I am trying to assemble or purchase a set of CentOS 6 compatible SFF workstations, and am finding it incredibly frustrating to do so. hardware.redhat.com is so slow as to be useless and provides almost no information about each of the 1,300 or so products listed in their database; clicking through them one at a time is incredibly frustrating (and about half of them are discontinued or out of stock when I actually go looking for them, like the Intel DQ series motherboards I was interested in). Vendor web sites are almost no use; they trumpet their Windows 8 compatibility all over the site, but finding information about Linux compatibility is next to impossible. My requirements aren't overwhelming; an i7 processor, four memeory slots preferred, dual 24" (1920x1200) monitor capability, and dual ethernet (or an expansion slot for a second Ethernet card). Anyone have any advice on how to attack this these days? I've been out of the hardware-purchase game on the Linux side for years, and most of my bookmarks no longer point anywhere useful, sadly.
-G. -- Glenn Eychaner (geychaner@lco.cl) Telescope Systems Programmer, Las Campanas Observatory
Glenn Eychaner wrote:
I am trying to assemble or purchase a set of CentOS 6 compatible SFF workstations, and am finding it incredibly frustrating to do so. hardware.redhat.com is so slow as to be useless and provides almost no information about each of the 1,300 or so products listed in their database; clicking through them one at a time is incredibly frustrating (and about half of them are discontinued or out of stock when I actually go looking for them, like the Intel DQ series motherboards I was interested in). Vendor web sites are almost no use; they trumpet their Windows 8 compatibility all over the site, but finding information about Linux compatibility is next to impossible. My requirements aren't overwhelming; an i7 processor, four memeory slots preferred, dual 24" (1920x1200) monitor capability, and dual ethernet (or an expansion slot for a second Ethernet card). Anyone have any advice on how to attack this these days? I've been out of the hardware-purchase game on the Linux side for years, and most of my bookmarks no longer point anywhere useful, sadly.
Well, I have no idea was SFF is an acronym for, other than Science Fiction and Fantasy, but I see from your sig that you're doing astronomy, so I'm guessing it has something to do with scientific computing.
Question 1: do you want to build them yourself, or buy full systems?
OEM: Dell's fine, though to talk to someone in support about Linux, you need "enterprise support", *not* desktop support. Right now, I'm on an AMD, but Dell Precision T3500 workstation, I *think* it ran around $2k when we got it a year and a half or two years ago; the newer ones are the same price. I'm running CentOS 6.4. Pretty much anything you buy, except *possibly* for just-released-in-the-last-month hardware is supported: it may not be ultra-heavy gaming ready, but for anything else, yes.
Our servers with Intel are running Xeons, of course, as well as the one workstation I just looked at....
mark
On 6/27/2013 9:44 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Well, I have no idea was SFF is an acronym for
"Small Form Factor", as opposed to standard large PCs.
most anything using a mainstream Intel chipset, Z77 (for Ivy Bridge) or Z78 (for Haskell). for SFF, you want either microATX or some form of ITX most likely, depending on HOW small you want.
for 98% of workloads, the core-I5 give you better bang-for-the-buck, btw
On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Glenn Eychaner geychaner@mac.com wrote:
I am trying to assemble or purchase a set of CentOS 6 compatible SFF workstations, and am finding it incredibly frustrating to do so. hardware.redhat.com is so slow as to be useless and provides almost no information about each of the 1,300 or so products listed in their database; clicking through them one at a time is incredibly frustrating (and about half of them are discontinued or out of stock when I actually go looking for them, like the Intel DQ series motherboards I was interested in). Vendor web sites are almost no use; they trumpet their Windows 8 compatibility all over the site, but finding information about Linux compatibility is next to impossible.
The big vendors should list RHEL compatibility, but perhaps more for servers than workstations. CentOS should match RHEL in terms of hardware compatibility and using vendor-supplied drivers.
