Take the Dell Precision T5500. Google it (to get the crazy long Dell configuration page URL) and you can configure it with dual six-core Xeons, for example.

Thanks, I learned something today. Oh, and the Dell is less than half the price of the Mac Pro.

A quad core Dell is half the price of a 12-core Mac. Once you put the same CPU, RAM, and hard drive in the Dell, the difference is about $200. It's cheaper, but not that much cheaper. The bulk of a Mac Pro's cost is really just passing along Intel's price for Xeon processors.

Of course, the Mac Pro uses 2 year old hardware while the Dell is using the latest Xeons.

It's possible; they're called workstations.

I don't think any "major" brands do but you can find similar stuff in the "gamer" market.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer_Paladin_F950

Another good option for that:

http://www.gamepc.com/

HP has the Z-series of workstations. Z600 and Z800 are rather nifty (and pricy too).

It is perfectly possible. You buy them from companies that supply the professional CAD market and it is relatively easy to find 32 core, dual processor, twin graphics card systems for less than $5000.

I think you mean 12-core. Who's selling 16-core CPUs? Also worth pointing out that the Mac Pro is one such system as you just described.

AMD makes 16 core Opterons (codename Interlagos), however they're slower than the latest 8 core Xeons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opteron#Models

Slower per-core, certainly. But for some workloads more cores is worth it.

I should have been more specific. They're so much slower per thread that they're still slower overall even in heavily multithreaded tasks.

In this Anandtech review, the 16 core Opteron trades blows with a six core Xeon (clocked at 2.3ghz vs 2.66ghz):

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5058/amds-opteron-interlagos-6...

The 8 core DP Xeons weren't out yet when that review took place, but the Sandy Bridge chip was a big improvement over Westmere, in addition to the extra cores.

I'm not sure it's such a slam dunk -- a brief scan of the virtual machine benchmark didn't seem to have a more heavily concurrent load. Plus the Opterons are substantially cheaper.

If I was building a server I'd probably look at the Intel parts, the cost/performance curve is justifiable. But my personal case right now is running lots of test VMs simultaneously on a workstation, the Opterons are more attractive.

I should probably have linked to Sandy Bridge EP vs Bulldozer, which is much more lopsided. The 6C holds its own nearly everywhere, with comparable price and much lower power usage, and there's always the option of bumping up to 8C when needed:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5553/the-xeon-e52600-dual-sand...

This latest generation was not favourable for AMD. 16 core Interlagos in many cases barely outperforms the old 12 core Magny Cours.

I don't mean 12 core, I mean 32 core. AMD is selling 16 core CPUs. And the Mac Pro is not a dual CPU, 32 core, twin graphics card machine, which is what I described.

here is one company selling them - http://www.titanuscomputers.com

I priced up a 32 core AMD machine with two 2GB Nvidia GTX 680 cards and it comes to just under $5000.

thanks.

No hassles. Sorry if I came across a bit grouchy.

You haven't.

That's lucky.. I've been feeling pretty tired and grouchy.