Server for Home Lab

I would like to buy a used Dell Poweredge C1100 1U rack-mount server on E-bay (link at bottom of post) to run ESXi. What do you guys think about this one price/performance wise?

Price: US $499.99 including shipping and handling.

Form Factor
1U Dell Branded Rack-mount Server

Processors
2 x Intel Xeon CPU Quad-Core L5520 2.26GHz 8MB 5.86 GT/s QPI SLBFA

Motherboard
Intel Custom

Hard Disk
Up to 4 SAS/SATA Drives
Standard 1 x 250GB DOD WIPED

Memory
RDIMM ECC DDR3 1066Mhz 72GB (18 x 4GB)

Condition
Completely Tested & Refurbished
HDD DOD Wiped
No Operating System

Video
AST2050 video controller; VGA Connector

Power Supply
650W

Dell PowerEdge C1100 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz 250GB 72GB DDR3 Tested Warranty | eBay

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Comments

Asif Dasl

Well it's on the VMware HCL anyway, the processor is fast enough for most VMs and you've plenty of RAM too. You'd need a second one for vMotion, HA & FT though unless you are going nested. It'll probably suck up a lot of juice and be noisy as hell but the price ain't bad.

Essendon

I think that's a good price for the kind of grunt the machine offers. Run a single power supply and power it up only when your labbing, it'll suck up power for sure. It should be good enough for any VCAP level exam too, the processor and RAM are more than enough for anything you can throw at it. Absolutely go nested for your labbing, you dont want to buy another one and it's just not needed. For shared storage for your nested hosts, run something like a Starwind iSCSI SAN in a VM so no issues there with vMotion/HA/FT and all the rest of the good stuff. Here's are two links for a nested lab >

VMware Communities: Help Nested Esxi 5 VM Issues!!!
virtuallyGhetto: How to Enable Nested ESXi & Other Hypervisors in vSphere 5.1

Ivanjam

Thanks @Essendon and @Asif Dasl - still weighing my options. How about this one: Dell CS23 SH 1U Server 2X Xeon L5410 QC 2 33GHz 250GB 16GB DDR2 Tested Warranty | eBay vs the previous one: Dell PowerEdge C1100 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz 250GB 72GB DDR3 Tested Warranty | eBay

Here is a comparison of the processors: http://ark.intel.com/compare/33090,40201

The first one is half the price of the second ($250 vs $500).

Asif Dasl

You can compare processor power over at Passmark - or at least I do! But it's best to check the processor extensions as well (like you have listed from the Intel website too). The first one (Xeon L5410) benches at 3921 and the second one (Xeon L5520) benches at 4406. So they have pretty similar processing power. Unfortunately the new one is not listed on the VMware HCL like the previous one was.

Essendon

The price difference is the cost of the RAM. Buy the one with more RAM and it'll last you a long time. 16GB can be limiting and I like I said before with 72GB RAM you'll be laughing. Besides, Asif has a good point about the HCL.

kriscamaro68

Ivanjam wrote: »

I would like to buy a used Dell Poweredge C1100 1U rack-mount server on E-bay (link at bottom of post) to run ESXi. What do you guys think about this one price/performance wise?

Price: US $499.99 including shipping and handling.

Form Factor
1U Dell Branded Rack-mount Server

Processors
2 x Intel Xeon CPU Quad-Core L5520 2.26GHz 8MB 5.86 GT/s QPI SLBFA

Motherboard
Intel Custom

Hard Disk
Up to 4 SAS/SATA Drives
Standard 1 x 250GB DOD WIPED

Memory
RDIMM ECC DDR3 1066Mhz 72GB (18 x 4GB)

Condition
Completely Tested & Refurbished
HDD DOD Wiped
No Operating System

Video
AST2050 video controller; VGA Connector

Power Supply
650W

Dell PowerEdge C1100 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz 250GB 72GB DDR3 Tested Warranty | eBay

Just bought 2 of these myself. After seeing the specs I couldn't resist. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

dave330i

Nice. 1 of these well work well as VCAP-CIA lab.