Folks,
\n\nOver the weekend my laptop hard and/ or solid state drive died. Presumably from overwork as it was several years old and tended to run too hot. Actually had to lower CPU power to 40% to keep the fan from constantly running on high.
\n\nSoo.... It's time to look for a replacement. I would like it to run non- Windows os, capable of handling the number crunching of these competitions, not prone to overheating, is a laptop and costs between 1.5 to 2 thousand US$. Any recommendations for models commercially available?
\n\nAlso, l'd like to look into assembling the replacement but not really sure how to go about that. Any suggestion?
\n\nThank You!
", "messages": [ { "id": 136937, "postDate": "2016-09-26T17:36:56.300Z", "content": "You'll have to go with a workstation-type laptop, which you can probably get for that range. Anything but gaming and workstation laptops and you'll often get a so-called 'i7' with only two cores and I would presume getting above 16GB RAM would be difficult/expensive!
\n\nYou can get a Thinkpad P50 with 64GB for about $1600 (anything less is not so great for this competition!)
\n\nGenerally laptops are at a considerable disadvantage performance/$ wise though. edit: If you can make the room and get remote access, I'd consider an >= 2nd gen i5 or i7 desktop/sff that can handle 32gb RAM. That'd cost about $300 all told for a used Dell 790 with an i5 2400 + new RAM.
", "rawMarkdown": "You'll have to go with a workstation-type laptop, which you can probably get for that range. Anything but gaming and workstation laptops and you'll often get a so-called 'i7' with only two cores and I would presume getting above 16GB RAM would be difficult/expensive!\r\n\r\nYou can get a Thinkpad P50 with 64GB for about $1600 (anything less is not so great for this competition!)\r\n\r\nGenerally laptops are at a considerable disadvantage performance/$ wise though. edit: If you can make the room and get remote access, I'd consider an >= 2nd gen i5 or i7 desktop/sff that can handle 32gb RAM. That'd cost about $300 all told for a used Dell 790 with an i5 2400 + new RAM.", "votes": 3 }, { "id": 137338, "postDate": "2016-09-30T15:30:40.267Z", "content": "@HirenPatel - depends on the age of the server/workstation memory. Used DDR3 ECC RDIMM's off eBay are not too expensive (~$100 for 6x8GB) because there are a ton of retired servers to pull them from and they do not work at all in desktops. A dual X5650 box is nice for Kaggling, but it's a waste of space and power in the server world they were built for...
\n\nAnd yeah - I think a 32GB >=Nehalem quad-core with good code could do very nicely. More hardware is always nice, of course, but it's not worth spending too much money on, especially since five year old HW holds up quite well these days.
\n\nIf you don't mind putting your Chromebook into developer mode, you'll gain access to bash and regular ssh via the crosh 'shell' command - I have a .ssh/config that logs into my pi and sets up port forwarding to my Xeons, and I can run notebooks even from the bus using tethering. :) There are also browser-based ssh clients, but I don't know how good their port forwarding abilities are.
", "rawMarkdown": "@HirenPatel - depends on the age of the server/workstation memory. Used DDR3 ECC RDIMM's off eBay are not too expensive (~$100 for 6x8GB) because there are a *ton* of retired servers to pull them from and they do not work at all in desktops. A dual X5650 box is nice for Kaggling, but it's a waste of space and power in the server world they were built for...\r\n\r\nAnd yeah - I think a 32GB >=Nehalem quad-core with good code could do very nicely. More hardware is always nice, of course, but it's not worth spending *too* much money on, especially since five year old HW holds up quite well these days.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\nIf you don't mind putting your Chromebook into developer mode, you'll gain access to bash and regular ssh via the crosh 'shell' command - I have a .ssh/config that logs into my pi and sets up port forwarding to my Xeons, and I can run notebooks even from the bus using tethering. :) There are also browser-based ssh clients, but I don't know how good their port forwarding abilities are.", "votes": 1 }, { "id": 137316, "postDate": "2016-09-30T10:28:41.450Z", "content": "Hiren, Thank You for another great suggestion. Definitely need to look into that as well.
\n\nEveryone, according to the 'Is 48GB enough?' thread there are some who are placing well and happily using 8GB Ram machines. While not questioning the usefulness of hot-rodded machines, I'm now thinking making the data/coding/process more efficient can be even more important than gaming/workstation-like capability.
