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19990426: PC platform for running RedHat Linux (cont.)



>From: address@hidden
>Organization: UC Davis
>Keywords: 199904262243.QAA27331 platforms

Erick,

>Thank you for your quick answer.  I have several questions.
>
>1.  How important is a dual processor?  I was interested to note that Dell
>    refused to ship a dual processor Precision Workstation with Linux.  
>    They said that Linux wouldn't support a dual.

First, we ordered dual process systems for a couple of reasons.  First,
we wanted to see if they had enough horsepower to replace our dual
processor Sun SPARC Ultra 2.  Second, we figured that we could "split"
the systems in two pretty easily by purchasing a case with a motherboard
that supported 450 Mhz Pentium IIs and moving 1 processor, 256 MB
of RAM, and one 9 GB disk to the new boxes.  

>2.  Do you think we could get away with a single hard drive for Linux,
>    McIDAS, and Workdata directories?  The reason I ask is that we were
>    planning to get two drives but configure the machine dual boot so that 
>    students could run Windows applications when they are not doing
>    Unix type stuff.

If you decide to use IDE drives, then I would recommend writing your data
to a separate disk.  This way, when the disk fails (a lot more likely
with IDE drives than SCSI ones) you havn't lost anything critical.

>3.  My local engineer is recommending Ultra ATA drives to save money.
>    do you know of any reason why they wouldn't be a good idea.

Our experience is that SCSI drives hold up to hard use a log better than
IDE drives (ATA).  Again, if you configure the system to have data on
a separate drive (or the data may reside on a different machine altogether)
then IDE drives would make sense.  I agree that they are a good place to
save money:  from CompUSA adds recently one can buy a 10 GB UIDE disk
for $179 and get an Iomega Zip (100 MB) drive thrown in for free!  Pretty
hard to pass up a deal like that!

>4.  I think I would pass on swappable drives if only for security.

Again, I wasn't recommending our systems.  I was using them as a benchmark
for what you can get.  I see that one can easily purchase a 450 Mhz
Pentium II machine with 128 MB of RAM, 13 GB disk, and a 19" monitor now
for about $2000 (the monitor really bumps the price up).

>Again thanks.

You are welcome.

Tom