If you really want redundancy for the lowest cost, and electrical consumption/heat is not a problem, buy a used HP or IBM 1U server off eBay with no drives. Add your own serial ata ssd raid-1 pair.
Can't beat $450 for a system with ECC ram and dual hotswap power supplies. It won't be the fastest and latest CPU but it'll be more fault tolerant. On Dec 9, 2014 10:46 AM, "Ken Hohhof via Af" <[email protected]> wrote: > Passmark is not everything. > > Most gamers for example care only about processor speed not cores or > threads. Throwing dual socket 18 core Xeons at a game would accomplish > nothing. > > On the other hand, something like BIND by default creates as many listener > and worker threads as the processor can handle, and I suspect being able to > handle many tasks in parallel in separate threads is important. So the > 4-core 8-thread ATOM might perform better against the 2-core 4-thread i3 > than Passmark would indicate. For a Windows server, the i3 would probably > leave the ATOM in the dust. > > I think another question is whether you want a compact case with an > external power supply, or a rackmount case with an internal power supply, > depends on where it is going. Another consideration is common spare parts > like fans and power supplies, since those are what typically fails. > However a 200W power supply probably nullifies some of the low power > consumption, although for me the main thing about low power consumption is > passive cooling and reliability. > > Also do you care about features like ECC memory (probably hard to argue > for unless you worry about solar flares) and IPMI (maybe more justifiable). > > > -----Original Message----- From: Paul Conlin via Af > Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 11:47 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Atom D525 vs C2750 > > Yes, but Eric's i3 suggestion, in a Newegg combo kit is $222 > (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails. > aspx?ItemList=Combo.171263 > 2) as an example. Add a $100 case and it is just a little more than half > the price of this SM C2750. It doubles the TDP but for a CPU that scores > 3.5 times better than the ATOM on the PassMark CPU score. This example is > micro ATX but mini ITX boards are available. You have to really want low > power to pay so much more for the ATOM. This might explain why the ATOM > server market is so relaxed. > > PC > Blaze Broadband > > > -----Original Message----- >> From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af >> Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2014 11:36 AM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Atom D525 vs C2750 >> >> I've been pretty happy with the D510/D525 even with the limited speed, >> > cores, > >> memory addressing and onboard cache. I like the low power consumption and >> > passive > >> heatsinks. >> >> What I'm looking at is Supermicro 5018A-TN4: >> >> http://gopcn.com/i-16556899-supermicro-1u-atom-5018a-tn4.html >> >> Not all that cheap, but it's a genuine server with ECC memory, IPMI, short >> > depth > >> rackmount, and with the 2.5" HDD bracket can easily hold two SSD's for a >> > software > >> RAID1 configuration. Set the fan at lowest speed and even if it fails it >> > should not > >> really be needed unless you have it in a hostile environment. Probably >> > fine with 4MB > >> RAM and 128GB storage, maybe more storage for RADIUS or CACTI. >> >> BIND does a good job of multithreading and will use however many cores you >> > give it, > >> not sure about RADIUS and CACTI. D525 has 2 cores and 4 threads, >> C2750 has 8 cores and 8 threads plus a somewhat higher clock speed, so I'm >> > figuring 2- > >> 3 times the performance? It's definitely more money though. >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Paul Conlin via Af >> Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 9:58 AM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Atom D525 vs C2750 >> >> We have been planning on standing up a couple of light duty Linux servers >> > to upgrade > >> our DNS and RADIUS and maybe even a CACTI upgrade later. Are these newer >> ATOM platforms and a couple of small SSD's up to these tasks? How does >> > the D525 > >> do? >> >> It appears the C2750 has been out for nearly a year but I'm are not >> > finding too many > >> products using them. Intel's chart makes it look like the C2550 (4 cores >> > vs 8 cores) > >> might be a more cost effective replacement to the D525. >> But there are even fewer C2550 motherboards out there and they are not >> > significantly > >> cheaper than the C2750 or even the D525. Are we just not looking in the >> > right places > >> or is this low-cost low-TDP server market just really small? >> >> PC >> Blaze Broadband >> >> >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af >> > Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2014 2:57 PM >> > To: [email protected] >> > Subject: [AFMUG] Atom D525 vs C2750 >> > >> > I have several small Linux servers using Atom D525 processors for >> > tasks >> like DNS and >> > RADIUS, I even have one running Win7 that I use for PRTG and CNUT and >> > RDP sessions. Put a couple 128 GB SSDs in them and with passive >> > cooling and >> low TDP >> > you have an almost indestructible little server. >> > >> > Going forward, I'm wondering if I should look at the newer C2750 >> > version, >> it would >> > seem to support more memory and storage, 4x as many cores, 2x as many >> threads, >> > higher clock speed, more cache, supports ECC memory, but at a higher >> > price >> and TDP, >> > and the Ethernet NICs might not be as good as the 82574L chips on the >> motherboards >> > I have been using. Also at that price point you could question the >> > value >> compared to >> > just using an i3 or E3 processor. And even if the D525 is an old >> > design >> with limited >> > cores, cache and memory addressing, it does the job, so the only >> > reason to >> use the >> > newer chips may be for future proofing. >> > >> > So has anyone done the analysis or actually deployed C2750 based >> > servers? > >> >> > > >
