Re: A Question about reqirements to run wdsci

If you're indeed paying $2000, that's a really good price.  I have an
xSeries that cost me about $3000 a year or so ago.  It's got basically the
same specs: dual 3.2GHz Xeons (not a single dual core) with lots of L2 cache
and 2GB of RAM, along with 3 15K drives with RAID5 for 136GB usable.  I
don't think I'll ever go over that drive space requirement, especially since
I plan to install a terabyte SAN this year.

I'd be VERY interested in the name of the person putting together your PCs.

The Dell PWS380 (which Dell no longer sells) listed at US$2680 back in May,
but the standard model had a single P4, 2GB of RAM and a 7200RPM disk drive.
The replacement machine is the PWS690; with a dual-core Xeon and 4GB of RAM
it lists for $2360.  Adding 146GB of 15K storage with RAID 1 adds $1300.
Add another $600 for a RAID controller that supports RAID 5 (which would
then allow you to drop to three 73GB disks for about the same price, but
gives you better expansion options).  $4200 for a Dell workstation... it
makes my xSeries look like a bargain!

Joe

From: albartell

I am getting a similar machine in the next couple weeks except with 15K
Raided HD's and am curious to know what you paid for yours?  Our company
contracts with an Intel Certified hardware specialist whenever we put
together a developer PC (5 PC's in the last two months) and get what I
would
consider good rates if you factor that Dell ships thousands of PC's a
year.

I believe we are getting ours for around $1800 - $2200 a piece (just
machine, no monitor/mouse/keyboard).  Let me know if anyone in the MN area
wants to have their contact info as we are very pleased with our machines
to
date.

The reason I digressed above is to get estimates on what a company
could/should invest per developer to keep them incredibly productive.
Instead of buying a $800 desktop, which would definitely have some
horsepower but will only last a few years, we have decided to buy a
machine
that will last around four years.  Split the cost of a $2200 machine over
four years and calculate time saved waiting for things to process and you
EASILY pay for the machine IMO.  Of course I look at it from a consulting
perspective and billable hours, but the same could be put into not having
to
hire the 5th developer in a shop because the current four are so
productive
with their machines.  Or maybe a better way to look at it is each day they
come in and start programming they don't have to wait 15 minutes for
things
to start up.  Take 15 minutes times 5 days a week times 50 weeks a year
and
you get 62.5 hours! (hopefully I calculated that right)

Of course one can only justify that expense if the developer is actually
using the horsepower many hours of the day (meaning they have fully
embraced
WDSC).  If they spend the majority of their time in SEU then I wouldn't be
able to justify the expense.