Whitebox Server Comparison

[zstray]

Hello, I ask this; which of the following two servers would you choose and why? Note that Server #2 exact brand/model specs are unavailable as well as which motherboard or RAID card is used.

Server #1

2 X Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3 Haswell 2.4GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 15MB L3 Cache LGA 2011-3 85W BX80644E52620V3 Server Processors

Supermicro Motherboard

Crucial 16GB (4 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 (PC4-17000) Server Memory

Microsoft Windows Server Standard 2012 R2 2CPU/2VM - Base License + 20 Additional User CALs

4 x 1TB Western Digital RE4 Server Hard Drives configured RAID 10

Adaptec 6405 2270000-R 6Gb/s RAID Card

PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 750W Modular Power Supply features 100% Nippon Chemi-Con Capacitors

Price $5709



OR



Server #2

1 x AMD Opteron 6320 8 Core 2.8 GHz
32GB Kingston DDR3 1600MHz
Seagate, ST1000NM0033, 7200RPM
RAID 1 – 900GB
RAID 5 – 2.7TB
Power Supply – Redundant 800W 80+ PSU

Price $4600


If curious about RAID 10 vs RAID 5 I found a good read here:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/raid5-vs-raid-10-safety-performance.html

Thanks for reading!

 

[Xaotic]

First, what would you be using the server for? How reliable do you need the server to be? there could be many other questions.

Different loads run better on different architectures, though the v3 Haswells will greatly outperform the AMD.

On the RAID levels, RAID is not a backup so plan for this NOW. It needs to have a hot spare and failover capability if you are using this for production. Get the model of the RAID controller for the AMD and find out if it has a BBU. RAID 1 and five are typical levels for servers. I prefer RAID 6 for data storage over RAID 5, an extra parity disk is good. The most likely time for another disk failure in any RAID is during a rebuild when the drives are all being hammered. That brings us to RAID 10. I do not recommend this RAID level. Enhanced chance of failure during rebuilds, combined with correlated disk failure risk is a big no for business and most personal data.

 

[Dlaw]

So, you have the option of an Opteron build that you don't know much about for $4600, or a dual Xeon build that you do know a lot about for a little over a grand more? To me, that sounds like a no brainer, so long as you can afford it, absolutely take the dual Xeon build. You can always add more drives and ram and change the RAID configuration.

 

[zstray]

It will be a domain controller and run a phone system for about 15 people. It will most likely also be doing some faxing over IP.

 

[Xaotic]

The best practice for this would be to run a VM hypervisor and run separate OS on top for the servers. Better yet, given hardware limits (16GB is a bit scant, but workable), would be to run a pair of VMs for DCs and a separate VM for the phones and faxing. You REALLY do not want inbound IP connections to a DC. This is a major security risk. Hyper-V is possible on 2012, though not my preference.

 

[zstray]

Some more info about this situation is that Server #2 was offered by the company providing IT services to this client. The client chose Server #1 because, as you saw, the specs were much more clearly defined. So now Server #2 IT guys have Server #1 in their possession to get it set up. They are now telling the client that the server needs nearly $2000 of upgrades.

1: A Supermicro case with a redundant PSU. (It is currently in a Chenbro case with an awesome power supply listed above)

2: add 16GB RAM. While it can't hurt I would recommend running what they need to run to see if it really maxes out the 16GB.

3: An additional RAID card for an additional 2x1TB drives in RAID1 and a 2TB backup drive.

4: A quad port NIC - because the 3 built in aren't enough (maybe for the phone system).

Server #2 company plans on doing internal backups to the RAID1. Not sure why they want a 2TB drive. They say it has to have hot swap bays because apparently they can't remove a drive from the internal bay and replace. They also say the above power supply in Server #1 needs to be replaced with an unknown redundant supply. Once again, this server is for a small office.

Any input? Thanks.

 

[Xaotic]

Honestly, fire the company and return the server. They are giving you horrendously bad advice and decisions.

First, backup to a hard drive is not really a non volatile backup. I'd actually probably use Mozy or other cloud backup for a very small start up. you can not afford a backup to disk appliance or tape on a small budget. You ideally should have three copies of data in any event, live, onsite and offsite. For a basic local backup, you could use a USB drive for far less.

Adding 2K of stuff to that server is nuts. For less than that, you get a properly configured server from a manufacturer with a NBD onsite repair service over three years.

Here is an example of a reasonably configured server from Dell. It's a tower, T430. Dual processors (though slower, 6 core per no HT no turbo, but it'll handle small offices), 32GB RAM, 300 GB SAS OS drives, 2 TB RAID-5 with a hot spare (if the hot spate is set as global, it can cover the OS array till a tech arrives to replace the drive), decent (over-spec'd, but good) RAID card and remote management card with a dedicated NIC for under 6500.00

Catalog Number / Description Product Code Qty SKU Id



PowerEdge T430:
PowerEdge T430 Server, No TPM T430 1 [210-ADLR][329-BCBO] 1


Processor:
Intel® Xeon® E5-2603 v3 1.6GHz,15M Cache,6.40GT/s QPI,No Turbo,No HT,6C/6T (85W) Max Mem 1600MHz 8516 1 [338-BGGB] 1550

Additional Processor:
Upgrade to Two Intel® Xeon® E5-2603 v3 1.6GHz,15M Cache,6.40GT/s QPI,No Turbo,No HT,6C/6T (85W) A8516 1 [374-BBIN] 1551

Memory DIMM Type and Speed:
2133MT/s RDIMMs R2133 1 [370-ABUF] 1561

Memory Capacity:
4GB RDIMM, 2133MT/s, Single Rank, x8 Data Width 4G1R 8 [370-ABUI] 1560

Operating System:
Windows Server® 2012R2,Standard Ed,Factory Inst,No MED,2SKT,2VM,NO CAL WS2012R 1 [618-BBDS] 1650

Chassis Configuration:
Chassis with up to 8, 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drives, Tower Configuration 8HP 1 [321-BBOS] 1530

RAID Configuration:
RAID 1+RAID 5 for H330/H730/H730P (2 + 3-14 HDDs or SSDs) R1R5H 1 [780-BBNH] 1540

RAID Controller:
PERC H730 RAID Controller, 1GB NV Cache H7301G 1 [405-AAGJ] 1541

Hard Drives:
300GB 15K RPM SAS 6Gbps 2.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive,3.5in HYB CARR 300H15 2 [400-AEEJ] 1570

Hard Drives:
1TB 7.2K RPM NLSAS 6Gbps 3.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive 1TSN 4 [400-AEFI] 1570

Power Supply:
Dual, Hot-plug, Redundant Power Supply (1+1), 1100W 1100R 1 [450-AEHD] 1620

Additional Network Cards:
On-Board Broadcom 5720 Dual Port 1Gb LOM OBNIC 1 [542-BBBP] 1514

Bezel:
Security Bezel BEZEL 1 [325-BBLH] 1532

Internal Optical Drive:
No Internal Optical Drive NODVD 1 [429-AAIQ][429-AAQS] 1600

Embedded Systems Management:
iDRAC8 Enterprise, integrated Dell Remote Access Controller, Enterprise I8ENT 1 [330-BBEH][385-BBHO] 1520

Hardware Support Services:
3 Year ProSupport and NBD On-site Service U3IP 1 [978-9478][978-9497][978-9564][989-3439] 29

The bottom line is I think you are not getting good advice and need to shop around further for a support company