I'm looking for input from anyone in the club who may be knowledgable, eyeballing, or has purchased a "workstation" system recently with ECC memory. (Note, ECC is imperative!) I don't need dual-socket, crazy speed, just something like a mid-range modern i7 with modern RAM, slots, etc. (i3 speeds won't cut it.)
By "workstation" I mean it has to have at least one PCIe x16 (full 16 electrical) slot so it can have a good video card installed (and handle upgrades in the future). So some "servers" will qualify, although most do not have a true x16 slot (they'll say x16 but the small print will say x8 or x4 electrical), especially on the low end. I also need tower form factor, as rackmount will (unless 4U) be a pain to fit cards in, etc. Lastly, I really want a DIY setup where I buy the board, cpu, etc individually, though if a perfect premade system (i.e. Lenovo) exists that fits the bill I might consider it (must use no propreitary form factor parts, including mobo & PS).
It's basically impossible since the discontinuation of the Intel D975 chipsets (nearly 10 years ago) to do Intel with ECC without buying a Xeon CPU. So I'm probably stuck buying a Xeon CPU and getting slower than i7 for double the price. Ugh.
I'd really love to hear from the AMD nuts out there if there are any good AMD options, especially ones that are more enthusiast/desktop oriented rather than same-price-as-Xeon competitors. If I'm going to spend big bucks, I'll buy Intel: AMD needs to offer a compelling price advantage to pull me over.
I still believe AMD could carve a niche for itself by offering desktop enthusiast chips / mobos with ECC at desktop, rather than server, prices. Maybe add $50 each to a mobo and cpu as the price premium. Not the 100% premium Intel wants just to get ECC. (I miss the old days when getting ECC was cheap/easy.) If AMD already has such a thing (I'm hoping!), great!
I know I'm not the only one in the club interested in these answers. P.S. being a computer reseller, I don't need prices or store suggestions, I can just buy it all wholesale :-) It's the "this chipset plus that CPU" that I'm really looking for.
Thanks!