Collected my new toy - PE2850

Well Splattered · 7 May 2009 at 17:04

Ok, so managed to purchase the old server from work when they replaced it! I collected it today and finally have had my first decent look at it.

Its missing its Embedded Remote Administrator (ERA) Card, the floppy disk and the DAT72 drive. Presume these have been transfered too the new server.

Its came with 2 sticks of DDR2 512mb. One Xeon of unknown speed and three Fujitsu SCSI Ultra320 147gb 10k drives.

It also came with a COA for Server 2003 std 4cli 1-4cpu stuck to the case, but no DVD.

Suggestions for cheap upgrades or how to even get started to configure? Making no illusions, I am totally out of my depth with configuring a games server.

akakjs · 7 May 2009 at 18:16

Suggestions for cheap upgrades or how to even get started to configure?

Ear-plugs! 2U servers are usually loud

It's over-spec for most games servers

Personally I'd get two more sticks of ram to bring it up to 2Gb, it doesn't need it, but memory is the cheapest upgrade. Chances are you can find an ISO for the DVD on the MS website, MSDN or technet are your best bets.

Other than that enjoy!

akakjs

daz · 7 May 2009 at 19:51

Get some more ram - try the crucial site to ensure 100% compatibility.

s0ck · 7 May 2009 at 20:34

We've got a few of those

As above, it's prolly not going to be quiet and I wouldn't want one in my bed room. What games will it be hosting? Download a small linux distro and pop the necessary files on and start the dedicated server goodness

Or if you wanna keep windows, it'll be even easier! Ask in work if they've got a disc you can lend.

iaind · 7 May 2009 at 22:12

Why would they take the floppy drive :confused:

I'd put ESXi on it - as we said before its going to be a huge waste of the power so that way you can run a virtual games server and do some more interesting stuff too

Did you get the front cover?

Well Splattered · 7 May 2009 at 22:45

Thanks for the replies, some real food for thought. Looking at the well known auction site for a training guide on MS Server 2003. I am going to stick with an enviroment I am familiar with until I know the bare basics!

akakjs, ear plugs are a good suggestion, this thing really whines! I will search for an ISO, many thanks for the pointers

I could borrow one from work, but they are generally unopened spares with COA still attached so they may be a bit funny letting me off the premises with a copy.

Those who suggested memory, this will be the first upgrade! Is it worth upgrading the stick of memory (256mb) in the RAID perc 4 controller thingymajig!!?

I would also like to populate the second cpu socket, but need to confirm the speed of the current one.

Its not going to be ran in the house, I wish to co-locate it. Quotes so far have been silly. e.g. "For 2u of co-location space, the costs would be; �75.00 set-up�80.00 per month incl. 1Mb bandwidth (300Gb data transfer per month)"

I am good friends with a part owner of a games server company, I am trying to scrounge some space in one of the racks he part owns! Wish me luck!

Having to google ESXi, the front cover was missing sadly, but I know we have a spare in another branch that I could have.

Thinking of steam games tbh, DOD source and TF2, maybe some hidden. It all depends on the bandwith!!

Iaind, what interesting stuff have i not thought about? I can only think of maybe a website, but I already have a domain name and webspace purchased until end of 2010.

iaind · 7 May 2009 at 23:28

Well Splattered said:
Thanks for the replies, some real food for thought. Looking at the well known auction site for a training guide on MS Server 2003. I am going to stick with an enviroment I am familiar with until I know the bare basics!

akakjs, ear plugs are a good suggestion, this thing really whines! I will search for an ISO, many thanks for the pointers I could borrow one from work, but they are generally unopened spares with COA still attached so they may be a bit funny letting me off the premises with a copy.

Those who suggested memory, this will be the first upgrade! Is it worth upgrading the stick of memory (256mb) in the RAID perc 4 controller thingymajig!!?

I would also like to populate the second cpu socket, but need to confirm the speed of the current one.

