Recent content by learnedbyerror

Here's the link for anyone else that may be interested: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ML350-G6-Tower-Virtualization-Server-2-X-QC-2-4GHz-64GB-8x-146gb-10k-SAS-/262408246064

Hey, can't I change my mind? :) LOL Its about the balance of the pros and cons. If I can get a good enough price, I'll go with something, err a "wee bit larger" LOL. Losing a couple of ft^3 is easily worth saving $1,000 ;) My bigger concern is getting ProxMox installed on it with the drivers...

I think they probably will be louder than I want, but given the price, I'm inclined to give it a try. If they are too loud for the MBR Closet, I can always move them upstairs to the closet in my office. The ambient temp there is a little higher than the MBR, but given the design, I doubt it...

I have found an used, off-lean HP ML350 with 2 - QC 2.4/8MB E5530 and 64GB RAM for $525 including shipping to me. Looking at cpuboss, these chips seem to be pretty comparable to the D-1541 while slightly slower than the E2670. While I am concerned about the box being noisier than I would like...

Thanks to everyone. All of the above is a definite help. At this time, I am going to focus on the Supermicro Xeon D 8 Core boards and start at 32 GB. This should give me a little headroom to upgrade RAM if needed. Thanks again!!

And thanks to all of you who have replied. Just realized that I left Thanks off on some of my replies.

Only experimentation - no test or production. I would like the ECC, but agree it is optional. Per above, no need for Raid 5 arrays. I can live with the SSD risk in order to get the other benefits as I can replicate the critical data to my NAS. No need for a high-end video card. Ironically...

I'm keeping an eye on the Bay, but haven't found anything that floats my boat yet. Yes, small and quieter is at odds with performance. I plan on replacing an 8 bay tower, ATX format. So at worst, I could go with something similar. But, I am hoping that the advances over the last 5 or 6 years...

Chas, which Supermicro board?

Desired 8/16/64 should be fine. If I need something larger than desired, then I would probably move to something else. On drives - 4 bays should be plenty. I'm thinking 2 x 500GB SDD Raid 1 for HyperVisor and Guest OS and then a couple of similar drives for local storage where needed.

I can live with the 120mm fans if they are speed controlled as that is what I currently have. Per above, this will be located in the closet in my bed room so I am shooting for something closer to the noise level on an HTPC, not a server in a data center :)

Thanks to all who have replied!!! My target would be to see what I can achieve for $1,000. My hardline upper limit for this is $2,000. lbe

I want to replace the hardware on a Windows 2012 R2 server in which I use Hyper-V to run a couple of Linux VM's. The impetus to make the change is two parts: The existing hard disks are fairly old and starting and I am seeing the SMART metrics starting to move toward failure. The processing...

Its amazing how much 24 hours can change ones perspective. I have traced the majority of my performance issues to a bad WD15EADS drive. While the drive isn't reporting any problems, it will not transfer at a speed greater than 10 MB/s. The drive is still under warranty, so I am going to file...

OK, got a few minutes to look into the motherboards in more detail. The SuperMicro is a non-starter for me since it is limited to 4GB. Technically, I like the Zotac with the I3; however, MB, CPU & 8 GB of RAM hit about $400. While this isn't necessarily a deal killer, it is more than I really...