Server parts recomemdations?

[JapanDave]

Budget (including currency): 7.5K to 10K US (Can be cheaper if possible)

Country: Japan

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Used to run a single application with daily users of about 300-400 users on two SQL Sever instances. Each database will have the potential size of up to 500gb

Other details : I was thinking that I could use 2 x 2TB nvme storage in mirror RAID (Or any suggestions on how many storage drives are needed with the single available being at least 2TB). Except I need advice on how to set up RAID and alerts if a drive fails as I have never done it before.

I am not sure what is better,  a single Threadripper CPU or dual Intels?

With memory I was thinking of 256gb to 512gb of ECC Memory?

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

Dave

 

[Fasauceome]

1 hour ago, JapanDave said:

I am not sure what is better,  a single Threadripper CPU or dual Intels

It depends on the availability of parts in your region. Epic Rome CPUs as well as 3000 series CPUs are extremely potent for huge scale like what you described, so I would suggest that to start, assuming you are comparing similar generations of AMD vs Intel (when Zen 2 processors came out they dominated Intel in the server and prosumer space)

[JapanDave]

15 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

It depends on the availability of parts in your region. Epic Rome CPUs as well as 3000 series CPUs are extremely potent for huge scale like what you described, so I would suggest that to start, assuming you are comparing similar generations of AMD vs Intel (when Zen 2 processors came out they dominated Intel in the server and prosumer space)

Availability is pretty much the same as in America. Oh yeah, I did not even consider the Epyc CPUs. Thanks

Still gota figure out the RAID stuff though.

[Fasauceome]

8 minutes ago, JapanDave said:

Availability is pretty much the same as in America. Oh yeah, I did not even consider the Epyc CPUs. Thanks

Still gota figure out the RAID stuff though.

What are the clients doing? You might not need raid for speed, but I definitely recommend it for redundancy

 

Some software like Unraid might work for you

[JapanDave]

3 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

What are the clients doing? You might not need raid for speed, but I definitely recommend it for redundancy

 

Some software like Unraid might work for you

Pretty much read/write data operations. And yes, that is the only reason I am going to run RAID is for redundancy.

I have used Unraid on media server at home but, that was years ago. It is still a pretty good option then?

[JapanDave]

Is something like this recommended,

https://www.highpoint-tech.com/ssd/ssd710x-overview

[Fasauceome]

1 hour ago, JapanDave said:

Pretty much read/write data operations. And yes, that is the only reason I am going to run RAID is for redundancy.

I have used Unraid on media server at home but, that was years ago. It is still a pretty good option then?

I know that people have been generally positive with Unraid in recent years, though I can't speak for how effective it would be for your specific uses

 

42 minutes ago, JapanDave said:

Is something like this recommended,

https://www.highpoint-tech.com/ssd/ssd710x-overview

The only M.2 riser I have used us an Asus card which was highly proprietary, though I think this particular one is s more suitable for you

[brob]

Given how small the db are, I wouldn't be concerned about finding the fastest NVMe drives. Durability is more important.

 

I would suggest using 2x4TB rather than 2x2TB. Much more than needed but should extend lifetime.

 

 

[JapanDave]

20 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

I know that people have been generally positive with Unraid in recent years, though I can't speak for how effective it would be for your specific uses

 

The only M.2 riser I have used us an Asus card which was highly proprietary, though I think this particular one is s more suitable for you

Thanks, I will keep that in mind.

19 hours ago, brob said:

Given how small the db are, I wouldn't be concerned about finding the fastest NVMe drives. Durability is more important.

 

I would suggest using 2x4TB rather than 2x2TB. Much more than needed but should extend lifetime.

 

 

Bigger drives are more durable. I did not know that , thanks for the advice.

[brob]

16 minutes ago, JapanDave said:

Bigger drives are more durable. I did not know that , thanks for the advice.

 

In and of themselves bigger drives are not more durable. What makes them so in this sort of situation is there are many more memory cells available to the wear leveling algorithm.

[JapanDave]

1 hour ago, brob said:

 

In and of themselves bigger drives are not more durable. What makes them so in this sort of situation is there are many more memory cells available to the wear leveling algorithm.

Really good to know that. I never really have delved into the inner workings of SSD drives.