For my fellow IT geeks: Choice of CPU and motherboard?

[LagunaH1]

So, my trusty old ESXi server died on me a few days ago. It's probably my own fault as it had been running in a hot environment for a long time. As a result, I don't trust any of the remaining components and am wanting to build a new system. I am going to re-use the case after having added several fans, and I am also going to re-use the 4X1TB harddrives. I am going to drop in a new power supply, just in case the heat fried the old one, too.

The system will, like the old one, run VmWare ESXi 5.0 and host around 10 VM's, some of them very beefy. Disk IO and parallel processing are the top priorities, and I am unfortunately on a budget.

So, what would y'all choose? I don't think I need a 6 core CPU, maybe just a good 4 core. I'm going to put 32 gigs of RAM in the system, maybe more depending on RAM prices and which motherboard I end up with.

 

[bigbadt]

If interested I can put you in touch with the head computer analyst for Kingston,he's a buddy of mine . he might even be able to hook you up on deals on stuff too. pm me if interested.

 

[Kurt]

I used to roll my own machines, usually quad core xeons of whatever latest generation cpu with a supermicro board. If there's a budget that may be a option.

Intel sells pre packaged server barebones combinations now, with an Intel chassis, mainboard and power supply with proper cooling setup. Their tech support is good, based in Texas, and the tech documentation is easy to read, not engrish.

Right now I'm using a Z800 24 core multi cpu xeon for my workstation running red hat enterprise for my graphics/simulation work but I got that through a special deal at work [HP is our technology partner, we get deals on their consumer and enterprise stuff].

For disk are you running ATA raid or SAS?

 

[08H3]

Where your budget and performance lines cross will ultimately be the decision maker, however I can tell you that I have had a lot of success with Dell recently. When I've priced it out for clients, almost always going with a Dell system (usually Optiplex) as a base and then tweaking has come out as the best value. Have had no reliability issues either. For what it's worth, I'm not a Dell reseller/contractor (except service parts) so I don't have a Dell bias. This is all from personal experience.

 

[LagunaH1]

I used to roll my own machines, usually quad core xeons of whatever latest generation cpu with a supermicro board. If there's a budget that may be a option.

Intel sells pre packaged server barebones combinations now, with an Intel chassis, mainboard and power supply with proper cooling setup. Their tech support is good, based in Texas, and the tech documentation is easy to read, not engrish.

Right now I'm using a Z800 24 core multi cpu xeon for my workstation running red hat enterprise for my graphics/simulation work but I got that through a special deal at work [HP is our technology partner, we get deals on their consumer and enterprise stuff].

For disk are you running ATA raid or SAS?

They do :hans: -I'll be looking at this in the near future

I'm running SATA drives, used to used an Adapted 2405 controller but I suspect that's one of the parts that got fried recently.

 

[cbetts]

If you are using this at home, you might want to consider getting a business class workstation instead. They have all the high end components inside but have seriously quiet fans. I am running ESXi 5.1 on an HP z800 with 48GB RAM (upgradable to 192GB), Dual Intel Xeon 5620 CPUs (2.4GHz), 2 2TB drives. Yeah, they cost a lot more than building it yourself but the quiet factor made the wife really happy. It also helps that I work in an HP shop so parts are a little easier to come by.

 

[Kurt]

Yeah the z800's are beasts and are super quiet, even when the load is at 100% on all cores I don't hair it over the office ambient noise.

You can hunt for a z800 chassis via a HP/Dell reseller on ebay, I see a few z800's roll across there with warranty for 30% off retail, then swap out the memory/drives to suit your needs.

 

[cbetts]

I have been rolling out z820s at work so I know the z800s will be out there.