1U servers..

[brian]

On Tue, 2004-04-27 at 12:38, bscott at ntisys.com wrote:
>   Most 1U systems tends to have some kind of funkiness to them. 

True, there are only so many ways to cram 25 pounds of shit into a 1U
bag.

>   The only exceptions to
> this that I've seen are when someone takes a generic motherboard and just
> stuffs it into a generic 1U case, which generally yields a pretty poor
> feature set, plus a tendency for thermal problems.

Actually, SuperMicro does this pretty well these days.  There are a few
other companies building "generic" 1U servers (although they still cost
upwards of $500) that result in reliable, flexible boxes.


>   FWIW, Dell makes some decent 1U servers.  One of them "starts" at $600,
> although that's after rebates and before shipping and taxes.  That does
> include 3-year on-site NBD warranty service, though.

Agreed.  We use liberal applications of Dell 1750's, and have always
been satisfied with them.  Although, an "average" box ends up being
about $3000 by the time you are done.

>   One word of warning: Dell sometimes uses hardware which is only supported
> by binary-only drivers on Linux.  That's generally not an issue if you're
> running one of the two big commercial distros (SuSE or Red Hat), but it can
> be a real problem if you're not.  Of course, Dell is hardly alone in this.

True again, although I do have 3 generations of Dell servers, running 3
generations of RedHat, and have never really had any real problems.