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Help! To buy or not to buy this server?

Good evening! I am in desperate need of some direction before I go through the checkout process for the purchase of a server.

My apologies up front for this being a long post but I am in over my head. Uncle!

 

I am a small business owner (husband and wife owned design build construction company). I have a degree in architecture and have been thrown into wearing the IT, admin, marketing and graphic design hats. The last time I purchased computer equipment (server, PC and laptop....was 9 years ago and they were all Dell brand equipment) Our previous server (which died a few months ago) was simply used for file storage.

 

We have a central office space which I am in almost daily and my admin assistant is there 2 days a week. On her "off" days, she works remotely; I often work remotely "after hours" as well.

Right now I have remote desktop set up to connect to my desktop at the office however I am frequently finding my assistant and I both need remote access during the same hours. I am also in the process of hiring a draftsperson who will need to remote connect on occasion and use Revit as well as access drawing files.

 

Programs we use regularly:Revit (an older version loaded to my computer - we will be going cloud based in the next 30 days), Photoshop (cloud based), MS Office programs, Adobe PDF

 

Occasionally: Illustrator (cloud based) and AutoCAD

 

I am have customized a Dell T130 Tower Server with the following specs:

 

  • TPM 1.2 FIPS Common Criteria (this was an add on for $37)
  • Chassis with up to 4, 3.5" cabled hard drives and embedded SATA
  • Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 3.4GHz , 8M Cache  4C/8T turbo (80W) (a $50 upgrade from their base 3GHz 4C/4T)
  • 2400MT/s UDIMMS (standard and not customizable)
  • 8GB (1x8GB) 2400MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM --- Qty 2 (base spec is (1) 8GBm adding a second increases cost by $120)
  • No RAID (embedded SATA)
  • 1TB 7.2K RPM SATA 6Gbps 3.5in Cabled Hard Drive --- Qty 2 (base is (1) 1TB, adding a second increases cost by $163)
  • On-Board LOM 1GBE Dual Port (BCM5720 GbE LOM) and Intel Ethernet I350 DP 1Gb Server Adapter (Do I need both? The Intel Ethernet adds $144)
  • iDRAC8 Basic
  • DVD+/-RW, SATA, Internal (standard equip is just DVD, upgrading to RW adds $43)
  • NEMA 5-15P to C13 Wall Plug, 125 Volt, 15 AMP, 10 Feet (3m), Power Cord, North America
  • Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit for PowerEdge T130
  • Windows Server® 2016,Essentials Ed,Factory Inst,No MED,2SKT,NO CAL
  • Windows Server 2016 Essentials Edition,Media Kit
  • UEFI BIOS Boot Mode with GPT Partition
  • and a power supply....810 Watt / 1350 VA , 12 V , 1350VA CP AVR LCD UPS TWR 8OUT 5-15R USB/DB9 RJ11 ($130+)

 

The cart is saying this server would run $2760.99 but with the sale they have going on it's coming in at $1786.44 plus there is a coupon that will take another $250 off making the cost before taxes $1536.44 .....and then I can get 10% cash back through a rewards program I belong to.

I am also going to need to purchase Remote Desktop user licenses correct?

 

Any guidance would be tremendously appreciated! I am sure I look like a dummy here sigh, bear with me.

 

 

 

 

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Im no expert, i have to google how to cook eggs...but sure buy it! a xeon is plenty powerful, but a video card would be a nice addition. 

Best of myself(1000th post)

 

Vista

Core i5-8400

8GB DDR4

GTX 1050ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD
MSI H310M PRO-VD

EVGA 450BT

Cooler Master masterbox lite 3.1

Arctic Cat

Core 2 quad q8200

8GB DDR2 ECC

GTX 550ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD

Dell precision t3400 motherboard

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Well don't buy that server ... 1500$ for a machine with only 8gb of ram and a 1tb hard drive? You might as well be using the 9 year old machine you already have.

You know your requirements for the programs you run aren't very demanding and most any computer could run those aps. Is there a reason you need a 1500$ server or?

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2 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

Im no expert, i have to google how to cook eggs...but sure buy it! a xeon is plenty powerful, but a video card would be a nice addition. 

Ha! If you need a kitchen designed to cook those eggs in or a table to eat them at  - I can help.

A video card was not even an add-on option but I will look in their parts section. I have an NVDIA in my desktop but I see AMD's spec'd a lot. Does one brand perform better than another?

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You want a ssd, that will make this much better.

 

How are you doing users? do you have AD?

