IT setup on a small budget - Page 7

Soarer GT · 3rd July 2012, 6:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevlarCoated

I like the sound of the support, not the price, I will look into IBM servers and see what the prices look like.

Sit down when you look at the prices.

Swathe · 3rd July 2012, 7:33 PM

Dell shop here, and we get pretty good prices being not for profit. Our usual rep was away and his full in couldn't believe the deal we were getting, he had to double check with his superior before they took our last order.

To echo sentiments already raised here the Dell support is pretty good. We've always had quick response to have hardware stuff fixed. It's not the greatest gear but the support cycle allows you to keep updating and for a small business I don't think the budget will get hammered too hard.

KevlarCoated · 4th July 2012, 8:15 AM

Are nearline SAS drives worth it over SATA drives? The price on dells website is about 350 vs 700 for 2TB drives.
From what Ive read SAS drives have lower BER and higher MTBF and better warranties compared to sata drives but NL SAS is just a SATA drive with a SAS interface. Do people recommend the NL SAS over SATA?

Soarer GT · 4th July 2012, 2:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyroo54

I recognise the username from Toymods..

Probably the same person. Street racer circa 2000-2004? =)

Renza · 5th July 2012, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevlarCoated

Are nearline SAS drives worth it over SATA drives? The price on dells website is about 350 vs 700 for 2TB drives.
From what Ive read SAS drives have lower BER and higher MTBF and better warranties compared to sata drives but NL SAS is just a SATA drive with a SAS interface. Do people recommend the NL SAS over SATA?

IMO no. You're better off purchasing an extra sata drive and assign as a hot spare if/when required. (edit: assuming we're talking about NL-SAS vs Enterprise SATA)

Mitch01 · 5th July 2012, 1:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevlarCoated

Are nearline SAS drives worth it over SATA drives? The price on dells website is about 350 vs 700 for 2TB drives.
From what Ive read SAS drives have lower BER and higher MTBF and better warranties compared to sata drives but NL SAS is just a SATA drive with a SAS interface. Do people recommend the NL SAS over SATA?

SAS seek times are generally much faster, which if you are talking about larger files being accessed, might come into play.

SAS drives are also built internally more robust, provide better IOPS (generally via dedicated controller / firmware), better error checking (bad sector) handling, and are designed for 24/7 operation.

Have a read of these two articles from respected sources:
http://www.intel.com/support/motherb.../CS-031831.htm
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/net...s-compare/5323

They pretty much explain everything you need to know to make a call on SAS vs NL-SAS vs SATA..

Keep in mind not all RAID controllers will support desktop/workstation SATA drives.

Also keep in mind how they will handle bad sectors, as most desktop drives will attempt to recover the sector before it reallocates the data on that sector. That can cause RAID arrays to time out or fail the drive. With enterprise spec drives they are designed simply to drop that sector, and not reallocate or attempt recovery of it. This is why they don't recommend enterprise drives outside of RAID, and don't recommend non enterprise drives in a RAID setup. Of course for home users with Intel onboard RAID controllers the lines are a little more blurred as Seagate recommend certain desktop drives can be used in RAID.

joe_sixpack · 20th July 2012, 6:05 PM

Didn't feel like wading through all the BS in this thread, so sorry if it's been covered.

- Rack servers are loud and have a nice pitch that will eventually send someone in your office to go postal. Even tucked away in another area or whatever, the noise will get to you.

- Dell tower, with their IT Pro Support. It's amazing, full stop.

- SATA drives, don't bother with expensive top end PERC cards, just go the cheapest option for RAID 5.

- Pickup the phone and call Dell. Tell them that you are trying to setup a new office server and some of the basics you have in mind. They will also give you a crap load better pricing than what you see on the internet.

- Dell IT Pro support.

Lukenet · 20th July 2012, 8:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_sixpack

- SATA drives, don't bother with expensive top end PERC cards, just go the cheapest option for RAID 5.

My advice is don't do this! I just had one die this week on our server, not fun!!

Pro support told me to bugger off as I was out of warranty by less than a month after 3 years of paid support that was not used.

