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

Fri Apr 27 17:59:19 EDT 2007

Hi,

Am Freitag, 27. April 2007 22:50 schrieb 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?

It depends on what the users are doing. If several people start grass modules 
which are doing huge computation, they will benefit from many CPU's. The more 
of CPU's and main memory you have, 
the more people are able to work together at the same machine with an
acceptable working speed. If the users are only digitizing or displaying small 
datasets, the number of CPU's is not that important. 

If the machine is accessed remotely, the graphic card is not important, the
graphics stuff is done by the clients. You can safe some money .... .
More important is the number of separate network ports.

But i think, get as much CPU's and main memory as possible into 
a very stable machine and if you are using Linux every body will be happy. 

> 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.

IMHO the opteron processor has a better multi-processor design. 
But Intel provides quad core CPU's .... . And in case of software which is not 
multi-threaded (like GRASS), the CPU design is not that important. You 
will benefit more if you can get two quad Xeons (8cores!) with lesser clock 
speed into one machine instead of two dual core Opteron CPU's with higher 
clock speed. But you can wait till summer when the new shiny quad core 
opterons are available. ;)

eg.: supermicro offers dual quad core systems. 
But i have no clue of the price and stability... :
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4U/7045/SYS-7045B-TR+.cfm

Just my two cent
Soeren

>
> http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/05/1414204
> http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/26/intel_woodcrest_and_amd_opteron_batt
>l 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
>
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