**Dell PowerEdge T20 Mini Tower Server - Owner Thread**

Just a warning, in order to qualify for the cashback, the invoice you provide back to Dell has to include the VAT number of the supplier. Now, normally this isnt an issue, but some retailers (a large one based out of East Yorkshire) only allow "non-business" accounts to have this on 4 orders on their account and you have to go an enable it, so if you've used your 4 already, you might struggle to claim any cashback

My cashback claim of £70 has just been approved
 
Terrier_Jimlad said:
Just a warning, in order to qualify for the cashback, the invoice you provide back to Dell has to include the VAT number of the supplier.
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Just checked with said supplier and they say they haven't had any issues with this with any they've sold, nor can I find details of it on the Dell site. Hopefully it won't be an issue.
 
Xinn said:
Just checked with said supplier and they say they haven't had any issues with this with any they've sold, nor can I find details of it on the Dell site. Hopefully it won't be an issue.
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This is the reply back I got from Dell when I uploaded my Invoice (without the VAT number on)

Please check your account with the reseller and look for the invoice which contains the VAT number.

Should you have any more queries please do not hesitate to contact us again.
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Take it as you will ...
 
Looking at this my N54L is showing its age. Currently I'd need it mainly as a desktop, changing to a NAS in the future. So I'd run Win10 on an SSD.. 2 x WD 3tb Red's, and 2 x random 1tb disk as backup...

As I understand it, I'll need the Dell 400-ACRR Sata power extension cable, and a random PCIE Sata Card to support the amount of disks. Don't care about hardware raid so that should do.

Ram wise, will the ram from my N54L fit?? For the moment, cash wise it would be easier if I could just reuse that, or do I need different stuff?.. Also could someone just outright confirm that non-ecc ram works fine?

Other then that a quick DisplayPort to hdmi adapter and I should be good to go.

All sound ok? Anything I haven't considered?
 
ChocolateStarfishRammer said:
Looking at this my N54L is showing its age. Currently I'd need it mainly as a desktop, changing to a NAS in the future. So I'd run Win10 on an SSD.. 2 x WD 3tb Red's, and 2 x random 1tb disk as backup...

As I understand it, I'll need the Dell 400-ACRR Sata power extension cable, and a random PCIE Sata Card to support the amount of disks. Don't care about hardware raid so that should do.

Ram wise, will the ram from my N54L fit?? For the moment, cash wise it would be easier if I could just reuse that, or do I need different stuff?.. Also could someone just outright confirm that non-ecc ram works fine?

Other then that a quick DisplayPort to hdmi adapter and I should be good to go.

All sound ok? Anything I haven't considered?
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I have done a quick check of the specs in the past (the T20 is going to be my new toy) and I'm pretty sure that ECC RAM is required.

Are you going Xeon or Celeron?
 
Migrated the disk drives from my ageing N40L to my Dell T20. Loving the speed increase so far.

SSD as boot drive, 4x WD RED 3TB's
Purchased a Startech 6GBps PCI-E Controller card (PN: PEXSAT32) mentioned earlier in this thread; can confirm it works well, have the SSD.

Only thing that has let it down so far is the onboard RAID controller, was only getting about 30mb/s write speeds.. Resorted to a software raid5 under Win Server 2012 DC.

For those that don't know, there is room for 4x 3.5" drives in designated slots, 2x 2.5" in the optical drive caddy (laptop size slot) and no doubt more room elsewhere if you needed it.

Also, loving the fact this has USB 3.0 slots all over the place and a bit more head room for expansion on the motherboard. Noticeable quieter, cooler and less power hungry too!

EDIT: If you have upgraded your RAM from the original, please see my wanted thread in members market. Looking for another 8GB to max the DIMM slots :).
 
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NeoVo said:
Migrated the disk drives from my ageing N40L to my Dell T20. Loving the speed increase so far.

SSD as boot drive, 4x WD RED 3TB's
Purchased a Startech 6GBps PCI-E Controller card (PN: PEXSAT32) mentioned earlier in this thread; can confirm it works well, have the SSD.

Only thing that has let it down so far is the onboard RAID controller, was only getting about 30mb/s write speeds.. Resorted to a software raid5 under Win Server 2012 DC.
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Exactly same setup as I'll be moving from and to this weekend. Glad to know its working well.

Are you using Storage Spaces for your software raid?
 
Any of you guys running VM's via Hyper-V ?

What setup have you allocated to the VM? Cores and Memory?

Set up vm's before but never took any notice of how much resources I was assigning to it (usually left it to defaults).
 
Xinn said:
Exactly same setup as I'll be moving from and to this weekend. Glad to know its working well.

Are you using Storage Spaces for your software raid?
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Just saw this, no I'm not.
I read up on it and wasn't really seeing the benefit of configuring the RAID in that way. I was reading that was some system over head as a result as well.

For others, like me that didn't read the cash back T+C's, you have to wait 30 days before submitting the claim but no later than 60 days.
 
Gman said:
Any of you guys running VM's via Hyper-V ?

What setup have you allocated to the VM? Cores and Memory?

Set up vm's before but never took any notice of how much resources I was assigning to it (usually left it to defaults).
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Yes, I'm using Hyper-V for virtualisation.
Like any VM, determine what it's going to be used for and then provision a suitable CPU\RAM and disk allocation spec for the demand of the computer; similarly to how you would a physical machine.

It's probably best to provide a low spec initially and then increase gradually if you notice performance issues.
 
I'm looking into upgrading to a T20 from an Intel NUC with a 4 bay USB enclosure hosting 2 x Windows Storage Space volumes, (2 x 1 TB ) and (2 x 2TB ). Both are configured as two way mirrored

Is it possible to run the bare Hyper-V server, use a Windows 10 VM and access the existing storage spaces? Or am I going to have to migrate the data and set up new storage spaces within the VM?
 
Hi all

I've installed ESXi 6 and the NIC seems to be recognised which is good.

However, I can't connect to my network. I have tried using both a dynamic and static IP with no luck. The link light is flashing by the Ethernet port. For some reason it won't connect to my TP-Link Archer VR900 which has a DHCP server. I have tried configuring all of the settings.

Any ideas? :( Thanks.

Edit: booted up today and just worked. No explanation.

I have another question though, what's the best way of setting up RAID? Is there an easy way of doing it via the BIOS or ESXi/vSphere?

Thanks.
 
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Coming back to this thread, having decided to move on from my QNAP TS-453Pro. The disk controller has been fried after a power outage (which happens a lot round my way) and I've lost confidence.

Looking for a small server solution, Plex, Media storage and some virtualisation. Anyone managed to tick these boxes with the T20 as yet?
 
Looking for a small server solution, Plex, Media storage and some virtualisation. Anyone managed to tick these boxes with the T20 as yet?
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Yes, I got a Xeon version a while back. Put Win 10 on it, running Plex, Squeezeserver, Windows server as a VM (for backups on other machines around the house), Ubuntu as VM (just to try it), torrents etc.

The Xeon version has just reduced in price, so after cashback from Dell you should be able to find it for £190. A great deal.
 
shine said:
I also have the Xeon version. I put ESXi on it. I have multiple VM's for work, plex etc. Very happy with my purchase.
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If I can ask further detail then, can you tell me how you've got your drives setup?

I take it there's no hardward raid, so do you have just a bunch of disks and let ESXi handle it?
 
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