Hello!

I´ve read somewhere that it is quiet cheaper if you build your own server, like I always buy all my components myself for my home pc.

Does anybody of you have any experiences with that, did anybody of you have built your own server, installed linux, freebsd, win2k or so?

Thank ya´ll in advance,
kind regards
Simon Smaluhn
zmon@softhome.net

In my case... yes, definitely! I build my own 1U rackmount chasis and I can save at least $400 than buying it on the net, even with the cheapest/best deal on the net...

cheers,
:beer:

Yes. Even counting the shipping of the parts, it is cheaper than buying a computer from a company like Dell or Compaq. I would definitely recommend building your own ... if you know what you are doing. :)

with Dell/Compaq? Gee... I can save at least $1000 if not $2000 :D

cheers,
:beer:

thank you!

I´ve found servelinux.com and places where I can blackrack, penguincomputing.com and similar providers. I think they are a bit cheaper than Dell/Compaq etc. but would you tell me some places where I can buy all the components, maybe also providers which offer leases and buyout, fmp, 10% options?

Originally posted by simon
thank you!

I´ve found servelinux.com and places where I can blackrack, penguincomputing.com and similar providers. I think they are a bit cheaper than Dell/Compaq etc. but would you tell me some places where I can buy all the components, maybe also providers which offer leases and buyout, fmp, 10% options?

To buy rackmount chasis, try:
http://www.rackmountequipment.com
http://www.rackmountland.com
http://www.rackmountnet.com (I use this company).

I have found http://www.googlegear.com to be pretty good if you want to buy Retail CPU. http://www.pricewatch.com may be useful for you reference, but remember... a lot of junk companies out there, some are good though....

Good luck :D

cheers,
:beer:

I'm surprised nobody has asked this question yet...

Are you going to co-locate your servers?
There are quite a few draw backs to this.

Originally posted by Dylan
I'm surprised nobody has asked this question yet...

Are you going to co-locate your servers?
There are quite a few draw backs to this.

compared to un-managed dedicated server, I think colo is better... I can put 512MB/HD of memory without having the host charge me for additional memory/HD montly.

compared to managed dedicated server, colo is much cheaper... :)

cheers,
:beer:

Well co-location might turn out to be cheaper if your lucky. Because, if you have any hardware failure, you will be responsible for sending in replacements. Which can be time consuming, in turn increasing the server downtime.

Thank you dektong!

I´m now thinking of builing my own server and installing FreeBSD on it (see: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=6366). Co-locate it at e.g. dtwebworks.com. Their co-location prices are unbeatable and for $2/gig or $3/gig respectively.

Would you tell me what control panel I should use?

thank you.

Originally posted by simon
Would you tell me what control panel I should use?

Cpanel @ http://www.darkorb.net

[Edited by kunal on 02-27-2001 at 07:24 AM]

without having the host charge me for additional memory/HD montly

That is a rip off. What you pay them monthly in two months actually pays for the whole thing?

Buy the thing out-right!

Perhaps you can get one of these, chuck out the spares for personal use and...

http://www.cognigen-pc.com/viewitem.cfm?cogid=gh2377540&itemid=189681

Is the DarkOrb a cp made of cpanel3 and web host manager?
I´ve read that it is still the beta.

Kunal, do you mean I should use cpanel3 from cpanel.net?

thanx

Originally posted by simon
Is the DarkOrb a cp made of cpanel3 and web host manager?
I´ve read that it is still the beta.

Kunal, do you mean I should use cpanel3 from cpanel.net?

thanx

Yup.

Originally posted by Dylan
Perhaps you can get one of these, chuck out the spares for personal use and...

http://www.cognigen-pc.com/viewitem.cfm?cogid=gh2377540&itemid=189681



Nay... I can do even better with rackmount chasis with better components/specs for the same price. Why would I want to get etower? :D

cheers,
:beer:

Who did you say you get your servers from?

I saw it in another post but I'm too lazy to look for it... heehee

As I have said (many-many times) I build my own rackmount server. :D

cheers,
:beer:

Ok, let's re-phrase... where do you get your components from?

Everybody!

I´m also interested in where ya´ll get your servers from!

Please see:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=6392

thank ya´ll

Originally posted by Dylan
Ok, let's re-phrase... where do you get your components from?

For rackmounts, though they are tons of companies out there selling rackmount chasis (to name a few: http://www.atlantec.net, http://www.rackmountequipment.com, http://www.rackmount.com, http://www.rackmuntland.com, etc), I personally use http://www.rackmountnet.com because their prices seem to be reasonable. Just do a search at google.com on rackmount and you will get links to tons of other companies.

http://www.googlegear.com has a descent price for CPU (Retail) and memory, though it may not be the least expensive. I bought one motherboard there too. I also have used http://www.myinfinity.com (though, I won't recomment them too much since it took them way too long to send the m/b, well not big problem). In general, try http://www.pricewatch.com for the lowest price aroudn but beware: there are a lot of bad companies listed with pricewatch.com, sometimes it may be safer for you to look for a quality of service (though with higher price) than to look for the lowest price available. Also, f you go to your local CompUSA, CircuitCity, Best Buy to buy some parts (HD's etc), I think you can still save some money.

