After the nine months of consideration
I have now considered the upcoming "super computer" for nine months. I can admit that usability of 20 years was rather exaggerated. Now I expect usability for between from 8 to 14 years. "High-end workstation" could be better definition for this computer than "super computer". I'am not anymore planning for purchasing my workstation from overseas when I can purchase it from my location (Southern Finland) althought there's only one retailer.
This is my selection:
Supermicro SuperWorkstation 7046A-T
motherboard: Supermicro X8DAi
maximum RAM: 192 Gb
maximum amount of CPU's: 2
My configuration:
- One Intel Xeon 5680 (6-core 3.33GHz) processor (second CPU is planned to buy later)
- 4 Gb's of random access memory (will be expanded later to 16 Gb)
- One 2 Tb and one 750 Gb SATA hard disk drive
- PCI-E display adapter, video memory something between 512 Mb's and 2 Gb's
- Writing DVD/CD drive with LightScribe support
Operating System:
primary: 64-bit BSD
- NetBSD/amd64
- PC-BSD or DesktopBSD amd64 port
secondary (yet unclear): 32-bit Windows XP or 64-bit Linux
- Windows XP Professional with SP3 (only for some commercial games)
- GNU/Linux (used if display adapter problems or if UMTS/3G Internet access requires)
Price: something between 3000 and 4000 euros
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