What Does a $16,000+ PC Look Like, Anyway?

justechn writes "Tom's Hardware has an article about custom PC maker Puget Systems, who had just finished a custom $16,000 PC for one of their clients. So what exactly goes into a $16,000 system? How about: Four quad-core Opteron processors, 32 GB of memory, Windows Server 2008, Asus Xonar DX PCI Express sound card, 3Ware 9550SX-8LP SATA 3 Gb/s RAID controller, Two Western Digital 300 GB VelociRaptor hard drives in RAID 1, Two 1 TB Samsung SpinPoint F1s also in RAID 1, and Four 1 TB Samsung SpinPoint F1s in RAID 5. Puget went with MagiCool's Xtreme Nova 1080 radiator, Nine 120 mm fans, Four Koolance CPU blocks, Koolance combined pump and reservoir unit, and Cooler Master Stacker 810 case. In addition to all that hardware, it also runs very quiet and very cool. The temperature of the CPUs is 36 C at idle, 45 C at load."

Comments

Where have I seen this before?

[Locke2005]

Four quad-core Opteron processors, 32 GB of memory, Windows Server 2008, Asus Xonar DX PCI Express sound card, 3Ware 9550SX-8LP SATA 3 Gb/s RAID controller, Two Western Digital 300 GB VelociRaptor hard drives in RAID 1, Two 1 TB Samsung SpinPoint F1s also in RAID 1, and Four 1 TB Samsung SpinPoint F1s in RAID 5. Puget went with MagiCool's Xtreme Nova 1080 radiator, Nine 120 mm fans, Four Koolance CPU blocks, Koolance combined pump and reservoir unit, andCooler Master Stacker 810 case. By a remarkable coincidence, these are almost exactly the hardware requirements for Windows 8!

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really makes you wonder, what's that sound card for, considering they're running windows server and all.
Oh I'm sorry, it's there because it's expensive. My bad.

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[Locke2005]

...maybe Vista will be snappy and responsive on this machine.

Maybe... but only if you disable Windows Aero.

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[kalirion]

This way when the server is crashing, instead of beeping it can yell out.

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really makes you wonder, what's that sound card for, considering they're running windows server and all.

I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[CodeBuster]

The parent was modded funny, but he actually does have a pretty good point. Why would anyone choose to run Windows 2008 Server as their desktop OS (one would have to un-configure a lot of server things out of the box, like server process having processor priority over user programs) and if this is not a desktop then why the fancy sound card? This build is like Chewbacca, who is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense. I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense!

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[atraintocry]

Flamebait? Really?

Dude builds a $16,000 server that for all we know is just going to sit there and look cool, as well as run the occasional solitaire game. He deserves to be flamed.

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[cart_man4524]

That's the $20,000 PC

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

That makes... no sense... oh well.

Re:Where have I seen this before?

[phtpht]

I wonder how much of the 16K went to teh windows license ;)

But will it blend?

[Anonymous Coward]

But will it blend?

Re:But will it blend?

[deathy_epl ccs]

An equally good question - can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these?

But can it play Crysis?

[Ninnle Labs, LLC]

I thought those were the bare minimum specs for the Crysis sequel?

Re:But can it play Crysis?

[Creepy]

Sorry, but while most of the gear meets the spec, the graphics card (a GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB) is far below the quad SLI triple GPU-on-a-card, 32GB of shared GDDR8 RAM (for Ray Tracing, of course) on a special bus with 120TB/sec throughput minimum spec for the next version of Crysis.

Re:But can it play Crysis?

[d'fim]

If you have to ask, you can't run it.

But does it run...

[Anonymous Coward]

But does it run.........

Yeah mod me to hell and back.

And it runs Windows

[Hawthorne01]

Now can we PLEASE get rid of that "Macs cost more than Windows" meme? :)

Re:And it runs Windows

[Insightfill]

Whenever someone loads up an online cart with a bunch of items (or a few big ticket items), I always envision some electronic storekeeper rubbing his hands together in glee. And then... you abandon the cart. Right there. Before the checkout - sometimes IN THE CHECKOUT LANE, like when you're standing there by the conveyor belt and someone has had the gall to leave something like cheese or meat right against the magazines to spoil, all because they didn't think to just give it to the cashier and say "I changed my mind." Idiots.

And: I also have this image of a great big store like Amazon littered with millions of electronic shopping carts, crowding the aisles.

Must go take my meds now.

Re:Windows Server 2008 ?

[Ninnle Labs, LLC]

They started to install Gentoo on it but unfortunately they are still compiling the system.

Re:Why the 300GBx2 drives

[Niris]

Super Star Destroyers?...*goes back to watching ESB*

Re:cool maybe, but not very quiet

[TheRealMindChild]

Some of us don't care for quiet. Once you work in a server room for more than a day, you learn to block it out. Much like a wife's nagging...

Re:cool maybe, but not very quiet

[mOdQuArK!]

And once you get out, you wonder why you haven't heard anything except ringing in your ears...

Re:I guess it's good to see....

[ruiner13]

The worst part is they need a machine this powerful to keep up with how fast the national debt is increasing.

Re:For my fellow USians....

[tsalmark]

I like to assume most Burmese, Liberians and Yankees can figure out the rough conversions themselves.

Re:cool maybe, but not very quiet

[Anonymous Coward]

what?

Re:For my fellow USians....

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the hell are "USians"? And what is their relation to UKians?

UKians? No such thing.

They're GBese, you insensitive clod!

GeForce 8800 GTS

[dtml-try MyNick]

*Hey buddy, look what I ordered.. the coolest machine ever build to date.. Spend 16k on this little beasty.. bet you are jealous now huh?*

Cool, I bet this can run Crysis pretty damn fast!

*erm, no.....*

Pretty insane if you ask me.. Even if you don't have a use for a graphicscard.. you'd still have some pride right? :)

Re:That's nothing, I've got a 150k PC one room ove

[discord5]

Mammography

It figures someone on slashdot would spend 150K for a computer that allows you to look at breasts.

Re:Why?

[Lazyrust]

Actually its for running a pirated version of Photoshop CS3.

Why choose Server 2008? Easy.

[geekmux]

...Why would anyone choose to run Windows 2008 Server as their desktop OS...

Well, rumor has it he was going to run Windows Vista, but quickly realized that even $16K worth of hardware still only rates a 4.3 on the Vista perform-o-meter.

...and if this is not a desktop then why the fancy sound card?

Again, that's an easy one. Have you ever heard how beautiful a BSOD on Server OS is these days? No? That's because no one puts sound cards in servers anymore. You should check it out one time, rumor has it they actually hired John Williams to write the score for a page fault. Damn thing is even THX-certified.

This build is like Chewbacca, who is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense. I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense!

Yup, we're all in agreement. While they were at it racking up the $$$, they should have just contracted Porsche to design the damn case. Would have likely broke the $20K "barrier"

Re:I remember when....

[the_humeister]

No kidding. Plus, compared with putting money in Citigroup stock, this is a better investment. At least it will have at least half its value next year!

Yes but...

[Yvanhoe]

...does it run linux ?

Not advised, linux would run so fast

[SmallFurryCreature]

Not advised, while this rig might finally get you that elusive score 5.0 on vista, linux would run so fast it would be faster then the speed of light, catch up with itself so that if you ever decided to shut it down it would actually be shut down before you had it booted up, destroying the entire universe in the process and just try claiming that on your home insurance.