\n\nI still plan on getting a good machine soon but am no longer feeling like it needs to be one step below a Cray super-computer (dating myself here). We all will greatly benefit by looking into computing more efficiently.
\n\nGood luck my friends and happy Kaggling!
\n\nSPQR
", "rawMarkdown": "Hiren, Thank You for another great suggestion. Definitely need to look into that as well. \r\n\r\nEveryone, according to the 'Is 48GB enough?' thread there are some who are placing well and happily using 8GB Ram machines. While not questioning the usefulness of hot-rodded machines, I'm now thinking making the data/coding/process more efficient can be even more important than gaming/workstation-like capability. \r\n\r\nI still plan on getting a good machine soon but am no longer feeling like it needs to be one step below a Cray super-computer (dating myself here). We all will greatly benefit by looking into computing more efficiently. \r\n\r\nGood luck my friends and happy Kaggling!\r\n\r\nSPQR", "votes": 1 }, { "id": 137039, "postDate": "2016-09-27T17:27:38.623Z", "content": "Hey SPQR, I got a great deal on a refurbished HP Z210 workstation on newegg for under $300...highly recommend it. They also have refurbished servers for around $300 so you could even put together a rack :-)
\n\nGet either a laptop or desktop workstation...they are built like tanks, easy to configure, and have rocking math co-processors.
", "rawMarkdown": "Hey SPQR, I got a great deal on a refurbished HP Z210 workstation on newegg for under $300...highly recommend it. They also have refurbished servers for around $300 so you could even put together a rack :-)\r\n\r\nGet either a laptop or desktop workstation...they are built like tanks, easy to configure, and have rocking math co-processors.", "votes": 1 }, { "id": 136904, "postDate": "2016-09-26T10:19:08.833Z", "content": "Folks,
\n\nOver the weekend my laptop hard and/ or solid state drive died. Presumably from overwork as it was several years old and tended to run too hot. Actually had to lower CPU power to 40% to keep the fan from constantly running on high.
\n\nSoo.... It's time to look for a replacement. I would like it to run non- Windows os, capable of handling the number crunching of these competitions, not prone to overheating, is a laptop and costs between 1.5 to 2 thousand US$. Any recommendations for models commercially available?
\n\nAlso, l'd like to look into assembling the replacement but not really sure how to go about that. Any suggestion?
\n\nThank You!
", "rawMarkdown": "Folks, \r\n\r\nOver the weekend my laptop hard and/ or solid state drive died. Presumably from overwork as it was several years old and tended to run too hot. Actually had to lower CPU power to 40% to keep the fan from constantly running on high. \r\n\r\nSoo.... It's time to look for a replacement. I would like it to run non- Windows os, capable of handling the number crunching of these competitions, not prone to overheating, is a laptop and costs between 1.5 to 2 thousand US$. Any recommendations for models commercially available? \r\n\r\nAlso, l'd like to look into assembling the replacement but not really sure how to go about that. Any suggestion?\r\n\r\nThank You!", "votes": 1 }, { "id": 137798, "postDate": "2016-10-05T05:13:16.590Z", "content": "I've been looking into getting a used workstation as well. In my case it has to be able to hold one or two nvidia gtx cards when I get there. Having gpu acceleration is worth keeping in mind.
\n\nI prefer a small 11.6 laptop for travelling and a workstation (at the university) or cybera instance for grunt work.
", "rawMarkdown": "I've been looking into getting a used workstation as well. In my case it has to be able to hold one or two nvidia gtx cards when I get there. Having gpu acceleration is worth keeping in mind.\r\n\r\nI prefer a small 11.6 laptop for travelling and a workstation (at the university) or cybera instance for grunt work.\r\n" }, { "id": 137678, "postDate": "2016-10-04T00:50:01.883Z", "content": "It might be too late, but when your computer starts to overheat, go to Staples and get some canned air and use it to blow out every opening where dust can collect in your computer - fan areas, vents, etc. The can of compressed air will get very cold - just let it come to room temperature again and keep blasting. Obviously, the computer should be shut off and unplugged while you are doing this. This prolonged the life of my computer substantially. You can blast it with the canned air and suck the dust up with a hand vac. The accumulation of dust in the laptop keeps the system from cooling itself effectively, causing the fan to run all the time and the desk under the computer to heat up. Eventually the CPU goes into thermal shutdown mode and won't restart until it cools. I do this procedure once a year now and it really helps.
