Shop with Incredible Claims, Opinions Requested

[bconnally1]

While randomly surfing, as I occasionally do, I came across this web site with some PCs that sound pretty awesome, yet the prices are upwards of $10K for a desktop. Now I realize that most of the components are cutting edge top of the line stuff, but I just wanted to hear what others are thinking about them. I've been in IT for many years now, and the claims they are making seem quite amazing to say the least. Anyway, the site is www.go-l.com/store/index.htm

Please go there and check it out and post your opinions. Thanks!!!

=)

Brian

 

[kinetic_tw]

This website has been circulating around various forums for a few weeks now. Originally it was said to be a fake, then some guy from go-I stopped by and claimed that everything there was quite real.

I dont know which is true, but thier claims are a bit extreme for me. I dont buy it.

 

[peartree]

Well, since the site seems to have disappeared, I'm guessing that the claims, whatever they were, weren't true.

=== SHOPPINGMAN!!! Never assume ANYTHING ====

 

[the_Prisoner]

the site seems to be working.

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

 

[raretech]

If it's a fake, it's an incredibly detailed fake. I wouldn't buy jack from them until you read a review of their products from a legitimate source. The claims they make regarding Windows XPOS, smack of "too good to be true". The layout and presentation also reminds me of the dot cons of yesteryear, seemingly hinting at computing nirvana.

quite a neat site though, I have to give them credit for their marketing skills. I think my favorite marketroid phrase is "pure solid state". This, as opposed to those impure solid states...

One question though:
"Up to 74 full-length 32-bit or 64-bit optional PCI Slots Modules" What the hell would you do with them? I've always thought it'd be neat to have more than the typical 4 or 5 PCI slots, but 74? Crap. I could see this in a high end rendering farm, but this is an option for what appears to be a desktop PC. Weird.

<i>SCO is to Linux what a flea is to a dog.</i>

 

[peartree]

I don't see anything on the site that looks false. That includes the $4000-$8000 prices for their top desktop machines. Personally, I wouldn't buy an intentionally over-clocked system no matter WHO makes it, but if you'd do it anyway, yourself (and you have that kind of cash laying around!), then why not buy an over-clocked machine and get a warrantee on it? I don't know if the outfit is legit, though, so I'd contact their local BBB before I worried about machine specs. I did note that their "PuRam" no-HD hardware is really a giant non-mobo RAM-drive. That's innovative. The super-BIOS or whatever that they advertise is obviously a hacked BIOS to allow the over-clocking and other features. I didn't see any mention of "74" PCI slots in either of the two system spec sheets I looked at. This is obviously a typo (I would guess), since the PCI spec only allows a max of 5 slots, period. Make it 10 if you put dual mobo's in one case.

All in all, the most one can say is that they're an unknown outfit and have some possibly questionable engineering in their machines. If anyone has any FACTS they care to pass on, we'll all be happy to listen.

=== SHOPPINGMAN!!! Never assume ANYTHING ====

 

[raretech]

peartree,

Look under their high end "extreme" system(the ones that look like desktops with TV screens in the middle front of the case). It's listed as an optional module(s), I think about half way down their product "matrix". If you look under their accesories/peripherals(I can't get to the site right now, else I'd provide a specific link), you'll see it's a seperate board contraption, that apparently plugs into the mobo, possibly through a PCI slot. One board gives you x more slots, and you can supposedly link many of them together to bring you to 74 slots.

<i>SCO is to Linux what a flea is to a dog.</i>

 

[raretech]

I just got to the site again , it's the "Mach" system, not 'extreme'(still too early for me). It's listed under "Additional expansion slots" on the product matrix.

<A HREF="http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/index.htm" target="_new">http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/index.htm</A>
about half down this page, on the right hand side, you'll see the expansion board and a repeat of the claim of 74 slots, but it requires many of those boards linked.

I keep thinking about it, I'm starting to think of some pretty cool things you could do with that. You could cram fully self contained computers onto PCI cards and run a 74 node cluster. For rendering farms, 74 cards working in paralell... Actually, I can think of alot of things you could do with this. Just odd for a desktop system...

<i>SCO is to Linux what a flea is to a dog.</i>

 

[peartree]

Okay, I've seen it, now. If yo scroll down the page far enough, you get to a picture of their "PCI Expansion" hardware. It's basically an entire expansion array of PCI slots that feeds from one PCI bus card, which must be the equivalent of two PCI dual-channel controllers to handle expansion slots. So, you could say that the original 5 or 6 PCI slots become 5 (or 6) x 7 for 35-42 slots, but how they get 74 out of that, I don't know and they don't say. They must have put considerable work into the BIOS in order to get that rig to work. I will say this: they've evidently decided to go for the true extreme performance junkie. I would never buy one, myself, but it's fun to look at...

=== SHOPPINGMAN!!! Never assume ANYTHING ====

 

[raretech]

"I will say this: they've evidently decided to go for the true extreme performance junkie. I would never buy one, myself, but it's fun to look at..."

I agree. I just ordered all my parts for my own extreme dual proc system and when the smoke cleared, I had spent just under 3500 bucks. that'd barely get me an entry level single cpu system at their site.

Neat stuff though. I'm hoping someone will get their hands on some of their tech and put out some in depth reviews. I'd really like to know what kind of "tweaks" they've done to XP to get superior performance, or if all they're really doing is overclocking stuff.

<i>SCO is to Linux what a flea is to a dog.</i>

 

[toxicogen]

Don't wanna be a pain but wouldn't you hit some limitions in data transfer rates. Besides the pci slots would have to go separate and in some weird shaped box. not to mention the cables. And if you've got that kind of money buy more pc and a switch!

If all else fails: Read The Manual

 

[raretech]

"Don't wanna be a pain but wouldn't you hit some limitions in data transfer rates."

Not a pain at all, valid observation. Truth is, I'm not sure what their limitations are, I've only ever worked with the 5 PCI setup...


"Besides the pci slots would have to go separate and in some weird shaped box. not to mention the cables. And if you've got that kind of money buy more pc and a switch!"

That's the way I'd do it. I have a 6 node dual processor P-Pro 200(I know, breathtaking) cluster with a 100mbit backplane, which I've used to run weather sims(slowly) and to learn more about paralell programming. So i'm with you there(although my new dual opteron system blows it out of the water).

The thing is, I suspect you'll get better performance through a PCI bus than through a gigabit backplane. Last I checked, in megabytes(as opposed to bits), gigabits bandwidth was 114mb/sec. The earliest version of the PCI bus was 132mb/sec, and the later versions go up to 1066mb/sec. But assuming you could only get 132mb/sec bandwidth, in addition to the slightly larger bandwidth, you should still experience far less latency than you will by going from the processor, to the PCI bus, to your NIC, out your NIC to the switch, then to the master nodes NIC, to the bus, to the processor and back again through the same chain. Keep in mind also that this latency is compounded by the fact that when mulitple nodes are communicating, their communication with the master is impacted by the latency experienced by other nodes.

In the PCI setup, you go from the cpu or gpu on the card, to the PCI bus, to the processor and back again. That can make a huge difference in big jobs, or anything you're trying to to do "real time".

Of course, this is all theory on my part as I know zip, zilch, and squat about how their tech works and just a smidgeon about how beowulf clustering works. I do know I've learned the latency lesson well in configuring my own cluster and I think my theory is sound in thinking that the PCI setup would have substantially less, and it probably has closer to a gbyte of bandwidth.

<i>SCO is to Linux what a flea is to a dog.</i>