General - All Purpose Lab Setup
Mutata
Member Posts: 176
Hey TE Folks,
Figured i'd post this here to get some opinions from people who have far more knowledge and have been through this before. So I'm at a point where I am interested and have the funding to pick up a server/servers for a home lab. Now from a technical perspective, I'm pretty good with the differences - but I'm not sure how this translates into real-world performance.
If you, had finite funding and were looking for servers - what would be your top priorities?. Most likely these servers will be running some sort of hypervisor (ESXi or RHEV).
Would you be more likely to invest in one better server, or try and spread your cash so you can pick up a few hosts so you could get a feel?
Do you notice a huge performance difference in DDR2, and DDR3 Memory.
Here are a few options I've seen recently
500$
- Single Quad-Core X5570 CPU at 2.93 GHz / 8 Mb Cache / 6.4GT/s with Max Turbo at 3.333 GHz
- 12 Gigs 1333 Mhz PC3 10600R Dual-ranked Memory ( 4Gig x 3 )
- 3 x 146 Gig 15K Cheetah SAS 6 Gb/s 2.5" SFF Hard Drives ( These are extremely fast)
- Two 502W Redundant Power supply ( 2)
- H700 RAID Controller
- Ready Rails for rack mounting
- BroadCom 5709C Gb QuadPort NIC
- Dell iDRAC6
700$
-Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.40Ghz
-Intel QPI Speed 5.86Gt/s
-Processor with 4 Cores and 8 Threads
-Intel Xeon E5530 Processor
-8MB intel Smart Cache 32Gb DDR3 PC10600 ECC RAM
-Support upto 128Gb RAM
-IBM MR10i ServerRaid Controller
-Raid Controller with 256Mb Cache and Battery Backup
-Support Raid0 , Raid1 , Raid10, Raid5 , Raid1E Raid5 and Raid6
-8 X 146Gb SAS 10K Hard Drives
Or something more budget conscious where I might be able to get a few, like
HP Proliant DL380 G5 $300
Generation 5
vmWare ESXi 5.5.0 installed and running
Support all Windows Server OS including 2012 R2
2 X Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.66Ghz
Intel E5430 Processors
12Mb L2 cache
2 Physical Processors
Each Processor with 4 Cores , Total 8 Cores
Processor Specs : ARK | Intel® Xeon® Processor E5430 (12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)
Support Virtualization Technology
VT-x , Hyper V , VT , VTX , vSphere , vmWare Compatible
Support 32Bit and 64 Bit Operating System
DVD ROM Drive
16Gig DDR2 PC5300 ECC FB RAM
Fully Buffered ECC Register Dimms
Support upto 64GB RAM
4 X 146Gb 10K SAS 2.5" Hard Drives
Some of the certifications I'm after are MCSA 2012, VCP and Red-Hat
I'm also ok upgrading every year or two
Cheers and thanks for your input as always,
Mut
Figured i'd post this here to get some opinions from people who have far more knowledge and have been through this before. So I'm at a point where I am interested and have the funding to pick up a server/servers for a home lab. Now from a technical perspective, I'm pretty good with the differences - but I'm not sure how this translates into real-world performance.
If you, had finite funding and were looking for servers - what would be your top priorities?. Most likely these servers will be running some sort of hypervisor (ESXi or RHEV).
Would you be more likely to invest in one better server, or try and spread your cash so you can pick up a few hosts so you could get a feel?
Do you notice a huge performance difference in DDR2, and DDR3 Memory.
Here are a few options I've seen recently
500$
- Single Quad-Core X5570 CPU at 2.93 GHz / 8 Mb Cache / 6.4GT/s with Max Turbo at 3.333 GHz
- 12 Gigs 1333 Mhz PC3 10600R Dual-ranked Memory ( 4Gig x 3 )
- 3 x 146 Gig 15K Cheetah SAS 6 Gb/s 2.5" SFF Hard Drives ( These are extremely fast)
- Two 502W Redundant Power supply ( 2)
- H700 RAID Controller
- Ready Rails for rack mounting
- BroadCom 5709C Gb QuadPort NIC
- Dell iDRAC6
700$
-Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.40Ghz
-Intel QPI Speed 5.86Gt/s
-Processor with 4 Cores and 8 Threads
-Intel Xeon E5530 Processor
-8MB intel Smart Cache 32Gb DDR3 PC10600 ECC RAM
-Support upto 128Gb RAM
-IBM MR10i ServerRaid Controller
-Raid Controller with 256Mb Cache and Battery Backup
-Support Raid0 , Raid1 , Raid10, Raid5 , Raid1E Raid5 and Raid6
-8 X 146Gb SAS 10K Hard Drives
Or something more budget conscious where I might be able to get a few, like
HP Proliant DL380 G5 $300
Generation 5
vmWare ESXi 5.5.0 installed and running
Support all Windows Server OS including 2012 R2
2 X Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.66Ghz
Intel E5430 Processors
12Mb L2 cache
2 Physical Processors
Each Processor with 4 Cores , Total 8 Cores
Processor Specs : ARK | Intel® Xeon® Processor E5430 (12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)
Support Virtualization Technology
VT-x , Hyper V , VT , VTX , vSphere , vmWare Compatible
Support 32Bit and 64 Bit Operating System
DVD ROM Drive
16Gig DDR2 PC5300 ECC FB RAM
Fully Buffered ECC Register Dimms
Support upto 64GB RAM
4 X 146Gb 10K SAS 2.5" Hard Drives
Some of the certifications I'm after are MCSA 2012, VCP and Red-Hat
I'm also ok upgrading every year or two
Cheers and thanks for your input as always,
Mut