap HDD storage - would be good to store loads of MP3s, downloads, etc. A general dogs-body, in other words.

Even Xeons of that vintage, still have a fair bit of clout.

D.

Thats what its going to be used for... I'll be making the most of my cable broadband connection once i move into my new place.
I've already got 2 dvdrw drives to go inside it, and have got 3 spare 300 (270 once formatted etc) sata drives that i'll put inside, and use a sata controller card as i doubt it has sata.

I've got a cable receiver box that i'll be networking to so I can use the PC as a storage box for all the recordings (much like sky+)

I used my last pc as a general downloading rig, and it did struggle at some points, so i'm guessing with dual cpu's it should handle a bit better, aslong as programs are set up to use each cpu. and being intel i guess they'd run alot cooler than amds, especially the athlons.
and with dual cpu's thats just over 3ghz of combined processing power, which isnt bad i spose

Its going to cost me £50 if I want it, as the bloke whos selling it owes me a favour and has offered it to me if i want it, at this price.

 

[Rasclart]

Will probs be just as fast as the CS server

As Dave said is probs a workstation, and I expect it wont be quiet either.

 

[dk]

Dual 1.7 Xeons aren't that old or slow?

around about 5 years ago, were discontinued by workstation manufacturers at the beginning of 2002, in processor world, 5 years is a long time.

 

[Mole]

Will probs be just as fast as the CS server

As Dave said is probs a workstation, and I expect it wont be quiet either.

PMSL

yea I'm not going to think its going to be a quiet machine, but its something, better than this poxy laptop... hardly portable now, battery barely lasts 10 minutes and thats just idling on the desktop on a clean xp install.

Its something I guess, I was looking about on ebay and people are asking for £100 for a Sempron based base unit with not much going with it... so i've decided to go for it, and see if i like it, should be able to sell it on if i dont get on with it.

Just got to hunt about for a replacement front door as the one on it at the moment is damaged

 

[Mike_182]

Dual 1.7 Xeons aren't that old or slow?

around about 5 years ago, were discontinued by workstation manufacturers at the beginning of 2002, in processor world, 5 years is a long time.

It is, but I suspect you'd find it giving most desktop technology a run for it's money. Xeons are a long way ahead of the tat that gets stuffed in workstations, and I suspect a dual 1.7 machine would be pretty close to a 3ghz Pentium D on more than a couple of benchmarks.

 

[Mole]

around about 5 years ago, were discontinued by workstation manufacturers at the beginning of 2002, in processor world, 5 years is a long time.

It is, but I suspect you'd find it giving most desktop technology a run for it's money. Xeons are a long way ahead of the tat that gets stuffed in workstations, and I suspect a dual 1.7 machine would be pretty close to a 3ghz Pentium D on more than a couple of benchmarks.

I'll find out once I get it... not sure what benchmarks just yet thou lol. definately wont do graphics, althou the chap said its got a dual output card, which is quite meaty... prob better for CAD and things like that tho'.

I'll run Sandra on it and post up the results, maybe someone with a Pentium D could do the same tests to compare

 

[Mike_182]

I'll surrender my 3.2 cooking machine for the job - it's very well specced though so may be a hard fight.

If you don't want it, I'll give you £100 and a useable quiet machine for it? (P4 2ghz SFF, 1gb memory/gigglebit ethernet and can also chuck in a SFF AGP graphics card that makes it do a little more in the way of visual pleasure. Plays FS2004 fine.