[Cialug] OT: Rock-Solid Workstation

[Nathan C. Smith]

is it a USB based TV device?
> 
> -Theron

It was more of a theoretical question.  I was trying to come up with a card
you might need, but really almost anything once might need is available as
USB so if USB support is good you are probably set.

I've been given a budget of about 2.5 K to get the best workstation I can
for network management purposes.  The machine I have now is an HP Kayak
which I have really liked for 7 or 8 years now (Dual Processor 1 Ghz, 1 GB
RAMBUS memory,  SCSI drives).  And it has been simply rock solid, but is now
starting to seem slow and long in the tooth (and decidedly less shiny).

I'm looking for something that could probably last that long hardware-wise
and perform much faster at the outset.  The most bang for the buck - things
like SAS v. SATA, AMD vs. Intel, etc.  So far I have looked at SUN, IBM,
Apple, HP, and Dell.

I'm not a fan of Dell, I think they produce disposable hardware and they
have a bit of a monopoly.  (feel free to argue that point).  If I punt, I
just go with HP again, but the thought of a machine with a little style like
Apple or SUN has a appeal too.  Right now I'm running Win 2K.  The thought
of something unix-like underneath running VM sessions of w2K or XP has a
*lot* of appeal.

I'm not doing 3D modeling or anything, I just want the browsers to snap open
when I click on them and to switch immediately bewteen apps.
Whatever I pick is going to be my trusty machine for a while into the
future.

-Nate