Test Center Daily | InfoWorld Staff » TAG: Workstations

May 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Dell and HP workstation performance and power consumption

TAGS: Workstations

	HP xw4600	HP xw6600	Dell Precision T5400	Dell Precision T7400
Benchmarks
SPECviewperf 10 quad	47.00	50.01	53.35	94.45
Sandra XII ALU	37.3K Dhrystone MIPS	83.4K Dhrystone MIPS	83.2K Dhrystone MIPS	115.9K Dhrystone MIPS
Sandra XII Multimedia	144.0K fit	321.9K fit	320.9K fit	540.6K fit
Sandra XII Memory Latency	101 ns	108 ns	112 ns	94 ns
Sandra XII Memory Bandwidth	5.10 GB/sec	7.23 GB/sec	7.16 GB/sec	4.94 GB/sec
Sandra XII HDD Bandwidth	50.52 MB/sec	72.40 MB/sec	60.55 MB/sec	188.6 MB/sec
Sandra XII HDD Random Access Time	16 ms	15 ms	22 ms	6 ms
Power Consumption
Power consumption at rest	88 W	190 W	189 W	237 W
Power consumption at 100%	144 W	296 W	288 W	409 W
Energy Star Power Consumption	52.2 W	105.4 W	102.6 W	146.7 W

Posted by Doug Dineley on May 19, 2008 03:00 AM

May 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Dell and HP workstation features at a glance

TAGS: Workstations

	HP xw4600	HP xw6600	Dell Precision T5400	Dell Precision T7400
Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz	Intel Xeon E5430 2.66GHz	Intel Xeon E5430 2.66GHz	Intel Xeon 5482 3.2GHz
Number processors	1	2	2	2
Cores per processor	quad	quad	quad	quad
L2 cache per processor	8MB	12MB	12MB	12MB
Chipset	Intel x38	Intel 5400B	Intel 5400	Intel 5400B
System RAM	4GB	4GB	4GB	4GB
RAM type and speed	DDR2 800MHz	DDR2 667MHz	DDR2 667MHz	DDR2 800MHz
Graphics card	Nvidia Quadro FX 1700	Nvidia Quadro FX 4600	Nvidia Quadro FX 4600	Nvidia Quadro FX 4600
Graphics RAM	512MB	768MB	768MB	768MB
Disk capacity	250GB	250GB	80GB	146GB (73GB x 2)
HDD model	Seagate Barracuda	Seagate Barracuda	Western Digital Caviar SE XL160S	Dell Virtual Disk
HDD interface	SATA 3.0 Gb/sec	SATA 3.0 Gb/sec	SATA 3.0 Gb/sec	SAS
HDD RPM	7200	7200	7200	15000
HDD cache	16MB	16MB	8MB	32MB (16MB x 2)
Network	GbE	GbE	GbE	GbE
CD/DVD	16x DVD+/-RW	16x DVD+/-RW	18x DVD+/-RW	16x DVD-ROM RW
Jacks, plugs, case
USB front, rear, internal	2, 7, 1	2, 5, 1	2, 5, 1	2, 5, 1
PS/2	475 W	650 W	875 W	980 W
Power supply	2	2	2	2
Warranty	4 hour on site, 3 years	Next business day on site, 3 years	Next business day on site, 3 years	Next business day on site, 3 years
Operating systems	Windows Vista Business, Windows XP Pro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4	Windows Vista Business, Windows XP Pro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4	Windows Vista Ultimate, Vista Business, Windows XP Pro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5	Windows Vista Ultimate, Vista Business, Windows XP Pro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5
Expandability
Drive bays (3.5", 5.25")	3, 5	2, 2	2, 2	4, 3
PCI slots (legacy, PCIe x8, PCIe x16, PCIe x64 )	4, 1, 1, 0	2, 2, 2, 0	1, 1, 2, 2	1, 1, 2, 3
Max RAM, Max DIMMs	8GB, 4	32GB, 8	32GB, 8	64GB, 8 x 2 (with risers)
Cost	$2,056	$5,049	$5,087	$7,897

Posted by Doug Dineley on May 19, 2008 02:59 AM

April 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Review: Appro XtremeWorkstation mixes Opteron horsepower and superior graphics at a nice price

TAGS: Workstations

In the old days, a workstation was an expensive Unix system running a RISC processor and proprietary graphics system, often with a price tag in the six-figure range. Today a workstation is typically a beefed-up desktop PC, and it might run Unix, Linux, or even Windows. The Appro XtremeWorkstation is typical of the new breed, supporting as many as four Opteron dual- or quad-core processors, as much as 128GB of RAM, an abundance of internal disk space, and dual 16x PCI-E slots for high-end graphics.

The system I received for testing was configured with four dual-core Opteron 8216 (2.4GHz) CPUs, 16 GB RAM, dual 120GB Seagate 10K RPM drives and an NVidia Quadro FX 4500 X2 graphics card. This system would be exceptional as a CAD, imaging, or video processing workstation. It would also be perfect for running multiple virtualized operating systems in a software development or testing environment, even with a less powerful graphics card.

The system is remarkably quiet for the horsepower it provides, and the case is heavy and well-built, with lots of room for expansion as well as good cooling. At $11,822 as tested, plus $2,950 for the FX 4500 X2, the system also delivers a whole lot of performance for the price. I tested the system with the supplied Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server 4.0 as well as with Windows XP Pro. Standard benchmark packages like Futuremark's PCMark and 3DMark are not intended for systems of this caliber -- they don't support the FX 4500 X2, and they aren't equipped to get results with eight cores. In fact, a 64-bit server OS (Red Hat Enterprise Server, Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Windows Server 2003) may be necessary to take full advantage of the large amounts of RAM and the eight or even 16 cores this system can provide.

The XtremeWorkstation could also be used as a server, of course, especially in branch office environments where rack mounting isn't necessary and noise levels are a factor. Running VMware or Xen, you should be able to host as many as 50 or 60 OS images running simultaneously. If you have applications that are optimized for multithreaded operations, they will fly with this system. While eight 2.4GHz cores are not the same thing as one 19.2GHz core, they're as close as you can get for now.

Appro XtremeWorkstation
Price: $14,772 as tested
Verdict: Considering the bang for the buck, the Appro XtremeWorkstation is hard to beat. For CPU- or RAM-intensive applications such as CAD, audio/video processing or rendering, or virtualization, where server hardware (redundant power supplies, redundant RAM, etc.) is not required, this system will serve well.

Posted by Logan Harbaugh on April 27, 2007 06:00 AM