Its not going to be ran in the house, I wish to co-locate it. Quotes so far have been silly. e.g. "For 2u of co-location space, the costs would be; �75.00 set-up�80.00 per month incl. 1Mb bandwidth (300Gb data transfer per month)"

I am good friends with a part owner of a games server company, I am trying to scrounge some space in one of the racks he part owns! Wish me luck!

Having to google ESXi, the front cover was missing sadly, but I know we have a spare in another branch that I could have.

Thinking of steam games tbh, DOD source and TF2, maybe some hidden. It all depends on the bandwith!!

Iaind, what interesting stuff have i not thought about? I can only think of maybe a website, but I already have a domain name and webspace purchased until end of 2010.

Not worth upgrading the memory on the RAID controller TBH...

£80 for 2U colocation sounds about right, not silly at all I reckon

If youre hosting it offsite it sort of limits the interesting stuff you could do with it..

iaind · 7 May 2009 at 23:29

Oh and you cant just get another CPU the same speed, has to be the same cache size too..

ThomP · 8 May 2009 at 13:14

looking good mate.

I remember the first PE server I purchased for myself last year

It's worse when you've got the bug and you cannot stop buying more PE servers. If you struggle for parts, I know a few places for the PE2850 just PM me.

L33 · 11 May 2009 at 11:21

Well Splattered said:
Its not going to be ran in the house, I wish to co-locate it. Quotes so far have been silly. e.g. "For 2u of co-location space, the costs would be; �75.00 set-up�80.00 per month incl. 1Mb bandwidth (300Gb data transfer per month)"

For colocation I can whole heartedly recommend racksrv. They're 100x better than any other hosting company I've used. The owner is a member here, username is axer I believe.

axer · 11 May 2009 at 15:40

Thanks for the recomendation guys. Saw a few referrer links on our website taffic to OcUK so thought I would see what was going on heh

Unfortunately I'm probably going to spoil your fun a little here Well Splattered as hosting for this server is going to be quite costly. I estimate from your specs above that you will need at least 1-1.5a at idle and depending on load and ammount of installed processors, maybe upto 2amps!

What is the current CPU spec?

iaind · 11 May 2009 at 16:11

Edit: my bad, ignore me... forgotten my electronics A level

daz · 11 May 2009 at 16:41

Aye, rackspace is cheap... power is not!

Quad Core Dell R200s use about 0.5A... whereas a PE2850 like this, as Axer says is likely to use 1.5A

Which means you're looking at £150/month to co-locate it.

axer · 11 May 2009 at 17:06

daz said:
Aye, rackspace is cheap... power is not!

Quad Core Dell R200s use about 0.5A... whereas a PE2850 like this, as Axer says is likely to use 1.5A Which means you're looking at £150/month to co-locate it.

Spot on regarding power consumption!

iaind · 11 May 2009 at 18:46

daz said:
Aye, rackspace is cheap... power is not!

Quad Core Dell R200s use about 0.5A... whereas a PE2850 like this, as Axer says is likely to use 1.5A Which means you're looking at £150/month to co-locate it.

Suprising how things have moved on - I've got a Sun X4250 box with 2 Quad 3.0Ghz Xeons and 16x10k HDDs - plugged it in using one of those plug in meters and was reading about 1.7

Well Splattered · 12 May 2009 at 23:14

Thats good information, thanks guys.

Axer, Its a 2.8 cpu installed so its one of the lower spec Xeons. Im feeling a bit flattened by £150 a month! Is that the usual price Axer? Do I really need a UPS in line for the power? there should be nothing critical running.

Thats a lot of dosh in comparison to renting a server. Maybe the way forward is to sell the server on

axer · 12 May 2009 at 23:18

Hi,

It all depends on how much power you do end up using, based on our pricing structure I would say £79.99 - £109.99 /mo ex VAT with 2TB of bandwidth.

If your intentions are to host game servers etc, you would *definitely* be better off with one of our £44.99 /mo DualCore dedicated servers for example, that would handle the load considerably better!

Well Splattered · 12 May 2009 at 23:25

Very worthy of consideration.

I will look at the options. Thanks again all, for giving me good info.

/back away quickly from the commitment of spending lots of money!