", "rawMarkdown": "It might be too late, but when your computer starts to overheat, go to Staples and get some canned air and use it to blow out every opening where dust can collect in your computer - fan areas, vents, etc. The can of compressed air will get very cold - just let it come to room temperature again and keep blasting. Obviously, the computer should be shut off and unplugged while you are doing this. This prolonged the life of my computer substantially. You can blast it with the canned air and suck the dust up with a hand vac. The accumulation of dust in the laptop keeps the system from cooling itself effectively, causing the fan to run all the time and the desk under the computer to heat up. Eventually the CPU goes into thermal shutdown mode and won't restart until it cools. I do this procedure once a year now and it really helps." }, { "id": 137086, "postDate": "2016-09-28T02:41:31.033Z", "content": "You might want to try using Google Cloud in the short term. It comes free with a linux cloud machine for basic navigation in your environment and setting things up.
\n\nOnce you are ready to start crunching numbers you can spin up a fairly sizable VM fairly inexpensively.
", "rawMarkdown": "You might want to try using Google Cloud in the short term. It comes free with a linux cloud machine for basic navigation in your environment and setting things up. \r\n\r\nOnce you are ready to start crunching numbers you can spin up a fairly sizable VM fairly inexpensively. " }, { "id": 137081, "postDate": "2016-09-28T01:37:23.947Z", "content": "Good move! I got my workstation a year ago, so you can do better and better still if you spend a little more money. Check newegg...they have both refurbished HP and Dell workstations with a one year warranty.
\n\nWorkstations have the added bonus of being super quiet and energy efficient. I would choose a workstation over a server, since servers are noisy...unless, of course, you want to put a server rack in the closet :-)
\n\nOne note is that RAM upgrades for the HP cost 2-3 times normal memory, so keep that in mind if you want to add more memory to the box.
", "rawMarkdown": "Good move! I got my workstation a year ago, so you can do better and better still if you spend a little more money. Check newegg...they have both refurbished HP and Dell workstations with a one year warranty.\r\n\r\nWorkstations have the added bonus of being super quiet and energy efficient. I would choose a workstation over a server, since servers are noisy...unless, of course, you want to put a server rack in the closet :-)\r\n\r\nOne note is that RAM upgrades for the HP cost 2-3 times normal memory, so keep that in mind if you want to add more memory to the box. " }, { "id": 137080, "postDate": "2016-09-28T01:33:11.943Z", "content": "Folks,
\n\nGreat suggestions and got me to thinking. My spouse has an unused Chromebook I can use to check news and such so that takes care of browsing & mobility needs. For these competitions there is little need for mobility so can buy a desktop workstation. Love the idea of getting a blazing refurbished workstation -- cheap. Added bonus: keeps the two separate allowing for better security and specialized configuration.
", "rawMarkdown": "Folks, \r\n\r\nGreat suggestions and got me to thinking. My spouse has an unused Chromebook I can use to check news and such so that takes care of browsing & mobility needs. For these competitions there is little need for mobility so can buy a desktop workstation. Love the idea of getting a blazing refurbished workstation -- cheap. Added bonus: keeps the two separate allowing for better security and specialized configuration. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n" }, { "id": 137041, "postDate": "2016-09-27T17:43:05.713Z", "content": "Great price on that Nehalem/Westmere box...very tempting :-)
", "rawMarkdown": "Great price on that Nehalem/Westmere box...very tempting :-)" }, { "id": 137040, "postDate": "2016-09-27T17:31:47.083Z", "content": "I assumed that SPQR's space constrained - in that case a Z210 desktop would be quite nice indeed, especially run headless most of the time.
\n\nIf you have the space and somewhere to stash something potentially noisy, I recommend hacking up a 1U dual Nehalem/Westmere box. You can get one with 8 cores and 48GB RAM for ~$200 or even less if you're patient. If you do PC assembly, the Supermicro X8DTL-IF is a standard-size ATX board (only 6 DIMM slots tho) which can fit in normal tower cases.
