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Some Pricing and Review Information for Dual Processor Machines
Last Modified:  4 May 2001

 
BRAND/MODEL
CHIP SET
PROCESSOR TYPES(range of)
WEB PRICE (base)
PRICE COMMENTS
Hewlett-Packard
General Workstation Page
RCC Serverworks LE3 Chipset*
PIII / 866 or 1000 MHz
V1655A $4883 (dual)
no monitor , 
graphics oriented machine
RCC Serverworks LE3 Chipset *
PIII / 866 or 1000 MHz
V1724A $5063 (dual) 
V1725A $6728 (dual)
no monitor, 
graphics oriented machine
IBM
General Workstation Page
Intel 840 chipset *
PIII / 933 or 1000 MHz
$3800 (dual)
PIII 1 GHz**, no monitor, 18GB HD, 256MB RDRAM
Intel 840 chipset*
PIII Xeon / 933 or 1000 MHz
$4924 (dual)
PIII Xeon 1 GHz**, no monitor, 18GB HD, 256MB RDRAM
DELL
General Precision Page
Intel 840 chipset 
PIII / 800, 866, 933 or 1000 MHz
$2934 (dual)
PIII 1 GHz**, no monitor, 18GB HD, 256MB RDRAM
Intel 840 chipset
PIII Xeon / 933 or 1000 MHz
$3629 (dual)
PIII Xeon 1 GHz**,no monitor, 18GB HD, 256MB RDRAM
COMPAQ
Workstation Overview
Intel 840 chipset
PIII / 866 or 1000 MHz
$3409 (dual)
PIII 1GHz**, 18GB HD, 256MB RDRAM, no monitor
Intel 840 chipset
PIII Xeon / 800, 866, or 1000 MHz
$4774 (dual)
PIII Xeon 1GHz**, 18GB HD, 256MB RDRAM, no monitor
MONARCH
Asus BX P2B-S
(AIC 7890)
PIII / 600MHz
$2368(dual)
PIII 600 MHz, 9GB HD, 256 MB PC100 RAM, no monitor
SYS TECHNOLOGY
Gigabyte GA-6VXD7, via Apollo Pro 133A (694X) chipset
PIII/ 733MHz through 1 GHz
$1832(dual)
PIII 733MHz, 30GB HD, 256 MB SDRAM, no monitor
Xi COMPUTER
Intel 840 Chipset (for priced machine)
PIII/ 733MHz through 1 GHz
$1998(dual)
PIII 733MHz, 20 GB HD, 256 MB RDRAM, no monitor
* per customer rep. ** Focused on 1 GHz processors only to allow direct price comparisons between companies. 

 
 
 
CHIPSET/BOARD
REVIEWS
RCC Serverworks LE3 
Not much out there.
Intel 840 
Hardware Central likes it  (includes bench tests),  unknown w/ Linux 2.2.x ,   MRHS-I/O switching sensitive (their motto: "biting the hand that feeds IT"), problem with SDRAMtom's hardware on MRH-S and SDRAM.  Also, Dell's 420 and 620 dual processor work stations come with Red Hat 7.0 installed so Dell  believes in running Linux on this chipset.  Xi computers also installs Red Hat on this chipset.
.Here are reviews on the SuperMicro PIIIDME motherboard that uses the intel 840 chipset.  This m/b was mentioned in the link unknown w/ Linux 2.2.x.  Don't know if this is the m/b in the above workstations. several informal reviews at earthlink
Asus BX m/b Did not find anything interesting using common search engines, and search of the linux-kernel mailing list.
Gigabyte GA-6VXD7, via Apollo Pro 133A (694X) chipset The chipset may require special drivers for the USB controller in order to work under Linux (kernel  mailing-list message ).
USB in smp-enabled 2.4.0 kernels is still broken; may be a PCI IRQ routing prolem (kernel  mailing-list message

 
 
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM MEETING ON 4-18-2001
Does compaq offer Athlon dual processor machines?  Currently, Compaq advertises only for dual pentium processors.  See their  product matrix .
AMD has a page of links tosuppliers. Perhaps this list could be used to find more sources of dual processor machines.   From AMD's list of sources (not an exhaustive search), the following had dual processors of which the low end machines have been added to the above shopping list. 
      Monarch Computer Systems
     SYS Technology
      Xi Computer


Bill Lawry