 

Are you using citrix/esxi here, there built for the remote app(windows server has their own solution.

 

Do you have a rack?

 

You want a gpu here, Id get something that supports gpu's like a r640(ithink) or a dell precision. You may need a tesla if you need tesla as there the only gpus that can be split up for multiple users in their own vms.

 

Windows server essentials has lots of limited features, so it probably can't do remote app.

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, emosun said:

Well don't buy that server ... 1500$ for a machine with only 8gb of ram and a 1tb hard drive? You might as well be using the 9 year old machine you already have.

You know your requirements for the programs you run aren't very demanding and most any computer could run those aps. Is there a reason you need a 1500$ server or?

Eek. Ok, Did you catch the specs that it has (2) 8bg ram and (2) 1tb hd's?

I was under the impression that Revit is pretty demanding particularly when rendering images. Am I wrong?

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2 minutes ago, overmyhead said:

Does one brand perform better than another?

dont be starting flame wars my freind lol

 

Nvidia and AMD are basically the same (dont quote me) but like all these other people are saying, that system is kinda overpriced for what your doing, Hell a dell Inspiron could work just as fine for 1/2 the price

Best of myself(1000th post)

 

Vista

Core i5-8400

8GB DDR4

GTX 1050ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD
MSI H310M PRO-VD

EVGA 450BT

Cooler Master masterbox lite 3.1

Arctic Cat

Core 2 quad q8200

8GB DDR2 ECC

GTX 550ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD

Dell precision t3400 motherboard

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3 minutes ago, overmyhead said:

Did you catch the specs that it has (2) 8bg ram and (2) 1tb hd's?

That's , still a 1500$ machine with only 16gb of ram and for some reason two 1tb hard drives that cost....

 

17 minutes ago, overmyhead said:

1TB, adding a second increases cost by $163)

when 4tb drives at bestbuy are under 100$ these days and 1 tb drives are languashing in hp desktops from 2009.

 

Whatever website you're building this out on is definitely going to get a lot of meat on the bone when they sell you this machine.

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3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You want a ssd, that will make this much better.

 

How are you doing users? do you have AD?

 

Are you using citrix/esxi here, there built for the remote app(windows server has their own solution.

 

Do you have a rack?

 

You want a gpu here, Id get something that supports gpu's like a r640(ithink) or a dell precision. You may need a tesla if you need tesla as there the only gpus that can be split up for multiple users in their own vms.

 

Windows server essentials has lots of limited features, so it probably can't do remote app.

 

 

 

 

You might as well be speaking Greek to me at this point. (This coming from someone who speaks a little Greek). :D

I know SSD means Solid State Drive.

 

What is AD? GPU?

I use windows' remote desktop app (remote connection was set up by someone else)

No rack

When you say their own vms.....does that mean virtual machines?

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

That's , still a 1500$ machine with only 16gb of ram and for some reason two 1tb hard drives that cost....

 

when 4tb drives at bestbuy are under 100$ these days and 1 tb drives are languashing in hp desktops from 2009.

 

Whatever website you're building this out on is definitely going to get a lot of meat on the bone when they sell you this machine.

 

4 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

dont be starting flame wars my freind lol

 

Nvidia and AMD are basically the same (dont quote me) but like all these other people are saying, that system is kinda overpriced for what your doing, Hell a dell Inspiron could work just as fine for 1/2 the price

You gotta make a account with dell, they can get lower if you call them up.

 

Also your paying for support. These servers normally have sameday onsite support. Your inspiron or hdd from best buy doesn't have that.

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What about Lenovo thinkstation you can probably get a s30 or d20 for half the price, Lenovo ThinkStation S20  X5650 2.66GHz 6-Core 24GB RAM 1x 1tbGB HDD Dual DVI Windows 7 Professional and its not that bad, triple channel ram.

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

That's , still a 1500$ machine with only 16gb of ram and for some reason two 1tb hard drives that cost....

 

when 4tb drives at bestbuy are under 100$ these days and 1 tb drives are languashing in hp desktops from 2009.

 

Whatever website you're building this out on is definitely going to get a lot of meat on the bone when they sell you this machine.

Aha! Ok.  Dell's website. And what you cite is what I was afraid of. All of my old equip was through Dell ---- 9 years ago. I went there out of brand comfort and obviously minimal knowledge of what the heck I need. Argh.

