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I am helping my sister corner down her ideal hardware setup for a development machine that will :

1. Have a barebones OS installed.
2. Have multiple Virtual OS'es installed
3. Have a virual server installed to control the Virtual OS'es

She really likes the Shuttle SB81P found here because they have spent some time considering the thermal issues and getting them resolved.

My question - As enthusiasts and developers, what do you guys think of that specific shuttle (she has the Prescott 2.8 in mind for right now) or would you rather go with an AMD 939-setup given the AMD options available at the time? She frequents http://www.slickdeals.net quite often and is planning on building this system in the new year.

I can't really see why she shouldn't go with that shuttle option.

All and any opimions and reasonings is appreciated.

Thanks!

I would still go with the A64 since in another year or so, she will be able to upgrade to the dual core cpu. Plus the A64 will support 64 bit OSes, something the prescott does not. Also the A64 will run a lot cooler, and will not throttle like the prescott when she starts doing some heavy multitasking.

I have to say that I would not put a Prescott in a SFF system. I think that shuttle resolved the problem by making the fan go to high power more often. That does keep it from throttling, but it makes it very loud in comparison to AMD based systems.

What kind of develpoment is this? I also might think that someone doing application programming and similar stuff might be interested in 64-bit stuff in another year or two. Could be handy to have it now. On the other hand, hyperthreading might be useful for a computer running multiple virtual oses. Though I'd rather have dual-proc in that case.

What kind of $$ are we talking here? Have you tried to price out a low-end dual opteron?

She develops "backbone" software for corporations to run their web-based businesses. They do alot of .net work from what I'm told.

I think $1500 is her budget, but she is ALWAYS on the road so a tower is not even an option. She lives in San Fran but works in Carson City.

Thanks for thye responses.