[Tfug] Xeon CPUs

[Zack Williams]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 12:33 PM, Steve B <steveb7 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is anyone on the list running Linux on a Xeon machine as a desktop OS, not
> as a server? If so any comments or advice?

In general, there's little difference between consumer and enterprise
CPU types - mainly it's RAM support (ECC, which can be more expensive)
and chipset (you might get only PCIe 8x, no 16x, so harder to add a
video card) on server class logic boards.

If all you want is ECC RAM, most AMD FX-series CPU/logic board will
get you that.

Look for E3- or E5- series boards.  If you can't find that, the Xeon
56xx is OK.

Avoid DDR2 RAM, as it's about double the price/gigabyte as DDR3 RAM.

I'm partial to Supermicro gear and 4-pin (variable speed) fan headers,
if you're going to be running it as a workstation/desktop.

- Zack