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Your inspiron or hdd from best buy doesn't have that.

ive found this forum site is better tech support than the manufacturer themselves :D

Best of myself(1000th post)

 

Vista

Core i5-8400

8GB DDR4

GTX 1050ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD
MSI H310M PRO-VD

EVGA 450BT

Cooler Master masterbox lite 3.1

Arctic Cat

Core 2 quad q8200

8GB DDR2 ECC

GTX 550ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD

Dell precision t3400 motherboard

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Just now, overmyhead said:

You might as well be speaking Greek to me at this point. (This coming from someone who speaks a little Greek). :D

I know SSD means Solid State Drive.

 

What is AD? GPU?

I use windows' remote desktop app (remote connection was set up by someone else)

No rack

When you say their own vms.....does that mean virtual machines?

 

 

 

If you don't know what AD is you need to get a IT guy to set this up for you. This will probably lead to a problem down the line it seems.

 

Normally the correct way to do this is with citrix xen server or vmware horizon and then each user get a chunk of the gpu and stream the desktop(remote desktop can have issues with some programs) You can also just stream one app(like photoshop) on the client so that they just stream the app they want, not the whole desktop, and that app works like just anouther app running locally, but its running on a server.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, alarmingtugboat said:

What about Lenovo thinkstation you can probably get a s30 or d20 for half the price, Lenovo ThinkStation S20  X5650 2.66GHz 6-Core 24GB RAM 1x 1tbGB HDD Dual DVI Windows 7 Professional and its not that bad, triple channel ram.

That system is about 8 years old and your not getting support with that.

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Just now, v0nn_toaster said:

ive found this forum site is better tech support than the manufacturer themselves :D

But we can't come to you same day and replace failed parts. Dell business support is very good.

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Just now, overmyhead said:

brand comfort

Throw brand comfort out the window

In the computer world , it's all about the facts and figures. I'll switch my brands on a dime when someone offers a faster machine/component at a better price.

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2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

But we can't come to you same day and replace failed parts. Dell business support is very good.

jeez what is this a dell commercial?

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2 minutes ago, emosun said:

In the computer world , it's all about the facts and figures

That sounds like a quote from a movie or a show on daytime TV LOL

jeez what is this a dell commercial?

damn you on fire

Best of myself(1000th post)

 

Vista

Core i5-8400

8GB DDR4

GTX 1050ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD
MSI H310M PRO-VD

EVGA 450BT

Cooler Master masterbox lite 3.1

Arctic Cat

Core 2 quad q8200

8GB DDR2 ECC

GTX 550ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD

Dell precision t3400 motherboard

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

jeez what is this a dell commercial?

hp and lenovo buiness grade are about the same. You get good support from them. You won't get good support on consumer class hardware. 

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Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

That system is about 8 years old and your not getting support with that.

Still a beast though. Always have liked Lenovo and IBM

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You won't get good support on consumer class hardware. 

Yeah even if you're doing consumer grade tasks...... and have been doing consumer grade tasks for 9 years

you know what? sure go ahead and spend the 1500 on server hardware you have my blessing.

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

Yeah even if you're doing consumer grade tasks...... and have been doing consumer grade tasks for 9 years

you know what? sure go ahead and spend the 1500 on server hardware you have my blessing.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

im not helping

Best of myself(1000th post)

 

Vista

Core i5-8400

8GB DDR4

GTX 1050ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD
MSI H310M PRO-VD

EVGA 450BT

Cooler Master masterbox lite 3.1

Arctic Cat

Core 2 quad q8200

8GB DDR2 ECC

GTX 550ti

1TB 7200RPM HDD

Dell precision t3400 motherboard

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You guys do notice that it comes With a Server 2016 License, right?  Thats ~$400 in cost right there.

 

The hardware alone is quite easily worth ~$1000.

 

~$1500 is not a bad deal.

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39 minutes ago, overmyhead said:

I am also going to need to purchase Remote Desktop user licenses correct?

Windows Server 2016 Essentials does not support the RDS role, you can have a maximum of 2 concurrent administrative remote sessions.

 

Have you considered just buying a QNAP NAS for network file storage then on your router setup multiple port forwards to the dedicated workstations for people to use? You can forward for example external port 6001 to 3389 (PC1 internal IP) and 6002 to 3389 (PC2 internal IP) and so on. If you only need file storage and no other features of Windows Server Essentials it's not worth paying extra for it or a higher end server than what is required.

 

For that actual server you are looking at that is a decent deal but only if you need more than network storage.

 

It'll be cheaper overall to buy a NAS and spend more on the workstations which you'll get more productive use out of.

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