Swathe · 20th July 2012, 9:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukenet

My advice is don't do this! I just had one die this week on our server, not fun!!

Pro support told me to bugger off as I was out of warranty by less than a month after 3 years of paid support that was not used.

NVM saw the post in the other thread

joe_sixpack · 20th July 2012, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukenet

My advice is don't do this! I just had one die this week on our server, not fun!!

Pro support told me to bugger off as I was out of warranty by less than a month after 3 years of paid support that was not used.

You had 3 years of working drives, then your warranty expired and they wouldn't look after you? That's how warranty periods work, cars, tv's fridges, it's industry standard.

Also drives die all the time, I've had Fibre channel disks die repeatedly where as SATA drives worked fine without problems in large SAN arrays.

SATA is fine for what OP wants to do, we backup, we have redundancy because there is no certainty regardless of the cost of the drives.

TheNek · 21st July 2012, 2:32 PM

WHAT DID YOU END UP DOING?

KevlarCoated · 21st July 2012, 3:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_sixpack

Didn't feel like wading through all the BS in this thread, so sorry if it's been covered.

- Rack servers are loud and have a nice pitch that will eventually send someone in your office to go postal. Even tucked away in another area or whatever, the noise will get to you.

- Dell tower, with their IT Pro Support. It's amazing, full stop.

- SATA drives, don't bother with expensive top end PERC cards, just go the cheapest option for RAID 5.

- Pickup the phone and call Dell. Tell them that you are trying to setup a new office server and some of the basics you have in mind. They will also give you a crap load better pricing than what you see on the internet.

- Dell IT Pro support.

We have decided to go with a tower server with pro support, most likely dell.
Thanks for the opinion on the drives.
Yeah Ive found dell offer much better prices on the phone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNek

WHAT DID YOU END UP DOING?

Project has been delayed until I have time to do something with, also hopefully we will have some more money for the project when we do it. Still need to properly define the requirements for the system which I think will be expanded from the opening post.

3rd July 2012, 7:33 PM	#92
Swathe Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Rockhampton Posts: 2,175	Dell shop here, and we get pretty good prices being not for profit. Our usual rep was away and his full in couldn't believe the deal we were getting, he had to double check with his superior before they took our last order. To echo sentiments already raised here the Dell support is pretty good. We've always had quick response to have hardware stuff fixed. It's not the greatest gear but the support cycle allows you to keep updating and for a small business I don't think the budget will get hammered too hard. __________________ People reckon I'm too patronising (That means I treat them as if they're stupid). Over $9k in trades http://www.gentoo.org/

20th July 2012, 6:05 PM	#97
joe_sixpack Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Logan City, QLD Posts: 2,756	Didn't feel like wading through all the BS in this thread, so sorry if it's been covered. - Rack servers are loud and have a nice pitch that will eventually send someone in your office to go postal. Even tucked away in another area or whatever, the noise will get to you. - Dell tower, with their IT Pro Support. It's amazing, full stop. - SATA drives, don't bother with expensive top end PERC cards, just go the cheapest option for RAID 5. - Pickup the phone and call Dell. Tell them that you are trying to setup a new office server and some of the basics you have in mind. They will also give you a crap load better pricing than what you see on the internet. - Dell IT Pro support. __________________ "I don't stop eating when I'm full.. The meal isn't over when I'm full... The meal is over when I hate myself" - *Louis CK.* Blog Last edited by joe_sixpack; 20th July 2012 at 6:11 PM.

21st July 2012, 2:32 PM	#101
TheNek Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 968	WHAT DID YOU END UP DOING? __________________ Just me...

4th July 2012, 8:15 AM	#93
KevlarCoated Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Port Macquarie Posts: 187	Are nearline SAS drives worth it over SATA drives? The price on dells website is about 350 vs 700 for 2TB drives. From what Ive read SAS drives have lower BER and higher MTBF and better warranties compared to sata drives but NL SAS is just a SATA drive with a SAS interface. Do people recommend the NL SAS over SATA?