Buying a Xeon workstation.

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:26 pm

STOP! Read the whole thing before you jump to conclusions!

A certain friend of mine has a dual Xeon workstation that he got from a liquidation. He is offering it to me for under $200.

The specs are:
2x Intel Xeon Nocona 3.60Ghz socket 603 512k
2 GB ram (not positive about what memory standard it is.)
1x PCI-Express x16 slot
2x PCI-E 1x
3x PCI
Nvidia Quadro FX 5700

My plan is to most likely run a home server off of this thing, as well as some editing and such. But I would like to know something else as well. I am planning on building a C2D equipped gaming PC later this year. I was wondering if this workstation would be any good for gaming while I am saving up for my beast computer. I can afford this workstation and my 8800 GTS right now, but I can't afford to build my whole PC yet. Would this handle gaming good enough to justify buying it first, or should I wait till after I build my C2D rig to buy this workstation?

THON · Post by **THON** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:29 pm

3.60 Ghz and 2GB RAM for under $200!? Go for it!

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:14 pm

Get it! Sounds like a real screamer for math-intensive stuff (rendering, transcoding, videos, Photoshop, etc.) You shouldn't have any problems running software on it unless it's an Itanium processor. (It's a different architecture, and as far as I know the only version of Windows that Microsoft explicitly states is compatable is Server 2003...)

Chances are, if it's a server machine, the RAM is RD-RAM, and 2 GB is worth more than $200 in that stuff.

As for your graphics card, if you're going to put it in another computer anyways, get it and install it on this box. If it does what you want, you won't have to build another machine. If it doesn't, oh well; you still have it for yoru monster machine. What have you got to lose?

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:40 pm

Yeah buy that thing!

project_failure · Post by **project_failure** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:24 pm

Get it. Now. Stop reading this and get it.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:38 pm

Buy it! That is an amazing deal for <$200.

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:43 pm

Even if you don't need it later, you can easily re-sell it, for more.

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:01 pm

Sorry, Got some of the specs wrong.
It's a dual 3.2Ghz Xeon. It's still pretty awesome I think. Also, I checked up on the ram, I uses ECC Registered DDR2, which is still worth about $100. I think I will pick it up!

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:32 pm

It's still a pretty quick little box, and should chew through games, videos, and Photoshop pretty quickly. $200 is pretty cheap for what you're getting, and like I said as long as that video card is compatible with the machine's motherboard, buy it. If it plays games like you want, great. If not, the video card will still work in a new machine.

<b>GO BUY IT MAN!!!</b>

Why are you still sitting here reading this? Get it!