Figuring out the servers Part II

In the past week or so since my last post, I've been chewing on the questions I listed pretty much non-stop, and I'm pretty sure I have made a decision - or series of decisions, about what to do.

I have the ML350 G6 listed, right now for $300, but who knows. I put both X5660s back in it as well as 32GB RAM (6x4s and 4x2s) leaving me with 32GB left for the C220M3. I also dropped a dual-gig ethernet card in, a 3.5" 500GB spinner, and left in two 2.5" drive trays. Hopefully it doesn't take too long to sell, but that's what I said last time.

As for the C220M3, the main issue was on deciding what CPUs to go with. Previously, I had been dead set on the v2 versions of the E5 CPUs, for no good reason other than "new!" Having now spent some time looking at benchmarks, I'm ready to loosen up a bit. The v1s are a year older and about 5-15% slower than their equivalent v2s, but they are significantly less expensive. For example: the E5-2630v2 (2.6GHz 6c/12t) retails at about $70-80 each, whereas the E5-2630v1 (2.3GHz 6c/12t) retails at half that (or less!), and if you look at the benchmark scores the v1 scores a 1379 (per core) whereas the v2 scores a 1552 - just 11% slower for not even half the cost? Yeah, that's a pretty good deal.

Unfortunately the 8c/16t E5s are still fairly pricey unless you're okay with having a very low clock. Even the 2GHz E5-2650 usually hits $60-70/per - I'd be interested in the 2.4GHz E5-2665 but they still usually run at least $80/per, and I don't have a very valid need for 16c/32t. That said, eventually the v2 8c/16ts will fall in price, and maybe in another year or so I could do another big upgrade - this is what I did for the ML350G6 in the past.

Drives are my next concern for the C220M3, and as SSDs continue to fall in price they look better and better. I saw a 1TB SSD for $230 at Best Buy the other day! The Intel soft-RAID controller onboard is not supported by ESXi except as a pass through device, so I will need a hardware RAID controller. I have my Adaptec 2405, which, while older, does work well in ESXi and offers the good enough performance at it's price point. Granted, it only has one SAS connector and therefore only supports four drives, but it should be able to fit into the chassis nicely and host bays 5-8. I only have two so far, but ultimately I'd like to have four 240GB SSDs running in a RAID1+0. I'll test fit the 2405 in the C220M3 later this afternoon and see how it goes.

So the proposed buildout for the C220M3 is as follows:

  • 2nd heatsink - $35

  • Two E5-2630s - $85

  • 64GB RAM total - free

  • four drive sleds - $40

  • Adaptec 2405 - free

  • Four 240GB SSDs (two needed) - $110? (haven't priced it out)

Now for something completely different. I decomissioned the Optiplex 3010 as my pfsense box - I am now back to running the EdgeRouter X. Upgrading to EdgeOS 1.10.1 was a chore, but it is running great and my previous DNS woes have been resolved. I moved the i5-3245S from the 7010 into the 3010 and have set it up as my secondary desktop, sharing a kb/mouse with my primary desktop, and it's running ubuntu 18. The 7010 has the 3010s i3 and once configured with 4GB RAM and a base OS, will be sold.