On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/04/dell_poweredge_vrtx_smb_system/ >>>>> I have a couple Dell Precision engineering workstations under my desk. >>>> HP Microservers IMHO. New Gen8 is out: >>> Might well be a fine product, but not really trying to be what that >>> Dell box is trying to be. >> I was comparing it to the Precisions mentioned in the post before mine. > Ah, I misunderstood. Sorry.
Thinking more about it, they're really three different solutions. It does seem like that ProLiant MicroServer is a better solution for the small lab scenario posited. The Precision is trying to be an engineering workstation, so it has various I/O ports, removable media drive bays, and lots of card expansion room. None of which you need in a VM host, so why pay for them? The MicroServer omits all of those. You couldn't put a big video card in it, for example. Meanwhile the MicroServer has more stock hard disk bays, and storage is something you do want in a VM host. Likewise, the VRTX box seems like it would be a big win for a larger small business that needs multiple physical nodes, or for a satellite office of a big company that would otherwise need to put several 1U and 2U boxes in a rack. It's too big for a SOHO, though. But I wouldn't want that MicroServer in a SOHO either; it lacks some redundancy and uses some non-standard parts. (A SOHO can often get by with a single box, if you can just run out to Staples to buy spares.) But for a lab, you don't care about that. -- Ben
