HN Explorer

Ask HN: Mac pro alternatives

8 points by deathflute ↗ HN
I want to get high-end workstation at home for doing data analysis/simulation over large financial datasets, but 4000$K for the latest 6-core seems a little much too me especially considering the capabilities of cloud based computing these days.

However, as much as I want to do everything at amazon I still feel the need for a powerful workstation at home.

So what are some worthy alternatives? Preferably, it comes installed with ubuntu and is quiet.

20 comments

[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 61.1 ms ] thread
davidw
Dell with Ubuntu. Not exciting and sexy and whatnot, but powerful (configure it how you want) and gets the job done.
sushi
I'd have suggested Dell too, two years ago. Not anymore.

The build quality of Dell is not worth money against the likes of Lenovo Thinkpads which seem to never get old and are sturdy enough to last years.

pilom
ibuypower.com usually has pretty good deals for high end machines. Decent build quality and they are throwing in free liquid cooling right now.
garply
You can't get a 6-core Mac pro, can you?

Actually, I'm in the market for a new Mac, as I need to do some iPhone dev. Does anyone find the non-replaceable battery to be an issue? That seemed like a real turn-off to me.

Anyone have Hackintosh experience? If I have >2 cores on a Hackintosh, will OS X recognize do proper thread scheduling? How stable are Hackintosh builds?

jeroen
I think you're confusing these:

http://www.apple.com/macpro/

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

garply
Thanks, I didn't realize they called the desktop a Mac Pro. I had actually forgotten they built desktops.

Actually, I guess that answers my question about threading in Hackintoshes too.

deathflute
My co-worker has a hackintosh laptop. It is not bad, but every time he updates something, he has to spend time tinkering with it. If you don't mind doing that, you could try that option.
peterbotond
yes, it will recognise properly and use the cpus well, 10.5 or better. xcode is great. nicely configurable. i needed some adjustment from emacs to xcode, never looked back to emacs on mac. builds are stable. occasionally i had too fiddle with libraries when used 3rd party stuff. macports is your friend. dev(objc/c/c++/qt4/java/python) on mac is smooth, less clutter, good docs, easy access.
marquis
I run a hackintosh as a cheap way to keep some OSX only software up and running that we access a lot for small admin jobs, a small Dell desktop Intel Core Solo 1.6ghz. It works great except for system updates, and you have to restart to see any new USB or drive connections etc. Just one core, so can't comment on the thread scheduling. I'd probably not set another up, due to the hassle.

For our general testing and development purposes a Intel Mac Mini does a great job. Maybe get a couple of those and cluster them? Much cheaper and more CPU for your money.

garply
Yeah, I think I've decided on grabbing a Mini just to reduce the headache. Looks like it has dual video output and is about as fast as an entry-level MBP, so I think it's a pretty good deal. Now just deciding between the server and the client version. Mostly just a small CPU boost and extra hard drive space...
hasenj
System 76

I got a Core-i7 (quad core with hyper threading, the OS sees 8 CPUs), 8GB of RAM, 164GB SSD, for about $2000

Yes, it comes with Ubuntu pre-installed.

You can get it a bit cheaper with a regular hard drive, but if you're craving the performance, go for the SSD.

HiroshiSan
Do you have any experience with their laptops? If so, how's the build quality?
deathflute
I was looking at those. Do you have any experience with them?
hasenj
Yea it's my main laptop at home.

I got the Pangolin model, it's not slim, it's probably thicker than a typical Macbook.

Performance wise, it's great. Although my judgement is probably not reliable because the only thing I have to compare against is a 4 year old laptop with a dual core centrino processor.

Usability-wise, there are a few things:

* Keys like ctrl-pageup aren't easily accessible. That's common to all laptops > 14", which is unfortunate. I got around that by configuring the terminal emulator to switch tabs with Ctrl-Shift-H and Ctrl-Shift-L. (On the other hand, none of the macbooks I've seen has the home/end/page-up/page-down readily accessible either).

* The trackpad goes crazy sometimes. This is a given for most laptops (well, except Macbooks). I use touchfreeze to mitigate that.

* The microphone is right next to the trackpad, not good for recording a live streamcast, unless you have an external wireless mouse.

* The proprietry ATI driver is not that good, the open-source driver is better. (I found it somewhat ironic). Nvidia would've probably been better. HD videos don't necessarily play as smoothly as I'd imagined they would. You'll see some tearing on xfce, but gnome on compiz looks fine.

It does generate a lot of heat so I try not to put it on my lap a lot.

But don't let that discourage you.

It's a great laptop, it's not too heavy and it's got a LED screen, which means the picture will look good regardless of your viewing angle.

While not as pretty as a Macbook, it does have a clean and elegant design.

I wouldn't exactly recommend it as an entertainment platform, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it because I wanted a powerful machine that's not too bulky. I wanted a machine that I can move around, get work done on it, and have it be powerful so that it doesn't slow me down.

It can run virtual machines without sacrificing performance (that's a big one).

It can apt-get install stuff without taking too long to read the database (my old laptop used to spend a long time in "(Reading database ....").

It can run tons of programs without ever slowing down. In fact I can't remember it ever slowing down or becoming unresponsive, which is something that I'm not used to.

The SSD really does make a difference. Say goodbye to the sound of the spinning hard disk. (Although you still can't say goodbye to the sound of the fan)

m0nastic
I'm actually a fan of the HP Z600 Workstations. You can get dual-processor six-core Xeons, and unlike the Mac Pro, you can start with one CPU (and pick up a second one at a later time).

The case is pretty well-designed, and it's quiet.

deathflute
I have one of the older HP workstations under me at work. I agree they are quite nice. It is definitely an option but with the prices about the same, I am a little biased towards apple.
paranoiacomplex
What is your budget for this machine? I have been looking at high-end workstation / server configurations for my own use, and for around $1000 for the motherboard and process one can have the essentials for a 12 core machine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182... (SUPERMICRO MBD-H8SGL-O Socket G34 motherboard for $244.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105... (AMD Opteron 6168 Socket G34 115W 12-Core Server Processor for $769.00)

Total: $1013.99

That motherboard comes with onboard video and dual gigabit ethernet. The only other things required are a case, power supply, some RAM, and some sort of storage. All of this will be a lot less than $4000.

deathflute
I would say 2500$ for a non-apple machine. Yes, building my own is definitely an option, but time is of the essence, so I prefer buying. If I had to allocate a weekend between building this machine or hacking, I would have to go with the latter.