[ubuntu-studio-users] Possible cheap system - Dell T3600 Xeon workstation

[Mike Squires]

I needed a better workstation for my audio work and purchased a Dell 
T3600 for $170 plus tax, delivered, from eBay.  It is replacing a Dell 
6320 laptop with 4GB RAM which locks up trying to edit in OpenShot.  I 
will probably install an M-Audio Delta 66 audio card since that is what 
I'm using in the other machine.

The T3600 uses an older single quad core Xeon processor ("E5-1603", and 
2.8Ghz) and a PERC RAID controller; this system came with an nVidia 
Quadro 600 video card and 20GB of non-ECC memory.

Installed a 1TB Seagate HD; so far everything works.

First installed Windows 7 x64 (have one app, Sibelius, that requires it) 
and then installed Ubuntu Studio 20.04.  My monitor had problems with 
the standard install (it's an HP24111, HD, showed signal out of range) 
and I eventually booted up the live version and installed from that, no 
problem.

Running UnixBench (the version from the software installer has a bug, 
had to recompile it; notified the maintainer but no evidence that it's 
been patched).  The CPU clocks at 5500 bogoMIPS which is about 25% 
faster than the Xeon 53xx in my other desktop.

The motherboard has 1 PCI slot and a lot of PCI-E slots, of which 2 are 
used for the Quadra 600 and the PERC controller.

Still in the middle of installation but so far the install has gone well 
and the machine is performing well.  It's nice to have 18 GB of unused 
memory.

My other workstation is a Supermicro X7DAE dual quad core Xeon (E5335, 2 
Ghz), 20GB RAM, AMD Radeon 7xxx video).  I tested the new system with 
UnixBench and glmark2.  The old system clocks at 614 with a single CPU, 
2121 with all 8, glmark2 score of 1088 (AMD Radeon 7xxxx).  The T3600 
clocks at 892 with  a single CPU, 2911 with all 4; glmark2 score of 
1565.  I was worried about the Quadro 600 card but after a default 
installation it is using the nVidia Quadro 600 driver and is performing 
well.

Put this out there in case someone else is looking.

Mike Squires

-- 
Michael L. Squires, Ph.D., M.P.A.
546 North Park Ridge Road
Bloomington, IN 47408
Known in the SCA as Alan Culross, KSCA, OP, etc.
"Michael Leslie Squires" on FB
Home phone: 812-333-6564
Cell phone: 812-369-5232
www.siralan.org (personal) or
www.smithgreensound.com (PA)
UN*X at home since 1985