Finally, Ebay.com is another source too look into. You may find quite good a deal right there.... In fact, I know for sure that http://www.atlantec.net also sell their rackmounts at ebay. I think (I am not sure) you can get the trackmount cheaper than if you go directly to atlantec's web site. Funny :)

When I shop for parts, I do not shop as a dealer/reseller... But still I can save some money.

cheers,
:beer:

[Edited by dektong on 02-27-2001 at 11:21 PM]

Thanks a bunch!

I've never been a fan of building your own servers.

We buy from VA Linux pretty excluisvely (although we have also purchased from PogoLinux and Penguin Computing).

My line of thinking is as follows :

Quality vendors spend a lot of time on
engineering issues. As stupid as it sounds,
there is a lot to be said for cooling,
especially with the 1U units. I haven't seen
many whitebox vendors beat the 1120 VA
unit in terms of cooling and airflow.

Quality vendors do an extensive burn in. We
could do an extensive burn in ourselves I
suppose, but it just seems that we would be
getting into an area where another company
would be doing a better job at the task than
we would.

I don't like that idea :-)

Cheers,

Originally posted by nopzor
As stupid as it sounds,
there is a lot to be said for cooling,
especially with the 1U units. I haven't seen
many whitebox vendors beat the 1120 VA
unit in terms of cooling and airflow.

how about this: http://rackmountequipment.com/products/rackchassis/RC0101/RC0101.htm

cheers,
:beer:

I´ve read somewhere that 2U is much better than 1U, because of the cooling...

What do you think of this offer: $899:

http://storeanywhere.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=28&

Stay away from AMD processors exp. in 1u cases...

simon: generally speaking, we've had less problems with 1u hardware than 2u. i think that cooling is definitely an issue.

cbaker: what's wrong with amd processors in 1u? run too hot?

2u alright?

Anybody know how good these companies are for purchasing servers:

gtweb.net - cheap! but no network cards?
xcomputing.com
indybox.com
linuxcomputersystems.com
oh, and how's this... rocksolidnetworks.com... they recon they'll build you a server for $750... haahaa...

Dylan:

I've talked to indyBox, they seem pretty clued; never bought anything from them.

VA Linux systems are really really nice. They used to be quite expensive, but they're a lot more competitive now. We've bought severeal dozen machines from them

We've also bought about a half dozen servers from Pogo Linux. No complaints. And they were very competitively priced.

Dell has some interesting stuff out, and their pricing has come down tremendously.

All in all, I think the pricing of the high end black box vendors has come down considerably and will continue to approach that of the white box vendors.

The 1U and 2U boxes are already getting to be commodities. This will only continue to happen and we'll see companies begin to compete on service and manageability.

All this IMHO of course :-0

Later,

Originally posted by nopzor
what's wrong with amd processors in 1u? run too hot?


AMD processors have some heat issues. They get hotter and can overheat faster then Intel CPU's. Dumping an AMD processor inside a 1U case is asking for trouble. Unless you can get some really good air circulation and cooling, think twice about it.

Now that you mention it, AMD does have a processor over-heating problem. I had this problem with my personal computer and had to buy a new fan that was like 300 times bigger than the CPU. I mean massive!

I think I read an article at tom's hardware a while back that said that AMD processors are by default at their highest stable operating speed, while Intel processors usually operate at a speed less than what it is capable of. This comes in to play in overclocking and anywhere where excessive heat would be an issue.

You cant compare intel to amd their a completly different architecture, Intel processors can run at half speed and still be faster than amd because of the type of die and cache on the cpu

Originally posted by cbaker17
You cant compare intel to amd their a completly different architecture, Intel processors can run at half speed and still be faster than amd because of the type of die and cache on the cpu

Ehem.... it's one of the most untrue claim (though funny) I have ever heard :D check tomshardware.com before you even say that thing...
I will bet my Celeron 300A and Charles would be dtwebworks.com :D Let's have P3 1000Mhz (FSB 133Mhz) runs at FSB=66Mhz (500Mhz) and compare it with Athlon 1000Mhz... hm.... imagine :)

cheers,
:beer:

[Edited by dektong on 03-04-2001 at 04:40 PM]

go for smartvm[.]com to buy best rackmount server

Back to the original topic.

I would NOT recommend COLO, NOR building your own server.

Colo ends up being much more expensive in the long run. Wait till you have a hard drive failure and then you'll see why Colo is NOT the way to go. You have to pay for escorted access to the Datacenter (hourly fees are usually up to $100 per hour after hours, it may be free during business hours but if a server goes offline on a friday evening you're stuffed). You have to diagnose and solve all the problems yourself and pay for and find replacement hardware yourself.

Basically the entire burden is on you and I can guarantee you it will take you longer to fix yourself, meaning more downtime.

Basically Colo is great when everything is running perfectly, but a nightmare when something fails.

We won't be going back to Colo ever again. A simple dedicated server is so much easier and now-a-days just as cheap.

But if you were going to setup your own mini Datacenter too - well thats a different story - in that case - sure build your own servers by all means.