Hi all, I am in the process of designing a new system. At the moment I have an old Proliant 5500 (running Ubuntu Server). The drives are failing and it is time for me to replace the machine as well as another old machine that's running Windows 2003 server. What I would like to achieve is a machine that will run 24/7. It will run ubuntu server (headless) as the base with VM Server installed to be able to add VM's. What I want is: 1 X Ubuntu Server to run LAMP Stack, DNS DHCP SAMBA etc 1 X Windows 2008 1 X Windows XP or another 2003/8 server. The windows server will be hosting a couple of sites (that at the moment do not do a lot, but could get a bit busy, if the do get real busy I hope they can support them selves and I can pay for VM hosting). The Ubuntu machine has a site that has minimum traffic and has a local file share. The other machine will be source control / test + build server. The spec I have looked at is below. Money is an issue so can not go with everything I would really like. I have only listed one drive at the moment and know this will cause issues with the VM's and hope that a while later I can get 5 more and do raid 10. I am hoping I might be able to get some advice on what I have chosen. Is it the right hardware, should I choose anything else instead? Are there any "gotcha's" I should be aware of, as I say never done this before and a little nervous with it all. Thanks everyone for your time. Spec: drives http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-...int-F1-SATA-300-7200-rpm-32MB-Cache-89-ms-NCQ Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB £55.76 PSU http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-HX8...ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1253222495&sr=8-3 Corsair HX850W Modular Power Supply : HX850W £143.43 heatsink Cooler http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/02/19/ga-1366-cpu-cooler-group-test/4 Thermalright Ultra eXtreme 120 £51.62 memory http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/6GB-...600)-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-8-DHX-EPP Corsair dominator DDR3 6GB £122.04 Motherboard http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Giga...CI-E-20x16-DDR3-1333-SATA-3Gb-s-SATA-RAID-ATX Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R £135.90 Processor http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Inte...halem-266GHz-QPI-48GT-s-Cache-8MB-130W-Retail Intel i7 920, D0 £209.50 CASE http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec-Twelve-Hundred-Case-w-o-PSU Antec Twelve Hundred Full Tower Case £133.38 Graphics card http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...GDDR2-GPU-550MHz-32-Cores-D-Sub-DL-DVI-I-HDMI 512MB Gigabyte 9400 G £34.37 DVD-Rom http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LiteOn-18x-Int-DVDROM-Black-Bare-SATA IHDS118-18 - LiteOn DVD ROM £12.98
Hi, Thanks for the reply. No I have no intention of gaming on it, it will be a server environment for me at home. I will probably get a couple of extra fans when I get the extra hard drives.
ah ok. I thought it didn't have the side fan or the internal one, just had the mountings for them. Do you think one hard drive will be a real bottle neck for the VM's?
it dosen't but there is no way you will need the two extra fans no the HDD will be fine if you really won't you could save some money and change your power supply to something like this http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W-Be-Quiet-Dark-Power-PRO-BN073-Modular-PSU-87-Eff
I was reading through Custom PC magazine and saw that one. It looks great. My only concern was when I raid the drives later will I be getting a little close to the high end of the PSU? I admit my knowledge of what level PSU I should get for a certain build is pretty poor so I was airing on the side of caution. Do you think I am going a bit over board with 850W? Thanks for all the help and advice, really grateful.
mate you are going over board with a 650w to be honest you would be fine with a 500w in reality but, as that psu is so good i thought it would be good to have some extra grunt if you were to upgrade, and that psu will last you for at least 5 years
LOL... thanks... definite noob moment then! Thanks, will change the spec. Out of curiosity then, what sort of machine would use the higher PSU? Would it normally be the high end GPU's and running multiple cards? Thanks again.
well as i see it 500w for i7 8800gt or something similar 650w for i7 with 285 850w for i7 with 2x285 1250w for i7 with 3x285 + 9800gt for phyxs that is only roughly as i see it
The GTX 285 is Nvidia's most powerful single gpu card at the moment http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-Asus-GTX-285-55nm-PCI-E-20(x16)-Mem-2484MHz-GDDR3-GPU-648MHz-240-Cores-2x-DVI-I-HDTV
WHOO! That's an amazing looking card. Thanks for the info. Feel like I actually know a little bit now. what is it they say???? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! Oh well! You both have been very helpful and I am very grateful. Going to order all the bits tonight or tomorrow and wait for the postman! Oh. should I use normal TIM or should I get anything in particular? Thanks
