[Cadre-politics] Computer Hardware Specs - CSL Server

[Robert Vanderley]

At the CSL we have a rather unique (and fun) opportunity to purchase a 
new server system. Finding the appropriate hardware to match our needs 
is made rather simple with Dell's, HP's, and Gateway's customize able 
options. It would be easy to check off boxes and options and select what 
appears to be the best bang for our buck. I have decided to take the 
high road and thoroughly research each option we could choose from:

1) Processor: Intel Xeon. (1)

    i)  5000 family | 3.00GHz - 3.73GHz    667 MHz / 1066MHz FSB |
         
        The Intel Xeon 5000 series has the highest of the clock cycles 
to choose from. Both families of processors have the Virtualization 
Technology (2) which allows the Virtual machines to access CPU 
operations specific to virtual machine support. The 5000 family has a 
feature the 5100 does not. Hyper-Threading Technology is available only 
in the single core and Dual-Core 5000 family. This allows processes to 
be computed simultaneously ( for a clear demonstration watch the Intel 
Dual-Core Demo.) (3b)

    ii) 5100 family | 1.60GHz - 3.00GHz     1066MHz / 1333MHz FSB |

         The advantage of the 5100 family is in the architecture of the 
chip. Intel uses a new Micro architecture to construct the chip. This 
feature allows for less wattage per calculation (meaning a smaller 
electricity bill, less heat, and probably less noise due to fans at high 
RPM.) The chip also houses a shared processor memory cache of 4Mb in 
place of the 2Mb per each processor. This would improve performance due 
to no redundant information stored in each cache. The extra Front Side 
Buss (FSB) speed provides overall system wide performance.

   
    Matt has informed me that Xen can only support two processors and 
with Xeon's dual core technology (3) one processor is in fact two 
processors. Gateway's only affordable option is the single core Xeon 
processors. If we buy from Gateway we should buy two processors. If we 
buy from the Intel Xeon 5000 Dual-Core family we save on costs for more 
RAM and hard drives. If we buy from the Intel Xeon 5100 family we 
receive benefits of the 5100 family increased FSB speed, shared cache, 
and less heat.

2) Memory: DDR2 533 MHz or DDR2 667 MHz

    2GB or not to 2GB.
 
    Dell's motherboard offers 12 RAM slots for expansion. If customized 
correctly ( One dual-processor), 4 sticks of 2GB Dual-Ranked RAM at 
533MHz can be purchased. (6)

    Gateway provides 6 sticks of 1GB ECC Single-Ranked RAM at 400MHz for 
8 slots.

    HP provides 4 stick of 512MB RAM at 400MHz for 8 slots .


3) Case Design: Front-side access
   
    It would be nice if the world liked us, but we can't always have our 
way can we?

    Currently the only people that would allow front side Hard Drive 
access is Gateway. While front side access is nice (very-nice, 
professional looking, easy for us) it is a rather pricey option. Gateway 
has good prices for us on older hardware. They do not offer the 5100 
family processors and the Dual Core option is expensive. They also do 
not provide a FSB higher than 800MHz.



4) Hard Drive Configuration: SATA or SCSI.

    The Next Generation: SAS ( Serial Attached SCSI )

    SAS seems to be the new standard model of hard drives for servers 
(4). SAS HD controllers support both SAS and SATA drives. SATA seems to 
be the cheapest option. SAS is faster, but the size to cost ratio of 
SATA to SAS drives is about 2GB of SATA space to every 1GB of SAS space.

    RAID 0? 1? 5? 10?

    Dell offers us a free integrated PERC 5/i RAID controller. We all 
know that RAID configurations can give us a wonderful boost in 
performance. I do not want to advocate more hardware dependencies that 
could go wrong, but a RAID 1 setup would provide a cheap solution for 
limiting server downtimes.

5) Bottom Line.
After much research and model configuring I recommend we buy from DELL. 
Dell will give us the greatest flexibility at the lowest price. The 
model we buy from DELL will also allow us the greatest room for 
expansion. The fallowing models are listed for an idea of the 
performance for price at each of the vendors.


	 DELL
	Gateway
	HP
Processor
	Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 5060, 2x2MB Cache, 3.20GHz, 1066MHz FSB 	(2) 
Intel® Xeon® 2MB Cache, 2.80GHz, 800 MHz FSB
	(2) Intel® Xeon® 2x2MB Cache, 2.80GHz, 800MHz FSB
Memory
	8GB 533MHz (4x2GB), Dual Ranked DIMMs   (12 slot MAX )
	6GB 400MHz (6x1GB), Single Ranked ECC DDR2 SDRAM (8 slot MAX )
	4GB 400MHz (4x1GB) (8 slot MAX)
Hard Drive(s)
	(2x) 160GB, SATA, 3.5-inch, 7.2K RPM Hard Drive (RAID 1 config)
	250GB, SATA 7.2k RPM Hard Drive
	72GB, SAS 10k RPM Hard Drive
Warranty
	3Yr SILVER ENTERPRISE SUPPORT: 7x24 HW/SW, Next Business Day on-site 
3Yr parts, labor, 3Yr/4hour on-site 7x24, 3yr HW tech support 	3Yr Next 
Business Day on-site
Additional
	PERC 5 (RAID Controller) Documentation, Redundant Power Supply
	2dn 730W power supply, Front-side backplane HD access
	Redundant power supply,

	
	
	

	
	
	

	
	
	
Cost tax + shipp.
	$ 4,078.21 	$ 4,081.35 	$3,791.14

    * I had much fun customizing my options at DELL's configure page - 
give it a try *
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=pe2900-min&s=bsd


    (1) An overview of the 5100 features.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/06/26/xeon_woodcrest_preys_on_opteron/index.html
   
    (2) Virtualization Hardware support: small explanation.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/263/1

    (3) a. Dual Core Technology explained ( fun )
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=261
          b. Intel Dual-Core demo, just click on the Dual-Core demo)
http://www.intel.com/business/smallbusiness/products/server/index.htm?iid=smb_home+body_servers
   
    (4) He-likey-de-SAS:  A thorough report on Serial Attached SCSI (a 
very-good, 28pgs)
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/04/07/going_the_sas_storage_way/index.html

    (5) Single vs Dual-Ranked RAM ( 2nd page of this .pdf document)
http://www.valueram.com/news/pdf/MKF_676_MarketNews_oct.pdf