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Thread ID: 78546 2007-04-19 22:10:00 Price check on new computer Mike (15) Press F1
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542445 2007-04-19 22:10:00 Hi all,

I'm getting a new PC at work and was wondering if someone who knew this kind of hardware could tell me what I should be paying for something with these specs:

IBM ZPro Intellistation - 922862M
Intel Xeon 5130 processor (2GHz Dual core with 4MB cache)
3 GB memory
160 GB 7200 rpm SATA hard disk
2 x NVidia FX 550 video cards (4 DVI video ports)
DVD multi burner
gigabit Ethernet
Three year warranty

Also, I've been told anything more than 3GB or RAM is useless in a 32bit Windows environment... is this true?
Which would be better, running Windows 2003 or Win XP SP2?

Cheers,
Mike.
Mike (15)
542446 2007-04-19 23:13:00 fairly meaningless.

More important:

What brand of HDD? Should be Seagate.
What brand of motherboard? Choose ASUS.
The graphics card doesn't excite me much but then I suppose it is a work PC not a gaming PC.
pctek (84)
542447 2007-04-20 00:05:00 fairly meaningless.No it's not, because that's what I want to know :)

More important:
What brand of HDD? Should be Seagate.
What brand of motherboard? Choose ASUS.
The graphics card doesn't excite me much but then I suppose it is a work PC not a gaming PC.This is a work PC, running 3 19" LCDs. Would you suggest better graphics cards?

I believe the workstations are IBM, so it'd be whatever IBM supply us for HDD and motherboard etc. But I am interested in what people think the machine should cost me.

Cheers,
Mike.
Mike (15)
542448 2007-04-20 00:24:00 3 Gb for WinXP is an overkill. 1 Gb is enough.

Mike, pctek's advice is sound: you need to choose certain brands of hardware.
Strommer (42)
542449 2007-04-20 00:38:00 Also, it depends what the mobo supports.

Obviously if its only got 2 ram slots, it'll only go to 2 GB. (or maybe 1 GB).

So, make sure the mobo supports the amount of ram you want. Before u buy the ram.

Nothing wrong with Windows 2000, XP or 2003. All support up to 4 GB. But the 2003 version supports more (depending on what version is installed).
Speedy Gonzales (78)
542450 2007-04-20 00:42:00 3 Gb for WinXP is an overkill. 1 Gb is enough.

Mike, pctek's advice is sound: you need to choose certain brands of hardware.Just because 1GB is enough for you, Steve, doesn't mean it's the rule :) I currently have 1.5GB and it's not enough. I am consistently using around 2 or 3 GB of virtual memory for running single processes. :D

Mike.
Mike (15)
542451 2007-04-20 01:02:00 Also, it depends what the mobo supports.

Obviously if its only got 2 ram slots, it'll only go to 2 GB. (or maybe 1 GB).

So, make sure the mobo supports the amount of ram you want. Before u buy the ram.

Nothing wrong with Windows 2000, XP or 2003. All support up to 4 GB. But the 2003 version supports more (depending on what version is installed).Motherboard will definitely support the RAM :) Will they all definitely support 4GB? My IS dept is telling me anything more than 3GB is not used unless running with a 64bit OS.

Cheers,
Mike.
Mike (15)
542452 2007-04-20 01:37:00 From Wikipedia.....

"a byte-addressable 32-bit computer can address 2^32 (2 to the 32nd power) = 4,294,967,296 bytes of memory, or 4 gibibytes."
ManUFan (7602)
542453 2007-04-20 01:42:00 Hi Mike, dont worry about the others, not sure if they are jealous or what!

32bit XP will only use up to 3.75Gb of RAM, so 3Gb should be good. What are you using the workstation for?.

Instead of the 2nd graphics card, you could just get 1 and buy a Matrox Dualhead or Triplehead
www.matrox.com
If its a pre-built, I doubt you can change mobo etc.

As for price, the Xeon Dual cores are not cheap, so would imagine you would pay around $3000-$3500 for it.
SolMiester (139)
542454 2007-04-20 01:44:00 DOUBLE POST SolMiester (139)
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