Unbelievable Cisco server deal

[CougTek]

Look here

Cisco is offering huge discounts on several of their last generation servers, hoping for sure to clear their inventory. The model in the link above is probably the best deal they have now. Unless you need storage, then it will be a C210 with 16x 2.5" drive bays and occupy 2U of rack space. But the one above is the fastest discounted server they have and it offers the highest density.

I tried to push my company to buy three of those, but apparently, they don't have money before January. The deal will be long gone by then. Too bad.

 

[MaxBurn]

Certainly has some CPU ability in there.

 

[CougTek]

Each Xeon X5675 has a MSRP of ~1440$ IIRC. The server is sold below that and it includes two. Awesome system to run F@h on it, or something else, as you wish.

With two of those, I could have replaced 24 of our older servers at the office, but they said no. I told them it would cost at least three times that to get similar performance in January, but they still said no. I don't understand pencil pushers.

 

[MaxBurn]

You don't have the money you don't have the money.

How dumb would it be to get a couple and part them out?

I'm thinking they are sort of top heavy on CPU verses memory to be useful for things except a render farm maybe.

 

[CougTek]

Nothing prevents you from adding RAM afterward. It's cheap, as long as you don't it from Cisco. It's usually much cheaper to add RAM than to add/replace processors in a server.

 

[Handruin]

You don't have the money you don't have the money.

How dumb would it be to get a couple and part them out?

I'm thinking they are sort of top heavy on CPU verses memory to be useful for things except a render farm maybe.

They are top heavy with CPU but if you look at the details they spec'ed them with 2 x 8GB sticks which is fantastic from a density standpoint. That means you wouldn't have to replace the memory to get to the 96GB max. You could just simply keep adding 8GB sticks into it. The memory sticks are worth maybe $100 each if you wanted to part them out also. This looks like a very nice system for the money. I'm curious how loud it may be. The CPU performance still looks quite good given how long it has been on the market.

 

[Handruin]

I have to admit...this is somewhat enticing. I've been wanting to build an ESXi test setup at home and even if I built systems myself, the raw CPU power in this setup is fantastic. Even if maxing out the RAM at 96GB puts this machine around $2500 with a couple hard drives. From the details description it looks like it also comes with the rack rails which is awesome.

 

[CougTek]

Yeah, I wish I had the money to grab a few too. Regarding the noise, I would have thought that you would be the best one to know since you've been using Cisco servers at your job. I think you only have blades and 2U servers from them, so maybe you don't know how loud the few 40mm fans in the 1U might be. It sure can't be a system for your living room. Rackmount equipment belong to the garage or a closed room in the basement.

 

[Handruin]

Yeah, I wish I had the money to grab a few too. Regarding the noise, I would have thought that you would be the best one to know since you've been using Cisco servers at your job. I think you only have blades and 2U servers from them, so maybe you don't know how loud the few 40mm fans in the 1U might be. It sure can't be a system for your living room. Rackmount equipment belong to the garage or a closed room in the basement.

I haven't had the experience with the 1U rack servers, so as you mentioned the noise it not likely for a living room or anywhere where sanity is required. I've only worked with the 2U and blade as you mentioned and those seemed no better or worse than the other equipment we have in the lab. The problem with identifying the noise is that our lab is so loud to start with that I can't even begin to give an opinion on the noise when adding another system into it. There are complementary foam ear plugs stored in bins near the doors if that is any indication of the noise levels. I sent the link to the senior lab manager at work to see if we can benefit from the price offered at CDW. We've bought through them in the past for other things, so I figured it couldn't hurt to benefit from these also. I did some more reading on the server and I think it's capable of 192GB RAM if one can afford the 16GB DIMMs.

 

[Mercutio]

I've never heard a 1U server that sounded like anything other than a jet aircraft getting ready for take off. 1U machines aren't anything you'd want in your house. Possibly not even in the garage next door to your house.

 

[ddrueding]

I've never heard a 1U server that sounded like anything other than a jet aircraft getting ready for take off. 1U machines aren't anything you'd want in your house. Possibly not even in the garage next door to your house.

Seconded. When I have to work on one in my office I will go to great lengths to minimize runtime. This was the primary motivation for out of band control.

 

[Handruin]

The C200 M2 is a screamer. We have a few in the lab and a coworker helped me find a pair of them. When we put our ear up to the back it has the dreaded high pitch whine as suspected. Even with the other ambient server noises it does sound like it would be annoying to have nearby.

He also showed me a set of four C210s (2U) and we powered one up. It was surprisingly quiet compared to the others we listened to.

 

[Stereodude]

Put the hardware in another case with quiet fans and proper airflow?

 

[ddrueding]

Put the hardware in another case with quiet fans and proper airflow?

Still easily a good value, but I bet the motherboard mounting points are non-standard.

 

[timwhit]

Put the hardware in another case with quiet fans and proper airflow?

I was just thinking the same thing.

Still easily a good value, but I bet the motherboard mounting points are non-standard.

New holes could be drilled and tapped.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm pretty sure Cisco servers are somebody's rebadged vanilla hardware. When they entered the market, they made a big deal about the fact that they were basically integrating off the shelf parts so they could have offerings at lower price points than Dell and HP.

 

[mubs]

Intead of 40mm axial fans, why don't they use crossflow (tubular impeller) fans? These could run the width of the back of the 1U, run at a lower speed but provide adequate cooling for less noise.

 

[Clocker]

Probably because noise is less of a concern than profit margin!