[ale] *Serious* motherboards?

[Brian Pitts]

JK wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> In my day-to-day work, I need to have a bunch of different systems
> up and running in my software build+test environment.  Two build
> machines (one XP, one Linux), at least two and sometimes three XP
> servers, an XP workstation, and at least two and probably soon
> three Linux servers.  One of the Linux boxes runs a real-time simulation,
> which is pretty CPU- and RAM-intensive.  Another Linux box interacts
> with the simulation on a once/second basis.  One of the XP machines
> also interacts with the simulation once/sec, although not as intensely.
> The other boxes have more interactive or I/O-bound loads.
> 
> I'm toying with the idea of having all this stuff sitting in a single 
> box, though
> still realized as separate virtual servers.  I think I'd need a motherboard
> supporting at least 16GB of RAM, and probably a pair of dual-core CPUs.
> Plus appropriate case, PS, cooling, ...
> 
> Every system I've built in the past has been made from bargain-basement
> parts. :-)  I am not sure where to begin researching such high-end 
> hardware.
> Any suggestions for specific hardware I should look at,  or sites with
> reviews of such things?

http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/ultra40/index.xml

That system supports two dual-core Opterons and 64GB of RAM.

I've used a lower-end version of this workstation and been pleased by 
the quality.

-Brian