Well, eBay sort of makes this a difficult call. I have seen some of the top end machines of a few years back recently go for under $1,500. And I'm talking 2.0 to 2.5 GHz multi-processor machines. They can easily provide the output that traders want with redundancy covered at every level. I have SCSI hard drive reliability and 10k speeds (you can get 15k if you can live with the smaller drives up to 73 gig). I can even take the total drive size up to 1460 gig's internally if I choose. The processors can be upgraded to 3.0GHz also. Couple this with massive amounts of RAM (my 4600 can handle up to 24 gig's) and well, go figure. I got this one for $1,800, plus $140 delivery. I can't definitely remember, but I believe I only added two drives to it for about $300.
I am guessing you mean that odd Linux flavor. When I first got these machines I played with Scyld Beowulf and looked at doing some interesting stuff for a time. I also played around with Netware (5.1) and BEOS. Too much to do with little compatibility for my needs. As various flavors of windows servers, I have not had a crash in over a year on the 2003 machines, and over two years with the 2000 unit.
I understand now! Okay, when you had said one machine cost $200 a couple posts ago, I thought it was a typo. I guess it might be time to go onto eBay and look around for some good deals. Very cool - thanks for pointing that out! For me personally, I would still prefer to have two+ machines. MORE importantly, is having more than one internet connection.
Each machine had dual internet capability with multiple ethernet cards (the 4600 is a 10/100/1000). I replaced one of the cards with the wireless setup and I still have redundant connections if I choose.
I can't match that record...wish I could. I used Mandrake as a means to an end for connecting three identical machines(w/graphics cards) together for a rendering farm (video/photo editing) Electronic prepress/preflighting I wasn't able to achieve this with a standard Mac/Windows OS Due to time constrainments, lack of funds and/or intelligence I settled on this arrangment. Of coarse it evolved into CAD, web des/dev, gaming and now it's been reduced to pattern recognition and quant sprays due to the age of the system (16 months is old). Sounds like a Douglas DC-3 with all the fans. I'll draft and build a new frankenputer this summer on holiday. overclocking ain't dead yet
I am thinking of adding another 4600 to the mix here. It's hard not to when I find prices like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-PowerEdge-...880029965QQcategoryZ51228QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Dual 2.4 GHz processors, 10 hard drives, all I need to do is upgrade the RAM. A quality seller and a price that just screams!
Man - you are killing me! 10 SCSI drives - that is so sweeet. How can they sell that for $1200??? Of course the shipping by itself could be expensive...
Just curious, do you run these servers locally or remotely? I could never put with the noise that the fans and drives make.