No OS Desktop PC

From Shrubbery

I'm about to order up a basic 'No OS' desktop PC to use as a developer workstation at my new job. Hopefully, this can be something that we can use as a template for more developer workstations going forward.

1 Requirements
- 1.1 Operating System
- 1.2 Hardware
2 Vendors

[edit] Requirements

This machine will be used for developing a Java Enterprise application, so there should be enough resources to run the developer's IDE, an application server instance, and a database server simultaneously. In this case it will be running:

IDE - IntelliJ IDEA.
Application Server - JBoss AS.
Database Server - MySQL 5.

[edit] Operating System

From experience I've seen that Linux is a much better OS for doing this kind of thing, so it makes sense to save a few bucks and buy a machine without an OS so we can install a Linux distribution on it. This will affect the hardware choice a little, as Linux distributions are sometimes a little slower in producing updated drivers for newer hardware. This should be okay because we are trying to keep the price low and the latest greatest hardware is always more expensive than the mass market (Commodity, Off The Shelf) hardware.

In this case we'll be using Fedora Core 6, from a DVD distribution disk.

[edit] Hardware

Here are the basic hardware requirements:

CPU - Dual core or dual processor. Developers often an IDE connected to the application server in debugging mode, so having multiple processors makes a difference. The clock speed can be on the lower side to lower the price.
- Athlon 64 X2 +3800 - 2 cores, 2.0GHz, 512K cache
- Pentium D 820 - 2 cores, 2.80GHz, 800FSB
RAM - 2GB, expandable to 4GB. Running an IDE, an application server instance, and a database server is going to require a good deal of RAM (although Linux mitigates that to some extent, in my experience). Developers will be running basically two large JVMs, one for the IDE and one for the application server. MySQL takes up a significant amount of RAM as well, so that needs to be considered.
- 2GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM,667MHz, (2 DIMM)
Disk - 100G Single disk Developers may also want to create lots of test data and things like that, or possibly build and run multiple versions of the application. For performance reasons, they are likely to copy applications (app server, database installation, IDE) to their local hard drives rather than run them from a network share.
- 160 GB, 7200 RPM
Graphics Adapter - nVidia - nVidia has better linux support usually. Most machines cannot drive two displays with a single graphics adapter, so we need to get one that does.
- NIVIDA Quadro NVS 210S Graphics (This is what comes built in on the Dell OptiPlex)
Montitor - 2x17" LCD Actually a developer will probably want two of these. Usually we can save money by getting one analog and one digital.

[edit] Vendors

Here are the vendors that I looked at, starting with vendors that have 'customizeable pcs' on their web sites:

[edit] Custom PCs

Chassis	CPU	RAM	Disk	Video	Other	Price	Comments
[edit] Dell
Optiplex 740	AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 3800+ (2 cores, 2.00GHz, 512KBx2)	2GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM,667MHz, (2 DIMM)	160GB SATA, 7200 RPM	nVidia, 17" analog LCD + 17" DVI LCD	48X32 CDRW/DVD Combo	$1289	The extra RAM and the second monitor added the most to the price.
Dimension E520	Pentium® D 820 (2 cores, 2.8GHz)	2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs	160GB SATA, 7200 RPM	256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE	48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive	$999	Only one monitor (19")
Dimension E521n	AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5000+ (2 cores, )	2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs	160GB SATA, 7200 RPM	256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE	DVD Combo Drive (no RW)	$889	Only one monitor (19"), no cd writer
[edit] JNCS
Asus M2V-TVM	AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 3800+ (2 cores, 2.00GHz, 512KBx2)	2GB DDR2 SDRAM,533MHz, (2 DIMM)	160GB SATA, 7200 RPM	VIA DeltaChrome 256MB, 19" analog LCD	52x CD	$1006	GPU might not work well with Linux
[edit] Tiger Direct
Systemax	Intel Pentium D 915 Processor 2.8GHz (2 cores, 2.8GHz, 512KBx2)	2GB DDR2 PC4200 Non-ECC Memory (1GB x 2)	160GB 7200RPM 3G SATA II Hard Drive	Integrated Intel GMA 3000 Graphics, 17" Black LCD Monitor	52X CDROM Drive,Integrated Gigabit Network Adapter	$909	GPU might not work well with Linux
Systemax	AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 3800+ Processor(2 cores, 2.0GHz, 512KBx2)	2GB DDR2 PC4200 Non-ECC Memory (1GB x 2)	160GB 7200RPM 3G SATA II Hard Drive	GeForce 7300GS 256MB PCI-Express (1DVI / 1VGA), 17" Black LCD Monitor	52X CDROM Drive,Integrated Gigabit Network Adapter	$919