I’ve owned desktops. and laptops. and pocket pc’s. and tablet pc’s. and a UMPC. and tower servers.
With CopperSpiral doing as well as it is, the time has come to upgrade.
I’m finally going to control a real server server.
As it should be, it’s IBM.
It’s 1U thick.
Multiple Xeon processors.
Multiple SCSI hard drives.
Starts with 4 gigs of RAM. (Expandable to 16).
Multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports.
I will probably go with Win2003 server or Win2008 SBS (still deciding, with 4 gb, 2008 is a bit dicey).
I need Windows Server as our development is on VB.Net or ASP.Net with MS-SQL backend.
Don’t worry, it will run Debian in a VMWare virtual machine for my ERP Adempiere.
I will be picking it up on Monday. So I still have time to ask questions … I have a choice of dual Xeon 2.4 GHz (single core) or dual AMD Opteron 2.4 GHz. What should it be?
Suramya, Jace, Jim, Arwind, Null.in, others? Tips …
Oh, and here is how it will look …
Jeez, I haven’t been so excited to get a new computer in such a long time. Remember TCF, Suramya?!
29 Nov 2008 at 5:03 am
Well since you asked… I’d say go with the Opterons, especially if your application is not CPU-bound. This would make for a cheaper box, and possibly a cooler one (not sure if the new Core-based Xeons run cool). Haffun and enjoy your new box!
Here’s the last “server server” I bought: http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4150/
We got the configuration with the dual quad-core 2.5 GHz Xeons, 8 GB memory, 4×146 GB 15k SAS drives. Yes, it’s a radar signal processor, so it’s CPU bound.
30 Nov 2008 at 12:47 am
It’s the same price for me, Xeon or Opterons.
And these are the older single core processors, so don’t know how they will compare to Intel’s new core-based architecture.
So, price being same, Xeons it is?
30 Nov 2008 at 12:38 pm
If you plan to use vmware, go for ESXi; not the lamer versions. Ideally I’d recommend Xen; it is way too much fun.
Also, do you really need swappable drives and other useless stuff that adds up to your cost? I’d suggest Dell Power-edge (either r300 or 1950). I know like thinkpads but carry over brand loyalty when buying an entirely different product i.e. server?
@Jim core based xeons come at 3 different wattages: 50, 80 & 120. You get to pick what you want.
24 Dec 2008 at 9:04 am
Go with HP or IBM as better tech support\customer is available when required. IBM is better though…
I used IBM and had good experience with them. Saves you time and you can concentrate on other things rather than managing the server.
And, please do go for hot swappable disks they are a life saver.