Athena at MIT: Recommended and Supported Athena Configurations

Before deciding to purchase an Athena workstation, customers should understand the advantages and disadvantages of making such a purchase and that there are annual fees associated with a private Athena workstation. 

Notes:

• These hardware configurations are recommended for anyone planning to purchase an Athena workstation in FY2003. The Private Athena Workstation Owner's Guide gives more information about using your Athena workstation.
  
  
• All these workstations require a dedicated UTP network drop; they will not work with multiport transceivers. 

The products listed on this page can be purchased directly from the manufacturers.  For instructions and important information about purchasing Athena workstations select the link below:

• Purchasing an Athena Workstation

Dell GX620 Small Form Factor w/ 19" LCD
Tested and certified as working with Linux by IS&T
Available for purchase at the Dell Premier Web site for MIT. MIT Certificate Required.

Caveat:

• This configuration requires Athena version 9.4 available via PXE install on campus or Athena install media version 5a of August 2006 or later.

Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 650 w/HT (3.40GHz, 2MB, 800MHz FSB)
• Memory: 1 GB Non-ECC 533MHz DDR-2 RAM (2X512)
• Graphics: 128MB Radeon X600SE Card.
• Drives: 160GB Serial ATA hard drive, 16x DVD+/-RW, NO Floppy
• Networking: Integrated Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express.
• PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mechanical mouse with scroll wheel.

Recommended monitor:

• Dell E196FP 19-inch analog LCD display

This system also works with non-Athenized, stock Red Hat Enterprise 4 Update 4 or later, but currently requires hand editing the X configuration file as documented in an IS&T Stock Answer.

There is an assortment of configurations, some of which are approaching end-of-life, that are still supported, but that are no longer being purchased for Public Athena Clusters. 

All suggested Athena Workstation Configurations and their support status can be found in the Athena Hardware Life-Cycle Summary, which covers from newest through dead.