[GRASS-user] install GRASS on linux, which is better -DELL Precision 690n or SUN Ultra 40 M2

[jun liang]

Thanks, Brent. I have contacted our local SUN retailer and they said only
Solaris 10 will be preinstalled - they will not preinstall Redhat, or other
Linux OS, since that's what they get from SUN. I have visited SUN's website
- pretty much the same thing, only Solaris 10 preinstalled and you have no
other options. Redhat and other windows systems supported, though. 
For the number of CPUs installed, you can also add another CPU to Dell's
configuration, but the price will be higher.
SUN's educational matching grant program lists 3 different configurations
for Ultra40M2, the most expensive one (with 2*Opteron 2.66Ghz, 16G Mem) cost
about $8800, which is too expensive for us. The regular price for this will
be over $10,000. 
Just wonder if it is worth to have dual CPU to run grass - for multi users
running grass. Does the performance improve a lot? Anyone here has
experiences?
I have googled comparisons between AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon (see following
links) and found they are close to each other. The latest Xeon performs
slight better than Opterons. 
Thanks for any comments.

http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/05/1414204
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/26/intel_woodcrest_and_amd_opteron_battl
e_head_to_head/page2.html


-----Original Message-----
From: Brent Wood [mailto:b.wood at niwa.co.nz] 
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 4:56 PM
To: jun liang
Cc: grassuser at grass.itc.it
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] install GRASS on linux, which is better -DELL
Precision 690n or SUN Ultra 40 M2

Hi,


I think GRASS & most of it's dependencies & related applications are 
much better tried, & may be better supported on Linux than Solaris. 
However, I'd rate Sun hardware as generally superior to Dell. Also if I 
read the specs correctly, the Sun has 2 dual core CPU's, the Dell has 
one, so with 15 users & everything else being comparable, the Sun should 
be a better platform for your purposes.

I guess someone using Solaris may confirm that everything works fine, 
but with Linux, you pretty much know it will, so I suggest seeing if Sun 
will ship with Linux instead (generally I believe they will) & if so, go 
that way.

I'd also check that ALL the packages you want to run will work OK in a 
64 bit environment. I'm still occasionally bitten by finding a 32bit app 
that won't run on 64bit (such as highly optimised applications with some 
assembler in them).


Cheers

Brent Wood

> Hi, All
>
> Need to make decision for purchasing a computer to install Linux and 
> grass on it. I am looking at dell and sun - Ultra 40 M2 and Dell 
> Precision 690n.
>
> Maximum users for using grass will be around 15 - for a GIS course.
>
> Could you commend on this and suggest some alternatives, if the 
> following are not the best choices? Thanks.
>
> Jun
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Ultra 40 M2 $3,745
> Sun Ultra 40 M2 Workstation. 2 x AMD Opteron 1207 Rev F Model 2214 
> (2.2 GHz/dual-core) processor, 8GB (4x2GB) DDR-667 ECC memory, 1 x 
> 250GB 7200 rpm SATA HDD with Solaris 10 pre-installed, NVIDIA Quadro 
> FX1500 PCI-Express graphics card, DVD Dual, 2 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet, 
> two x16 PCI Express slots, two x8 PCI Express slots, one legacy PCI 
> slot. Standard Configuration. RoHS-6 Compliant.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> BUILD YOUR SYSTEM $3,326.80
> Dell Precision Workstation 690n - 750W Dual Core IntelR XeonR 
> Processor 5160 3.00GHz, 4MB L2,1333 edit
> Operating System Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS v4 for EM64T 64bit system 
> w/ 1 YR RHN, w/ Media edit
> 2nd Processor None edit
> Memory 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS) edit
> Graphic Cards 128MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro NVS 285, Dual DVI or Dual 
> VGA Capable edit
> Boot Hard Drive 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB 
> DataBurst CacheT edit
> CD-ROM, DVD, and Read-Write Devices 48X CD-ROM edit
> 2nd Hard Drive 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB 
> DataBurst CacheT edit
>
>