19990921: hardware specs

>From: alan anderson <address@hidden>
>Organization: St. Cloud State
>Keywords: 199909211630.KAA00214 PC hardware specs

Alan,

>I recall from the conference that you had recently purchased a terminal
>with dual processors and which you felt had alot of capacity for running
>Unidata software.

Right.  We have actually made two different purchases.  The first set
was for dual 450 Mhz Pentium IIs; the second was for dual 550 Mhz
Pentium IIIs.

>Could you provide the details as to source and what you bought?  We have 
>a new faculty who has some startup money, and who will likely want to 
>run Gempak and/or Mcidasx.  He is shopping 

Sure.  Since he is shopping, I will include the specs for our two different
purchases and one from another site (Denver University).  You must remember
that PC prices change rapidly.  It is likely that you can get even more
machine for the money or spend less money getting a slightly more modest
system.  I have one other comment about pricing at the end of this email.

>Thanks

Uhidata dual 550 Mhz machines

 1 x Gigabyte 440BX (GA-6BXDS) dual CPU, dual U2W SCSI
 1 x Pentium III heat sink/cooling
 1 x Irwin Full tower ATX case w/230W power supply and fan
 1 x Fujitsu 8725 104 key keyboard
 1 x Sony 1.44 MPF-520 floppy drive
 1 x Acer/Logitech 1st mouse plus PS/2 mouse
 1 x 3COM 3C905 PCI 10/100 baseT network card
 1 x ATI Xpert @ Play 8MB AGP
 1 x Toshiba 40X CDrom drive
 1 x KDS 21" color .26 dot pitch monitor (3 Yr warranty)
 2 x Intel Pentium III 550 MHz CPU
 2 x Wide SCSI removable hard drive kit
 2 x IBM 18.2 GB U2W SCSI hard drive
 2 x 256 MB SD32x64 PC100 SDRAM
 2 x One year additional warranty support
 1 x Configuration charge
 1 x No operating system

I forgot to fix the errors in the configuration I forwarded;

  2 x Pentium III heat sink/cooling
  ^
  1 x Irwin Full tower ATX case w/300W power supply and fan
                                  ^^^
 Also specify the following requirements on the order;

 - Hardware must support Sun Solaris 2.7, RedHat Linux 6.0, and Windows NT 4.0
 - System must include all spare parts from assembly

 Total cost per system is $5,423.  See attached quote from AMEC.

 Also, due to a number of bungled orders, I wouldn't recommend
 AMEC any longer.

Uhidata dual 450 Mhz machines

 Qty    Description
 ---    -----------
  1     Full tower ATX enclosure w/230W power supply
  2     Intel P2-450MHz CPU w/ballbearing fan per CPU
  1     Dual CPU/dual UW SCSI motherboard w/4PCI, 3ISA, 1AGP slot
  1     104 key PC keyboard
  1     1.44 3.5 floppy drive
  1     3 button mouse
  1     32x CDrom drive
  1     32bit PCI 10/100Mb ethernet network card (3com 3C905)
  1     AGP Video card w/8MB VRAM (ATI XPERT@Work/Play)
  1     21" color monitor (KDS VS21)
  1     Assembly/configuration charge
  2     Hot swap drive kit
  2     9GB UW SCSI disk (Quantum Viking 9.1GB Ultra/Wide)
  4     128MB PC100 SDRAM (512 MB system total)

Total price for 1 unit: $5216.00


Denver University PC purchase

 Dell 6450 PIII/MT Workstation 410 Base with Integrated 3Com Fast
 Etherlink XL 10/100Mb/s and Sound Blaster Compatible Audio
 Logitech 30button System Mouse for Workstation 410
 256 MB RAN, ECC, IDIMM
 Dell Workstation Processor Terminator Card
 17/40X IDE CD ROM Drive
 8MB, AGP, Diamond Permedia 2, Video Card for Workstation PWS
 Dell UltraScan P990 Monitor with 18" Viewable Image Size
 9.1 GB SCSI, LVD, U2W, 7200 RPM Hard drive for Workstation 410
 4 GB SCSI Hard Drive for WS LVD, U2W, 7200 RPM
 3.5" 1.44 MB Slimline Floppy drive and diagnostics for Workstation 410
 Redhat LINUX 5.2, Factory Install

 I think you have all hardware bases covered.  As far as software goes,
 the "Factory Install" of Linux should take care of the OS, and the
 fact that Dell is doing the install _should_ gurantee that all of the
 hardware is supported by the OS (but I would put that in my contract!)
 The good news about Linux is that getting software for it is free
 most of the time.

My last comment about pricing is that I recently sat down and figured
out what it would cost to build a reasonable PC from parts.  I figure
that I can put together a 450 Mhz (AMD K6-2) PC with 128 MB of RAM, an
8 GB UIDE disk, 8 MB 2X AGP video card, 40X CDROM, keyboard, PS/2
mouse, floppy, 10/100 ethernet card, and 56 Kb modem (NOT a Windows
modem) for about $450.  That's right $450 for _quite_ the machine.
Note that I did not include a monitor since this is one area that I
think that one should not try to penny pinch.  If you use a computer
all day like I do, having a good monitor is a necessity.

Tom