New Server. Please Review Components

[jrandallsexton]

Hello,

I think I have decided on components for a new server I am building which will be used for VM instances, hosting SQL Server (development), building installers and other miscellaneous tasks.

Here is what I have chosen:

Mobo: Supermicro X7DCL-i Dual LGA771 Xeon
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-X7DCLI

CPUs: 2 x Quad Core Xeon E5410 @ 2.33GHz
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=XEON5410BX

RAM: 4 x 2GB Kingston ECC 667
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=D22GER667

HighPoint RocketRAID 1640 SATA Controller (for 1+0)
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=HI-RR1640R

4 x 80 Hitachi 80GB SATAII HDD
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=HD-0Y30005

Antec Titan Case with 650w PS
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-TITAN65

I know that the HDD selection could be better (i.e. SCSI, SAS), but I don't really have the funds because I want the OS in a RAID0+1 config. I'll also be getting 2 other drives (probably around 500GB) that I will run as mirrored for most applications and data files.

Also, I will be running Windows Server 2008 64bit Standard on this machine.

So please, does anyone have anything they would like to add? Criticism is appreciated also as it's how you learn - just be nice.

Thanks,
Randall

 

[radnor]

Hi randall.

Glad you went with a supermicro. Already worked with them, very stable boards. About the HDDs, well, you dont need much more atm, and if you will need later on, youll just add them

This systems gets my hi5 !!!

Edit: do you know if they ship to europe ? with the Euro being almost 1.6 USD some thing there are quite tempting

 

[jrandallsexton]

Hi randall.

Glad you went with a supermicro. Already worked with them, very stable boards. About the HDDs, well, you dont need much more atm, and if you will need later on, youll just add them

This systems gets my hi5 !!!

Edit: do you know if they ship to europe ? with the Euro being almost 1.6 USD some thing there are quite tempting

They offer United Kingdom (GB) in the shipping quote list, so yes, it looks as if they ship to Europe.

Thanks for the input.

 

[jrandallsexton]

Anybody else have anything to add? Anyone know of any issues with this particular hardware combination?

 

[cirdecus]

the only thing i may add is redundant power supplies and of course the SCSI drives.

 

[jrandallsexton]

the only thing i may add is redundant power supplies and of course the SCSI drives.

When you say SCSI drives, do you mean a SAS Controller Card and SAS drives? Something like this:

Controller
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102117

Drives
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=HD-ST373SS

If so, perhaps I should pick up the SAS Controller Card now, use it with SATA drives for awhile, then upgrade to some SAS drives when I have the funds or they come down in price?

Is this what you mean?

 

[andrewn2008]

I'm not sure you want Xeon quads in the first place. Its a nice mobo/chip config but do you really need all that? Why not dualcore 3.0Ghz Xeons instead and use the savings for more RAM. You're getting 4x2Gb, but I'd buy more RAM to 16GB. When you play with vms they'll kill your 8GB for sure. Plus you're not running in production, so you can have 64bit vm SQL with 6GB which should be plenty for whatever SQL wants to do.

Then what about you're drive array? What are you going to do with the 6 SATA ports on mobo? I'd stick two cheapo SATA drives for your o/s and use the RAID array for my data.

And forgive my statements...whats with Win2008?


just my 2cents worth....

Andy