", "rawMarkdown": "I assumed that SPQR's space constrained - in that case a Z210 desktop would be quite nice indeed, especially run headless most of the time.\r\n\r\nIf you have the space and somewhere to stash something potentially noisy, I recommend hacking up a 1U dual Nehalem/Westmere box. You can get one with 8 cores and 48GB RAM for ~$200 or even less if you're patient. If you do PC assembly, the Supermicro X8DTL-IF is a standard-size ATX board (only 6 DIMM slots tho) which can fit in normal tower cases." }, { "id": 137790, "postDate": "2016-10-05T04:32:46.557Z", "rawMarkdown": "", "isDeleted": true } ], "comments": [ { "id": 136937, "author_name": "happycube", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-26T17:36:56.300000", "content": "You'll have to go with a workstation-type laptop, which you can probably get for that range. Anything but gaming and workstation laptops and you'll often get a so-called 'i7' with only two cores and I would presume getting above 16GB RAM would be difficult/expensive!
\n\nYou can get a Thinkpad P50 with 64GB for about $1600 (anything less is not so great for this competition!)
\n\nGenerally laptops are at a considerable disadvantage performance/$ wise though. edit: If you can make the room and get remote access, I'd consider an >= 2nd gen i5 or i7 desktop/sff that can handle 32gb RAM. That'd cost about $300 all told for a used Dell 790 with an i5 2400 + new RAM.
", "votes": 3, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137338, "author_name": "happycube", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-30T15:30:40.267000", "content": "@HirenPatel - depends on the age of the server/workstation memory. Used DDR3 ECC RDIMM's off eBay are not too expensive (~$100 for 6x8GB) because there are a ton of retired servers to pull them from and they do not work at all in desktops. A dual X5650 box is nice for Kaggling, but it's a waste of space and power in the server world they were built for...
\n\nAnd yeah - I think a 32GB >=Nehalem quad-core with good code could do very nicely. More hardware is always nice, of course, but it's not worth spending too much money on, especially since five year old HW holds up quite well these days.
\n\nIf you don't mind putting your Chromebook into developer mode, you'll gain access to bash and regular ssh via the crosh 'shell' command - I have a .ssh/config that logs into my pi and sets up port forwarding to my Xeons, and I can run notebooks even from the bus using tethering. :) There are also browser-based ssh clients, but I don't know how good their port forwarding abilities are.
", "votes": 1, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137316, "author_name": "I am Kiera", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-30T10:28:41.450000", "content": "Hiren, Thank You for another great suggestion. Definitely need to look into that as well.
\n\nEveryone, according to the 'Is 48GB enough?' thread there are some who are placing well and happily using 8GB Ram machines. While not questioning the usefulness of hot-rodded machines, I'm now thinking making the data/coding/process more efficient can be even more important than gaming/workstation-like capability.
\n\nI still plan on getting a good machine soon but am no longer feeling like it needs to be one step below a Cray super-computer (dating myself here). We all will greatly benefit by looking into computing more efficiently.
\n\nGood luck my friends and happy Kaggling!
\n\nSPQR
", "votes": 1, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137039, "author_name": "", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-27T17:27:38.623000", "content": "Hey SPQR, I got a great deal on a refurbished HP Z210 workstation on newegg for under $300...highly recommend it. They also have refurbished servers for around $300 so you could even put together a rack :-)
\n\nGet either a laptop or desktop workstation...they are built like tanks, easy to configure, and have rocking math co-processors.
", "votes": 1, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137798, "author_name": "r3m", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-10-05T05:13:16.590000", "content": "I've been looking into getting a used workstation as well. In my case it has to be able to hold one or two nvidia gtx cards when I get there. Having gpu acceleration is worth keeping in mind.
\n\nI prefer a small 11.6 laptop for travelling and a workstation (at the university) or cybera instance for grunt work.
