[Gllug] Cheap rackmount servers

[John Edwards]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 06:56:59PM +0100, Lucian wrote:
> 
> Thanks for your replies, guys.
> 
> I do not have a special requirements to be honest. I want a decent
> machine, performance-wise (virt technology a must), but as cheap as
> possible :)

If you need hardware virtualisation be very careful which CPU you
choose. A lot of the lower-end Intel CPUs have it disabled.

If you want a cheap CPU with hardware virtualisation then AMD are
more likely to have it, though most Semprons and mobile chips do not.


> Ideally I'd try to fit a (decent) desktop mobo and quad-core cpu in a
> 1U case and colocate it; I do realize it is going to be hard or
> impossible to do this.

If you are colocating your own server, then you need to be aware
of the peak and average power requirements of your server. A Quad
CPU on a desktop motherboard and 2 drives (you do want RAID right?)
could easily exceed 0.5A when booting, and that can increase your
colocation costs. Electricity and cooling is much more expensive
in a data centre.

Getting access to colocated servers can take time or be difficult,
so I would still recommend getting a server with remote management
and KVM or serial access.

Surely the cost of a year's worth of colocation (about 50/month
for a 1U) is going to be more than any money you will save by
building your own, and probably more than you will spend on the
whole server over it's lifetime?

What is the cost of the server being down for several hours until
you can travel to fix it?


-- 
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|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
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