Dual core Opteron server from where?

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legrand

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Mar 30, 2004
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I'm building a new server for the company I work for (small ~20 people), and I want it to use a dual core Opteron chip. Problem is, the management is hot and heavy on Dell because of their "3 year onsite "within 24 hour" support" and I know Dell sucks. I called in an attempt to find out what manufacturer, model number, anything specific about the HDD's that would be put into their system and was told (by someone with a very thick accent) that they use too many different manufacturers to keep that information up to date. Hell, they couldn't even tell me if the drives were SATA, SATA 150, or SATA II. I also have my doubts as to whether the service would be that fast or not since you have to negotiate "phone support" first, but that's irrelevant.

I've been looking at Monarch Computers, but their "onsite support" (even for just hardware) requires that you purchase an OS from them, which we do NOT need.

So, here I am, stuck, about to be forced to get a POS system from Dell just because of their "better" support.

Please help me... Are there other vendors out there that have what I need (AMD + support)?
 
Check out HP's Proliant server line. They have Opteron based systems, and I can tell you from personal experience that their support ROCKS. We've got a 4 hour response time contract on our servers. I've only had to use it once. I got a hard drive hand delivered to me in four hours.

Not bad at all. We've got well over 400HP business workstations and 10+ servers. I've always received parts next day by 9AM if I order before 2PM. They've been consistant over the last 5 years.
 
I'm sorry, I guess I need to be slightly more specific. I'm looking for something in a tower form factor and I can only find the Opterons in a rackmount from HP. Thanks for the info though.
 
Sun. If you want a great opteron server and you want great support, you should look at Sun.

As mentioned, HP can be pretty good, but the Sun boxes are a bit faster for equivalent pricing, at least according to the benchmarks.

Sun's currently available offerings are the v20z and v40z, which are really just rebadged Newisys servers. They're great boxes, nothing out there that is faster in the same footprint. By the end of October, the new galaxy opteron servers, which were designed inhouse, will be shipping in volume and they're even faster/cheaper.

You haven't mentioned OS, but the following are officially supported on Sun Opteron:

# Solaris 10 Operating System
# Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, 32-bit, 64-bit
# Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, 64-bit
# SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 64-bit
# Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, 32-bit/64-bit
# Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, 32-bit/64-bit

Sun's Opteron servers are the first ones listed in this link:

http://www.sun.com/servers/index.jsp?cat=Sun Fire Entry-level Servers&tab=3
 
You're right, I didn't... It's Win 2k, am I outta luck as far as a Sun system goes then?
 
Oops, just saw you wanted tower.

Sun has Opteron in a tower form factor as well, but those are intended as graphics workstations and it doesn't appear that they offer them with dual-core at the moment.

I don't know of anybody offering servers in a tower form with opteron, at least not anybody big. Opterons belong in servers and servers belong in racks---that is the common vision---it would seem, at least with the big players.
 
legrand said:
You're right, I didn't... It's Win 2k, am I outta luck as far as a Sun system goes then?
Click to expand...

Let me check. Nope, no win2k support.

Hmmm, they are certified for vmware, though, so running win2k inside of vmware, if that is possible would be a supported config. Kind of a crazy hurdle to jump through just for support though. Vmware is pretty damn cool nowadays, though. :)

IBM has opteron offerings as well, you might be able to find the dual core in a tower running win2k option there.
 
You may have problems getting systems with Windows 2000 support anymore. Plus Windows 2K isn't NUMA capable, so depending on the apps you run, you may be robbing yourself of performance by going with 2K. If the machine comes with Windows 2003, I'd use it instead. I run a server environment that has Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server and everything co-exists peacefully.

HP makes some nice Opteron Workstations. With SCSI drives, if you buy a higher end model, it would work well as a server. Although the 4 hours support contract isn't available. But the 24 hour response contract is if memory serves.
 
Going with 2K is probably a bad choice for Dual core Opterons. As Sir-Fragalot said, you won't be getting the machine's full potential. Sounds like it's time to make the jump to 2003. 2003 has served me well, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a Windows Server OS.
 
The main reason I say that, is from a software/AD networking standpoint, unless it has to replicate Active Directory, or serve certain roles, it's perfectly compatible with a Windows 2000 enviroment.

There are certian roles that the server could be used to that would create potential issues, but as long as you address those in the right way, you should be fine.
 
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