Hi,

Just thought i'd ask other GSP's and people alike, in your own views what do you think is cheaper and more value for money and maybe more Mhz for your money

Buy a branded rack server i.e. the R200 range from dell or buying the parts and building the server yourself i.e custom builds?

let me know what you think!

Custom Builds

We custom build our servers, however have found Dell's are getting closer and closer to our build costs!

yes we use the R200 and R300 range at the moment! but i wouldn't mind buying a few with the i7 chips in them, but just wanted to ask the question, if only new egg shipped to the uk :)!

Rick, if you dont mind me asking where abouts do you get your parts from? Scan, Overclockers?

99% of our stuff comes from Scan, their prices have been pretty hard to beat. On some occasions we've used eBuyer, however only if parts are out of stock on Scan.

ahh ok! thanks! do you get the 1u or 2u cases from there?

We're on 1u's, We have been using XCase branded cases however are looking at getting some supermicros if we can locate a decent provider.

Custom builds will generally get you more power for the money. At the same time it does depend on the components used.

For performance on a budget, custom build. If building an Intel Skt775 based system, dont look for anything other than a DG35EC board. Rock solid, cheap and works with everything.

If you custom build you can also easily source replacement parts which is a bonus, and you know the hardware you put into is decent as you are the one choosing it.

I do quite like some of Dell's stuff, but unless you pay the nose for their Gold support, sourcing parts quickly can be a pain.

We did have a short run of custom building and using cases from www.xcase.co.uk (http://www.xcase.co.uk), but they are horrible. We have seen numerous fans fail while being SOAK tested prior to being taken to the dc. There have also been alignment issues on some of the drive bays, making replacing drives a nightmare.

We have now settled on using Supermicro systems. It's got Supermicro's name on it so everything is quality, it's stable and with the right suppliers it only costs a coupe of hundred £ more than custom building.

Cu
I do quite like some of Dell's stuff, but unless you pay the nose for their Gold support, sourcing parts quickly can be a pain.

I found that Dell is pretty limited. On their PE1950, there are no SATA ports, IDE or anything which became an issue after having a HDD issue on the backplane.

Now we use Silicon Mechanics systems and Rackable Systems.

I honestly feel nothing is better then supermicro when it comes to dedicated servers for game servers.

ahh ok thanks for your feedback! does anyone know of a good supermicro supplier?

Dell for standard stuff and SM for more custom kit.

I'd never use self build grey boxes in a production environment.

the only thing that has stopped me from having "self built" custom servers with like the Intel Quad core range or the i7 range is that the hardware is built for desktops or video editing etc..

and not meant to be on 24/7 in a DC environment, where the Xeons are built for this, same goes for ram, please correctly me if i'm wrong here!

but this has always put me off building custom servers where if you buy a dell or hp you know its built for a DC environment? I dno.. just my view but if people are finding these "desktop" parts are great in a DC then i might start looking into it

the only thing that has stopped me from having "self built" custom servers with like the Intel Quad core range or the i7 range is that the hardware is built for desktops or video editing etc..

and not meant to be on 24/7 in a DC environment, where the Xeons are built for this, same goes for ram, please correctly me if i'm wrong here!

but this has always put me off building custom servers where if you buy a dell or hp you know its built for a DC environment? I dno.. just my view but if people are finding these "desktop" parts are great in a DC then i might start looking into it

It's really only budget hosts that use/provide them on mass.

Go look at softlayer for example and out of the hundred of the servers there are no Qxxx in sight.

ahh ok thanks for your feedback! does anyone know of a good supermicro supplier?

Scan.co.uk do provide them. I've not really done any shopping around so cant comment on their prices. Just run a search for supermicro and you'll find all their cases.

ahh ok thanks for your feedback! does anyone know of a good supermicro supplier?

We use Curt from Amadi Systems.