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137678, "author_name": "MisterRuss", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-10-04T00:50:01.883000", "content": "It might be too late, but when your computer starts to overheat, go to Staples and get some canned air and use it to blow out every opening where dust can collect in your computer - fan areas, vents, etc. The can of compressed air will get very cold - just let it come to room temperature again and keep blasting. Obviously, the computer should be shut off and unplugged while you are doing this. This prolonged the life of my computer substantially. You can blast it with the canned air and suck the dust up with a hand vac. The accumulation of dust in the laptop keeps the system from cooling itself effectively, causing the fan to run all the time and the desk under the computer to heat up. Eventually the CPU goes into thermal shutdown mode and won't restart until it cools. I do this procedure once a year now and it really helps.
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137086, "author_name": "HirenPatel", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-28T02:41:31.033000", "content": "You might want to try using Google Cloud in the short term. It comes free with a linux cloud machine for basic navigation in your environment and setting things up.
\n\nOnce you are ready to start crunching numbers you can spin up a fairly sizable VM fairly inexpensively.
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137081, "author_name": "", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-28T01:37:23.947000", "content": "Good move! I got my workstation a year ago, so you can do better and better still if you spend a little more money. Check newegg...they have both refurbished HP and Dell workstations with a one year warranty.
\n\nWorkstations have the added bonus of being super quiet and energy efficient. I would choose a workstation over a server, since servers are noisy...unless, of course, you want to put a server rack in the closet :-)
\n\nOne note is that RAM upgrades for the HP cost 2-3 times normal memory, so keep that in mind if you want to add more memory to the box.
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137080, "author_name": "I am Kiera", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-28T01:33:11.943000", "content": "Folks,
\n\nGreat suggestions and got me to thinking. My spouse has an unused Chromebook I can use to check news and such so that takes care of browsing & mobility needs. For these competitions there is little need for mobility so can buy a desktop workstation. Love the idea of getting a blazing refurbished workstation -- cheap. Added bonus: keeps the two separate allowing for better security and specialized configuration.
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137041, "author_name": "", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-27T17:43:05.713000", "content": "Great price on that Nehalem/Westmere box...very tempting :-)
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137040, "author_name": "happycube", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-09-27T17:31:47.083000", "content": "I assumed that SPQR's space constrained - in that case a Z210 desktop would be quite nice indeed, especially run headless most of the time.
\n\nIf you have the space and somewhere to stash something potentially noisy, I recommend hacking up a 1U dual Nehalem/Westmere box. You can get one with 8 cores and 48GB RAM for ~$200 or even less if you're patient. If you do PC assembly, the Supermicro X8DTL-IF is a standard-size ATX board (only 6 DIMM slots tho) which can fit in normal tower cases.
", "votes": 0, "replies": [] }, { "id": 137790, "author_name": "", "author_url": "", "post_date": "2016-10-05T04:32:46.557000", "content": "", "votes": 0, "replies": [] } ], "raw_markdown_by_id": { "136937": "You'll have to go with a workstation-type laptop, which you can probably get for that range. Anything but gaming and workstation laptops and you'll often get a so-called 'i7' with only two cores and I would presume getting above 16GB RAM would be difficult/expensive!\r\n\r\nYou can get a Thinkpad P50 with 64GB for about $1600 (anything less is not so great for this competition!)\r\n\r\nGenerally laptops are at a considerable disadvantage performance/$ wise though. edit: If you can make the room and get remote access, I'd consider an >= 2nd gen i5 or i7 desktop/sff that can handle 32gb RAM. That'd cost about $300 all told for a used Dell 790 with an i5 2400 + new RAM.", "137338": "@HirenPatel - depends on the age of the server/workstation memory. Used DDR3 ECC RDIMM's off eBay are not too expensive (~$100 for 6x8GB) because there are a *ton* of retired servers to pull them from and they do not work at all in desktops. A dual X5650 box is nice for Kaggling, but it's a waste of space and power in the server world they were built for...\r\n\r\nAnd yeah - I think a 32GB >=Nehalem quad-core with good code could do very nicely. More hardware is always nice, of course, but it's not worth spending *too* much money on, especially since five year old HW holds up quite well these days.