

Building a Software Development Workstation - voodoochilo

I'm planing to build a developer workstation (in contrast to a highend gaming or graphics rig) with the following constraints:<p>- minimal power consumption
	- minimal hardware price
	- triple display (3 x 1920x1200, 22"-24")
	- shuttle pc case
	- 2 internal 3.5" sata drives
	- DVD drive, internal
	- 64 bit cpu, 4 cores, 4-8 threads
	- 16-32 GB ram,
	- host OS: minimal GNU/Linux (64 bit)
	- virtual machines for work: Windows XP (32bit), Ubuntu 10.04(32bit)
	- virtualbox<p>Any experiences with such a setup? Recommendations? Anybody interested in specs when finished?
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SlipperySlope
I have seven machines in my office. My most recent system build was a year ago
when I ordered from NewEgg these principal components:

Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler (too big for shuttle case but very,
very quiet) $89.99

GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel
Motherboard $189.99

XIGMATEK PTI-G4512 thermal grease with gold grade thermal matrix filler
particles $9.99

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W
Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 $314.99

Kingston HyperX 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model
KHX1600C9D3/4G $183.96 ($45.99 ea)

I bought an Antec 300 case, a 1 TB disk drive and USB DVD drive - for OS
install - from my local Fry's store.

I overclocked the 4-core CPU to 4.2 GHz turbo mode. The motherboard does not
support the built-in Intel video, so I used an ATI 5770 board that I bought on
eBay for about $120.

I am considering upgrading the memory to 32 GB RAM using four 8-GB DIMMs.

I run Lubuntu without virtual machines for Java AI software development. I put
two monitors on this graphics card. If you use the big Noctua cooler, it
blocks one of the PCI-e slots on the motherboard, so you might need an ATI
card that supports three monitors, or use a smaller video card for the third
monitor.

I like the Antec cases because they can stack, have quiet big fans, are easy
to open, and assemble/access. I build/upgrade a system about once a year and I
am waiting for the 28nm Intel CPUs before upgrading one of my four Antec-based
boxes - the three other machines in my office are laptops and not otherwise
upgradable.

I dedicate the machines for various purposes: (1) primary dual-monitor
software development, (2) continuous integration / subversion repository
server, (3) windows compatibility, (4) simulated production. The seven
machines are networked using Samba. I have monitors, keyboards & mice for each
one and have arranged my office to easily observe five monitors so that I do
not have to switch virtual desktops on my centrally located software
development monitors in order to see notifications - e.g. email.

~~~
voodoochilo
thanx for the specs. sounds like quite a setup. what do you think of matrox
triple-head-cards? ...and hell what is the overall power consumption in watts?

~~~
SlipperySlope
I have a 750 watt PS but typically the system case uses 150-250 watts. I
overclocked the CPU turbo-mode only because most of the time my system idles
below 2 GHz. Software development also has very low utilization of the video
card.

I am not familiar with Matrox video cards. I believe certain ATI cards support
3 monitors.

