I've seen these older HP Z440 business workstations on YouTube, I gotta
say, they look pretty amazing.

There's one on Amazon with 32 GB RAM, a 2TB HD, and an Inten Xeon
E5-1630v3 CPU. It's got sa bunch of USB 3 ports on the front and back,
and it'll take up to a E5-2699 CPU with 36 threads. It's under $200.

A -2697 CPU with 14 cores and 26 threads is under $40.

The motherboard has 2 PCI-e x16 slots, 1 x8 and 1 x4, and a plain ol'
PCI slot.

The only downside is ECC RAM. I'd max out the RAM I need now rather than
try to buy it later when it gets rarer. I ran into problems in the past
waiting too long to upgrade memory in a similar system.

The power consumption might be an issue compared to a newer system, but
this looks like nothing to sneeze at. "Workstation" systems are nicely
built, too - if this is anything like the Dell T series Workstation
line, it's built like a tank.



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Kurt Weiske wrote to All:

The power consumption might be an issue compared to a newer system, but this looks like nothing to sneeze at. "Workstation" systems are nicely built, too - if this is anything like the Dell T series Workstation
line, it's built like a tank.

You and I have been seeing the same ads. LOL

I have a lot of professional experience with the Z series. The computers
are heavy but very well built. The ECC RAM is a pain, yeah, but the rest of the machine is well-worth it. I'm considering buying one of the Z series to start streaming on Twitch again with.

-- Sean



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There's one on Amazon with 32 GB RAM, a 2TB HD, and an Inten Xeon
E5-1630v3 CPU. It's got sa bunch of USB 3 ports on the front and back,
and it'll take up to a E5-2699 CPU with 36 threads. It's under $200.

Is the Xeon an x86 chip or something else? What OS could you run on it?

Mike


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Hello Mike!

22 Dec 24 16:53, you wrote to KURT WEISKE:

There's one on Amazon with 32 GB RAM, a 2TB HD, and an Inten Xeon
E5-1630v3 CPU. It's got sa bunch of USB 3 ports on the front and
back, and it'll take up to a E5-2699 CPU with 36 threads. It's under
$200.

Is the Xeon an x86 chip or something else? What OS could you run on
it?

The Inter Xeon chip is a server-oriented CPU. My BBS server has a quad-core Xeon 2.63ghz CPU in it.

-- Sean

... "Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it." - Benjamin Franklin
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Re: Tempted...
By: Mike Powell to KURT WEISKE on Sun Dec 22 2024 04:53 pm

Is the Xeon an x86 chip or something else? What OS could you run on it?

The Xeon is a more powerful Intel chip, meant for workstation/computing environments. Think of an i7 with support for error-correcting memory and more advanced features that a standard Intel chip.
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Is the Xeon an x86 chip or something else? What OS could you run on
it?

The Inter Xeon chip is a server-oriented CPU. My BBS server has a quad-core Xeon 2.63ghz CPU in it.

Thanks. If you are running it on the BBS machine, I am guessing then that
it can run linux (or other FOSS *nix) pretty easily.

I was mostly curious if it was one of those machines that required a
specific (proprietary) OS to run it. Sounds like not. ;)

Mike


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Mike Powell wrote to SEAN DENNIS <=-

Thanks. If you are running it on the BBS machine, I am guessing then
that it can run linux (or other FOSS *nix) pretty easily.

My BBS is running Slackware 15 Linux. I am having to move back to Windows
11 personally due to the software that my upcoming insulin pump and current continious (sp?) glucose monitor uses.

I was mostly curious if it was one of those machines that required a specific (proprietary) OS to run it. Sounds like not. ;)

Nah, these machines aren't like that.

If you're interested, here's the specs on my BBS server: https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/c04282718

I bought it for $110 with free shipping off of eBay from a place in
Marietta, Georgia.

It's a very reliable computer with no big issues except it can't take more
than 8GB ECC RAM. That is more than plenty for running my BBS.

-- Sean

... Next time, give the gift that keeps on giving: a female kitten.
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digimaus wrote to Mike Powell <=-

It's a very reliable computer with no big issues except it can't take
more than 8GB ECC RAM. That is more than plenty for running my BBS.

I see the reasoning for ECC RAM, but for home use it was a pain. I
waited too long to upgrade my Dell T3400 workstation (wanted to go from
8 to 16GB of RAM) and by the time I shopped for RAM, I could buy an
off-lease Dell Optiplex for the same price as the RAM!



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Hello Kurt!

24 Dec 24 10:41, you wrote to digimaus:

I see the reasoning for ECC RAM, but for home use it was a pain. I
waited too long to upgrade my Dell T3400 workstation (wanted to go
from 8 to 16GB of RAM) and by the time I shopped for RAM, I could buy
an off-lease Dell Optiplex for the same price as the RAM!

Yeah, the 16GB upgrade for my HPE is $150 even from eBay.

Thankfully, running Slackware doesn't need too much oomph and the BBS can be at 0.00 load with the CPU running at 1.3ghz at idle. The onlky time it goes nuts is when I'm compiling large progrsms or running glances or bpytop as they're both Python-based.

I coupd probably put the BBS on an old HP Compaq 6300 I have (3ghz i3, 8GB RAM) and the BBS would be fine. I already had the HPE so I put it to good use.

-- Sean

... I told my carpenter not to carpet my steps. He gave me a blank stair.
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