atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking Where would be a good place to get a custom server build(high end RAID configuration)

Hello.

I was wondering if you folks knew of any good places to get a custom build high end server?

I'm talking about Rack mounted, RAID(hardware controller like 3ware) with 12 hard drives and hot swap, dual CPU, etc.. I hope that gives you an idea of the type of servers I'm looking for. I pretty much have a list of all the components I would need, however I don't have the time to build and trouble shoot all the configurations especially with the RAID setup.

If you guys know a good place to build these at a reasonable price, I would sure appreciate it.

Thanks.

Tell me what you need and I will put it together for you.

A few members here, us included, could probably handle this. However, I would recommend calling dell, hp, ibm. Dell pricing is very reasonable, and their business warranty plans a very good.

~r

What OS are you looking for?

Nails has a good point. We quit building out own servers several years ago. Cooling in the datacenters was the biggest issue. I have nothing against IBM but we've gone to all HP Proliant Servers housed on HP cooling racks.

We use dell servers in my shop. The service is pretty good there, though you will pay for it. We had a hard drive fail in one of ours and got a replacement sent out within 4 hours, but that was on the Gold support plan.

We mirror the OS drive and use RAID 10 for the data drives, which are housed in PowerVault SCSI disk arrays (holds up to 14 disks). We've found the setup to be pretty straight-forward on the Dell. The servers use the Dell PowerEdge Raid Controller (PERC), which can be integrated cards or add-ons.

Of course there are a number of options on the data drives, SANS and whatnot.

You can setup a server and see the retail cost on the Dell web site.

Alliance Systems deals specifically with rack-mount servers - mostly telecom servers. But they do list storage servers in their bi-weekly email advertisments. Probably cheaper than Dell, but certainly not as cheap as assembling yourself or one of us....

www.alliancesystems.com

This is an example from their email:
S-2000 R2 – Coming in December!
The New S-2000 R2 will feature a 12-drive array housed in a 2U rackmount enclosure providing 4Gb FC interfaces to internal SAS or SATA-II disk drives. An external SAS interface allows up to five expansion units delivering a total of 56 drives or 28 TB total storage. Register below to be kept informed of this upcoming release and other developments in storage.

Get in touch with an actual sales rep from Dell or IBM, and you'll get a much better deal than their web pricing. For my last servers I priced IBM against building my own boxes or buying barebones servers. IBM had them all beat hands down. I bought a Dell rack-mount monitor/keyboard unit for our KVM. Dell was about $800 cheaper than anything else I could find on the market.

I agree with you Clinton. The days of me building my own machine are about over. Tired of having to mess with componet conflicts, drivers, etc...

My next PC with be a system from Dell with all the bells and whistles I can stand. Then I'll try to find some kid to buy my old one. I'll convince him that "real" men build their own!

For what its worth, we bailed on Dell due to repeated problems.

Contact Coastline Micro in Irvine, CA. They are Intel's #1, tier 2 builder. All system built to the highest specs and we've never had a failure. Its the only systems we spec.

Coastline is www.coastlinemicro.com.
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