I'm looking to buy a new workstation, and it looks like Thinkmate makes what
I need -- their vsx "virtually silent" variety. I hestitate because I
wasn't happy with a laptop I bought a few years ago from a small outfit that
sold Linux boxes exclusively. Does anyone have experience with Thinkmate, and in
particular, the VSX line? If the later, is it really quiet.
I run Centos on four machines now, three of which are Dells, and I'm hoping
to do better. The Dell T5400 is close to what I want, but I get more for less
from Thinkpad -- at least on paper.
thx,
Barry
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Barry Olddog wrote:> I'm looking to buy a new workstation, and it looks like Thinkmate makes what I need -- their vsx "virtually silent" variety. I hestitate because I wasn't happy with a laptop I bought a few years ago from a small outfit that sold Linux boxes exclusively. Does anyone have experience with Thinkmate, and in particular, the VSX line? If the later, is it really quiet. > > I run Centos on four machines now, three of which are Dells, and I'm hoping to do better. The Dell T5400 is close to what I want, but I get more for less from Thinkpad -- at least on paper.No experience with Thinkmate, or, knowledge of them, but 4 of the 5 computers in this room are Dell's. If Thinkmate is a long established company, with an excellent reputation, buy from them. If not, Dell will be around, to support your T5400, for a long time.
----- Original Message ----> From: Rainer Duffner <rainer at ultra-secure.de> > To: CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> > Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2008 4:49:02 PM > Subject: Re: [CentOS] OT: workstation recommends: Thinkmate? > > > Am 04.09.2008 um 21:36 schrieb Lanny Marcus: > > > Barry Olddog wrote: > >> I'm looking to buy a new workstation, and it looks like Thinkmate > >> makes what I need -- their vsx "virtually silent" variety. I > >> hestitate because I wasn't happy with a laptop I bought a few > >> years ago from a small outfit that sold Linux boxes exclusively. > >> Does anyone have experience with Thinkmate, and in particular, the > >> VSX line? If the later, is it really quiet. I run Centos on four > >> machines now, three of which are Dells, and I'm hoping to do > >> better. The Dell T5400 is close to what I want, but I get more for > >> less from Thinkpad -- at least on paper. > > > > No experience with Thinkmate, or, knowledge of them, but 4 of the 5 > > computers in this room are Dell's. If Thinkmate is a long > > established company, with an excellent reputation, buy from them. If > > not, Dell will be around, to support your T5400, for a long time. > > > > > Indeed. > But before I spent that much money on a PC, I'd want to *see* it and > hear it. In reality. > Anybody can claim to manufacture a "virtually silent" workstation. > > Too bad, Apple is the only vendor that has stores and all models on > display (at least, for desktops - but for a server, noise isn't > relevant anyway). > > How much is the price difference actually? > > > RainerThe difference is about $1,000 -- 25% more for the Dell -- but the machines are not exactly the same. Thinkmate is opteron, and the Dell, xeon -- which some would say is a factor in Dell's favor; Dell includes a RH subscription whether you want it or not; Dell has three hard drives (the max), Thinkmate four. With the Dell, the memory comes from Crucial, which means there's a waste of two small modules; Thinkmate sells memory at a reasonable price (I'm figuring 32 gigs). The HP xw9400 is closer to the Thinkmate, but an extra $200 to $300, with memory from Crucial. I'm just leery of a maker that I don't know; I searched for reviews and comments, but found almost nothing. Maybe that's telling me something. Barry
----- Original Message ----> From: John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> > To: CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> > Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2008 7:54:40 PM > Subject: Re: [CentOS] OT: workstation recommends: Thinkmate? > > MHR wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Barry Olddog wrote: > > > >> I'm just leery of a maker that I don't know; I searched for reviews and > comments, but found almost nothing. Maybe that's telling me something. > >> > >> > > > > Isn't Thinkmate a spinoff of IBM? Or am I confused by the > > Thinkpad/Thinkstation/terminology? > > > > > it appears (googled it) Thinkmate is a small 'whitebox' server > integrator in Massachussetts, until recently known as SAG Electronics. > > >As a sequel, I'm not only rethinking Thinkmate, but Opterons themselves. The university department I work with recently bought some Opteron machines (two-processor 2350) HPs, and also has some recent Xeon (two-processor 5405) Dells. I ran a test on them with a Java parsing (natural language) program and found that the Xeons did 33.72 words per second, while the Opterons lagged at 20.04 words per second. These are both running the same Ubuntu version. It may not be a common or representative benchmark, but it is the kind of thing I'll be using my new machine for.