Hey, guys:
Are the HP Z620 machines any good for doing some serious computation on? The particular machine I am looking at buying has 2x Xeon e5-2670 CPUS and 64GB of RAM and I guess it has an older Quadro 600 in it–if that matters? I was planning to install Linux on the machine.
Cheers,
Manifold
Highly depends on price.
For less than $800, should be a fairly good deal.
The Threadripper 1920X is going to deliver the same if not more performance. Build suggestion
The Quadro 600 won´t win any highscores, but Quadro is Quadro.
Concerning Linux compatibility, I have less doubts about that than windows compatibility, however someone with more knowledge should weigh in on that.
The one I have found is going for $700 shipped–which does not seem bad at all.
That does not sound bad indeed. Certainly won´t get you a new machine that plays in that performance category.
Thanks for the advice. I can even go for a cheaper one without the Quadro and use one of my roommate’s GTX 1080ti that is laying around from his stripped won mining rig. =P
No kill like overkill. Gonna need that 4k60 on the command line 
How about this one?
They’re good (depending on price), we used to use them as en-mass as workstations at the office and we’re a Linux shop.
They’re very quiet when under no load.
However, that was years ago; it probably makes more sense for you to build a similar or better performance ryzen 3/5/7 box for similar money. You’ll get more modern features from the motherboard/chipset
You need the TR 1920X minimum to get similar performance. There are points to be had for a new machine, but for $700-ish, you wont get anywhere near the performance of these used.
Should run like greased 
I would buy it, It’s actually a good deal IMO if that is the price for it. If your work load can go over 2 cpu’s that’s not bad. If anything you can find a hundred other things to do with it.
note:
back in the day, my previous employer had one or 2 of these for running some citrix apps and a ERP + DB. I also believe ther was some other virtualized things but i don’t remember now.
what do you plan on doing with it if you don’t mind me asking?
I plan to do some embedded systems work, and I plan to run a home server for me and a few roommates (graduate crash-pad).
This is a good choice for the money. If that is the correct price. I would replace the HDD’s with some WD Black or Red drives and put / in a ssd. maybe use a 240GB ssd (cheap) as a scratch for the HDD’s.
That was the plan! I do get a hefty stipend, but I would rather not spend a lot of money on a pet project. I think this is a very good cost effective solution. I appreciate everyone’s feedback–this forum never disappoints.
This will do just fine ! And affordable
Make sure it’s 2 x 8/16 Xeons reach out to the vendor to sure it all up
Just out of curiosity, would a Threadripper 1950x system be a measurable amount faster than the dual Xeon system?
This is a fairly older system in comparison. But the value / performance here is the catch. Surely TR is faster but does it constitute the cost for the use in this situation
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/26HGzY
Here is a list of the configuration I am looking to put together. I edited the price of the Threadripper and Motherboard because I have a deal lined up that gets me the board and CPU for $640. Do you guys think that is a good starting machine that I can add to in the future? Or should I look for a different case that has more drive cages in it? I mainly just need a case that has good clearance in the top for a 360mm rad. Again, please note that my roommate has agreed to drop one of his 1080ti GPUs into this system.
Bought a HP Z220 CMT from them a few days ago, around the time this thread was made.