Dual Opteron SFF PC Tested

Steve writes "Back in May, IWILL announced the ZMAXdp (slashdot article), a dual Opteron SFF PC. Sept 23rd saw a further press release with more details of this intriguing system. At HEXUS.net, we've had the exclusive chance to get one of these systems in our test lab, obtaining pictures and specs along with our own analysys and benchmarks. The system runs suprisingly quiet and cool considering what's under the hood. This could become the system of choice for high-end workstation users who don't want a huge machine taking up their desk-space, or perhaps the toy of choice for those of us who hunger for so much power in such a small system."

Comments

Sick of this...

[SaDan]

Am I not the only person here who's tired of hearing someone chime in about the G5 every single time someone mentions an AMD64 processor?

Give it a rest. G5 Macs are good machines, I have no problems with them (aside from their cost). I am, however, sick and tired of having "G5 MACS! DON'T FORGET THE MACS!" crammed down my throat every other article. You are not helping Apple sell their product.

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Anyways, this looks like a very slick little desktop system, with a lot of power. Very nicely done, IMHO. If the price is right, this may be the first AMD64 system I purchase (when it becomes available, that is).

Athlon64/Opteron may well be diasterous for Intel

[ShatteredDream]

Intel plans to sell 100,000 Itanium processors, and in the same time frame AMD plans to sell between 1.5 and 2.0 million Athlon64 and Opteron processors. Intel has been left with a 64bit processor that nobody really wants, I have the sneaky suspicion that soon there will be more PowerMacs running 64bit PPCs than Itanium workstations and servers. That alone should tell Intel that the writing is on the wall: adapt or die.

A friend of mine just put together a dual Opteron workstation for a client, and the price was dirt cheap compared to the Itanium workstations. It was only a few hundred dollars more expensive than a PowerMac G5. Itanium workstations are incredibly expensive and what do you get? A processor that nobody really wants to support in the end.

Truthfully, I think the biggest winners coming out of this will be Java and .NET as the splintering of the processor market will make the case for virtual machines greater. Why ship 3-5 native binaries when you can ship just 1 binary for a VM instead?