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\nIf you don't mind putting your Chromebook into developer mode, you'll gain access to bash and regular ssh via the crosh 'shell' command - I have a .ssh/config that logs into my pi and sets up port forwarding to my Xeons, and I can run notebooks even from the bus using tethering. :) There are also browser-based ssh clients, but I don't know how good their port forwarding abilities are.", "137316": "Hiren, Thank You for another great suggestion. Definitely need to look into that as well. \r\n\r\nEveryone, according to the 'Is 48GB enough?' thread there are some who are placing well and happily using 8GB Ram machines. While not questioning the usefulness of hot-rodded machines, I'm now thinking making the data/coding/process more efficient can be even more important than gaming/workstation-like capability. \r\n\r\nI still plan on getting a good machine soon but am no longer feeling like it needs to be one step below a Cray super-computer (dating myself here). We all will greatly benefit by looking into computing more efficiently. \r\n\r\nGood luck my friends and happy Kaggling!\r\n\r\nSPQR", "137039": "Hey SPQR, I got a great deal on a refurbished HP Z210 workstation on newegg for under $300...highly recommend it. They also have refurbished servers for around $300 so you could even put together a rack :-)\r\n\r\nGet either a laptop or desktop workstation...they are built like tanks, easy to configure, and have rocking math co-processors.", "136904": "Folks, \r\n\r\nOver the weekend my laptop hard and/ or solid state drive died. Presumably from overwork as it was several years old and tended to run too hot. Actually had to lower CPU power to 40% to keep the fan from constantly running on high. \r\n\r\nSoo.... It's time to look for a replacement. I would like it to run non- Windows os, capable of handling the number crunching of these competitions, not prone to overheating, is a laptop and costs between 1.5 to 2 thousand US$. Any recommendations for models commercially available? \r\n\r\nAlso, l'd like to look into assembling the replacement but not really sure how to go about that. Any suggestion?\r\n\r\nThank You!", "137798": "I've been looking into getting a used workstation as well. In my case it has to be able to hold one or two nvidia gtx cards when I get there. Having gpu acceleration is worth keeping in mind.\r\n\r\nI prefer a small 11.6 laptop for travelling and a workstation (at the university) or cybera instance for grunt work.\r\n", "137678": "It might be too late, but when your computer starts to overheat, go to Staples and get some canned air and use it to blow out every opening where dust can collect in your computer - fan areas, vents, etc. The can of compressed air will get very cold - just let it come to room temperature again and keep blasting. Obviously, the computer should be shut off and unplugged while you are doing this. This prolonged the life of my computer substantially. You can blast it with the canned air and suck the dust up with a hand vac. The accumulation of dust in the laptop keeps the system from cooling itself effectively, causing the fan to run all the time and the desk under the computer to heat up. Eventually the CPU goes into thermal shutdown mode and won't restart until it cools. I do this procedure once a year now and it really helps.", "137086": "You might want to try using Google Cloud in the short term. It comes free with a linux cloud machine for basic navigation in your environment and setting things up. \r\n\r\nOnce you are ready to start crunching numbers you can spin up a fairly sizable VM fairly inexpensively. ", "137081": "Good move! I got my workstation a year ago, so you can do better and better still if you spend a little more money. Check newegg...they have both refurbished HP and Dell workstations with a one year warranty.\r\n\r\nWorkstations have the added bonus of being super quiet and energy efficient. I would choose a workstation over a server, since servers are noisy...unless, of course, you want to put a server rack in the closet :-)\r\n\r\nOne note is that RAM upgrades for the HP cost 2-3 times normal memory, so keep that in mind if you want to add more memory to the box. ", "137080": "Folks, \r\n\r\nGreat suggestions and got me to thinking. My spouse has an unused Chromebook I can use to check news and such so that takes care of browsing & mobility needs. For these competitions there is little need for mobility so can buy a desktop workstation. Love the idea of getting a blazing refurbished workstation -- cheap. Added bonus: keeps the two separate allowing for better security and specialized configuration. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n", "137041": "Great price on that Nehalem/Westmere box...very tempting :-)", "137040": "I assumed that SPQR's space constrained - in that case a Z210 desktop would be quite nice indeed, especially run headless most of the time.\r\n\r\nIf you have the space and somewhere to stash something potentially noisy, I recommend hacking up a 1U dual Nehalem/Westmere box. You can get one with 8 cores and 48GB RAM for ~$200 or even less if you're patient. If you do PC assembly, the Supermicro X8DTL-IF is a standard-size ATX board (only 6 DIMM slots tho) which can fit in normal tower cases.", "137790": "" } }