Buying 16 of these tomorrow what would you change?

Zaf · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:18

We are doing a test at work and need 16 Application servers, as it's only going to be a one off test and the Directors can't justify spending 70K just on a test we are putting together some custom PC's instead :rolleyes:

16x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz
16x Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H Intel Z68
16x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3
16x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB
16x Cooler Master Elite Power 500W

It needs to be best performance and cheap as possible!

Would anyone spec anything diffrent and if so why?

p.s We dont need any cases will be spread out on ESD Mats

Cheers
Zaf

littlepuppy · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:20

Whats the app as assuming its very small scale if it fits on that disk?

panyan · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:28

16 for a one off test? trust me when you are selling them off

PhillyDee · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:33

Hope OcUK is offering you a discount!

Reaper 392 · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:45

do you need the features of the Z68 motherboard?
also, will you be overclocking the i7 2600k?

depending on what you need from the motherboard i would go for one of these:
Z68 + onboard graphics:
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 £92

no onboard graphics, no Z68, overclocking available:
Asus P8P67 LE £75

onboard graphics, no overclocking, USB3 + SATA 6GB/S + HDMI output:
MSI H67MA-E35 £65

onboard graphics, no overclocking, no USB3, no SATA 6GB/s, VGA output:
MSI H61M-P23 £45

hopefully this could save you a bit of cash

Zaf · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:49

We are going to pick one up tomorrow morning so we can benchmark it during the day and then order the other 15

When rang up after 5, the main Sales guy wasn't in but will speak with him tomorrow about discount hopefully be nice and competitive!

They will be running some bespoke in-house software which will simulate 20,000 data concentrators pushing data into a seperate Oracle DB server.

So wont use any disk space just need to be nice and fast

Surveyor · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:50

You need to give more details.

For example if you're not overclocking you can get H61 motherboards for less that £50.

If you don't need quad core with hyperthreading you could buy much cheaper processors.

Zaf · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:53

Reaper 392 said:
do you need the features of the Z68 motherboard?
also, will you be overclocking the i7 2600k?

depending on what you need from the motherboard i would go for one of these:
Z68 + onboard graphics:
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 £92

no onboard graphics, no Z68, overclocking available:
Asus P8P67 LE £75

onboard graphics, no overclocking, USB3 + SATA 6GB/S + HDMI output:
MSI H67MA-E35 £65

onboard graphics, no overclocking, no USB3, no SATA 6GB/s, VGA output:
MSI H61M-P23 £45

hopefully this could save you a bit of cash

Cheers for the reply...

We don't exactly know how much processor power we'll need that's why I was spec'ing the Z68 and 2600K so we can try OverClocking before having to buy better kit.

Went with the Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H as it is microATX, need all the space we can get!

Is there any performace difference between full ATX boards and micro?

Reaper 392 · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:54

Zaf said:
Cheers for the reply...

We don't exactly know how much processor power we'll need that's why I was spec'ing the Z68 and 2600K so we can try OverClocking before having to buy better kit.

Went with the Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H as it is microATX, need all the space we can get!

Is there any performace difference between full ATX boards and micro?

nope, no performance difference, just a price difference.

the ones you have chosen are the good versions with all the Z68 features

Zaf · 9 Aug 2011 at 22:57

Surveyor said:
You need to give more details.

For example if you're not overclocking you can get H61 motherboards for less that £50.

If you don't need quad core with hyperthreading you could buy much cheaper processors.

Sorry I should have mentioned we might need to Overclock depending if we can get the data into Oracle within the allocated time or not.

If we cant do it with this kit Overclocked then we'll be looking at 6/10 core Xeons and going down the Enterprise route.

The Software will be written to use all features of the CPU's

Reaper 392 · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:03

would a cheapish cooler (£15-£25) be worth the money?

it would push the available overclock from 4.3Ghz max to 4.8Ghz max

Slade2 · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:10

Talk to the sales dude at OC and see what he suggests. I would recommend perhaps talking to him about getting them all pre-overclocked as you are buying 16 almost complete systems they would then arrive to you with a gaurentee that the overclock has proved stable for a while and you have the 16 pre-overclocked rigs this would only increase the cost of each one by the cost of the cooler and i`m sure some sort of discount could be sorted out with purchasing that number.

d_brennen · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:13

Overclocking + clustered computing + mission critical data + non ECC memory does not compute

Zaf · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:16

d_brennen said:
Overclocking + clustered computing + mission critical data + non ECC memory does not compute

Where did you get mission critcal from? It's a test

Slade2 good idea on the pre overclock!

brendy · 9 Aug 2011 at 23:31

Would you not just buy HP ml110's instead? ready built mini servers that need only an OS.

scrlk · 10 Aug 2011 at 00:06

Zaf said:
We are going to pick one up tomorrow morning so we can benchmark it during the day and then order the other 15

When rang up after 5, the main Sales guy wasn't in but will speak with him tomorrow about discount hopefully be nice and competitive!

They will be running some bespoke in-house software which will simulate 20,000 data concentrators pushing data into a seperate Oracle DB server.

So wont use any disk space just need to be nice and fast

brendy said:
Would you not just buy HP ml110's instead? ready built mini servers that need only an OS.

See bit in bold.

bremen1874 · 10 Aug 2011 at 03:23

Why 16 application servers? Was this just a number plucked out of the air?

Isn't any test of this sort going to be limited by network throughput? The first thing I’d do is spec decent NICs (most likely Intel) and decent switches.

The original shopping list looks more like an IT department planning to live on the spoils, than an attempt to get the best bang for the buck. SSDs for a process that’s likely to be processor/network bound, a complete waste!

Whoever suggested ML110s (or any similar kit) would win my vote. Cheap, decent performance, and ready to run. They’d also have a guaranteed resale value after the testing.

Another sensible option would be to get business grade desktops that could be incorporated into the business or sold on.

And FWIW ESD mats aren’t designed for running live equipment on (they work by being slightly conductive).

seandog · 10 Aug 2011 at 04:00

It may be late and I may be very drunk but would you not be better off getting different SSD's maybe? I know the issue with agility 3's and intel is small but why take the chance and with 16x the same spec your only increasing the chances one could be a dud, get the corsair drive for small bit more but 100% piece of mind

bremen1874 · 10 Aug 2011 at 04:07

If SSDs are warranted then Intel or Crucial would be the way to go (if you were worried about such things).

You may be very drunk, but I’m only slightly drunk, but I’ll be sober in the morning (to massively misquote Sir Winston Churchill).

errata · 10 Aug 2011 at 08:12

buy one of what you want and test it but if you use cheaper non overclocked kit you can have more servers saturating your outputs or a party!

as already stated your bottleneck will probably be the output so maybe dual network mobos or cards and software to use them

get a a aircon your going to be using 4 to 6 kw of power!