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/nos/red... http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/hplinuxcert.html
-- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com
On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Glenn Eychaner geychaner@mac.com wrote:
I am trying to assemble or purchase a set of CentOS 6 compatibleSFF workstations, and am finding it incredibly frustrating to do so. hardware.redhat.com is so slow as to be useless and provides almost no information about each of the 1,300 or so products listed in their database; clicking through them one at a time is incredibly frustrating (and about half of them are discontinued or out of stock when I actually go looking for them, like the Intel DQ series motherboards I was interested in). Vendor web sites are almost no use; they trumpet their Windows 8 compatibility all over the site, but finding information about Linux compatibility is next to impossible. My requirements aren't overwhelming; an i7 processor, four memeory slots preferred, dual 24" (1920x1200) monitor capability, and dual ethernet (or an expansion slot for a second Ethernet card). Anyone have any advice on how to attack this these days? I've been out of the hardware-purchase game on the Linux side for years, and most of my bookmarks no longer point anywhere useful, sadly.
I assume SFF is small form factor. If you're willing to buy from Dell, the Optiplex 9010 SFF has 4 memory slots, i7 capable, 2 expansion PCIe-16 (one wired x4) slots. You could use one for a dual monitor graphics card, and the other for extra ethernet ports.
You'd need to get to someone in Dell enterprise support if you want to buy one without Windows, or you could just not use the Windows license.
I'm curious though: why do you need dual ethernet for a workstation? Does your office have two lans?
Dale Dellutri wrote:
On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Glenn Eychaner geychaner@mac.com wrote:
I am trying to assemble or purchase a set of CentOS 6 compatibleSFF workstations, and am finding it incredibly frustrating to do so.
<snip>
My requirements aren't overwhelming; an i7 processor, four memeory slots preferred, dual 24" (1920x1200) monitor capability, and dual ethernet (or an expansion slot for a second Ethernet card).
<snip>
I assume SFF is small form factor. If you're willing to buy from Dell, the Optiplex 9010 SFF has 4 memory slots, i7 capable, 2 expansion PCIe-16 (one wired x4) slots. You could use one for a dual monitor graphics card, and the other for extra ethernet ports.
Don't do Optiplex. That's a "consumer" grade box. Get a Precision - that's what we have here. Also, all of our workstations have video cards with dual ports. If you go this route, MAKE SURE THAT THEY GIVE YOU THE RIGHT VIDEO PORTS on the card - we got several with *only* dual displayports, and *one* display to DVI adaptor. (Needless to say, we didn't order those directly, the orders went up and over....)
You'd need to get to someone in Dell enterprise support if you want to buy one without Windows, or you could just not use the Windows license.
You can order them with either no O/S, or RHEL (with a year's license). <snip>
mark
On 6/27/2013 10:58 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Don't do Optiplex. That's a "consumer" grade box.
no, optiplex is a business desktop grade box, with remote management support and so forth. its the Dimension stuff thats consumer. Precision is 'engineering/scientific workstation' grade.
display port rocks, IF you get display port compatible monitors (loving my Dell U2412M's here at home, and U2410's at work!)
On 6/27/2013 10:58 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
You can order them with either no O/S, or RHEL (with a year's license).
<snip>
not from the 'soho' side of Dell, only on the Large Business side do those options show up, and if you're just buying a few and don't have an enterprise purchase agreement, you won't find any discounts.
John R Pierce wrote:
On 6/27/2013 10:58 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Don't do Optiplex. That's a "consumer" grade box.
no, optiplex is a business desktop grade box, with remote management support and so forth. its the Dimension stuff thats consumer. Precision is 'engineering/scientific workstation' grade.
display port rocks, IF you get display port compatible monitors (loving my Dell U2412M's here at home, and U2410's at work!)
No. We're not going out to buy new monitors, either here (esp. not while the neoConfederate Tea Party wants sequestration), nor at home. Get ports to fit your current monitors, unless you really *need* to replace them... and since the OP mentioned 24" monitors, which are *expensive*....
mark
On 6/27/2013 10:58 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
You can order them with either no O/S, or RHEL (with a year's license).
<snip>
not from the 'soho' side of Dell, only on the Large Business side do those options show up, and if you're just buying a few and don't have an enterprise purchase agreement, you won't find any discounts.
-- john r pierce 37N 122W somewhere on the middle of the left coast
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On 6/27/2013 11:36 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
and since the OP mentioned 24" monitors, which are*expensive*....
not any more. cheap 24" Acer etc TN 1920x1080 LED LCD panels are under $150 on sale. in my book, thats insanely cheap. Even the high end U2410 1920x1200 IPS screen is only about $400, and the U2412M 1920x1200 IPS is $225 or so on sale.
-
Dale Dellutri -
Glenn Eychaner -
John R Pierce -
Les Mikesell -
m.roth＠5-cent.us