1. Non-Dell Vendors
From other vendors, systems comparable to the Poweredge 2970 cost...
ASA Computers: over $2000 for a reasonably configured ASA2001-O2Q-S2-R
Penguin Computing Altus 2701
- Dual, AMD Opteron 2380, 2.5GHz, Quad Core, 4x512KB L2, 6MB L3 Cache
- 2GB DDR2-667MHz ECC RAM (2 x 1GB)
- 250GB, SATA2, 7200RPM
- LSI 3Gbps 8-port SAS controller, no RAID
- Intel 9402PT Dual Port Copper Gigabit PCI-E Ethernet Card
- DVD-ROM / CD-RW
- Preload, CentOS, Version 5
- Standard 3-Year Warranty
- Keep your hard drive support option
Price: $3,440.32
IBM's build-your-own tool appears to be broken, but a System x3655 machine with one CPU, 2GB memory, and, AFAICT, no disks costs $1,332.00
2. Option A
Intel® Xeon® E5520, 2.26Ghz, 8M Cache, Turbo, HT, 1066MHz Max Mem
- 1GB ram
- Only one of the cheapest 160GB hard drives
- Baseboard Management Controller
- no CD drive (we'll boot from USB)
- 1-year warranty
Price: $1050
Quad Core AMD Opteron™ 2372HE 2.1GHz 4x512K Cache 1Ghz HyperTrnsprt
- SAS 6/iR Integrated, x6 Backplane, 1x6 Backplane for 3.5-inch Hard Drives
- One default 160GB HD
- No CD/DVD
- 3Yr Basic Hardware Warranty Repair: 5x10 HW-Only, 5x10 NBD Onsite (cheapest)
Price: $709
- Ram
- Drives
- Serial console server
- $400
Total price: 2974.9 + various other shipping/tax/small things we might need to pay
3. Option B
- 2U
- 2xQuad Core Opteron 2372HE (2.1GHz / 4x512K L2)
- 8G RAM (4x2G 800MHz DDR / Dual Ranked)
- Base 160G SATA drive
- No CD-ROM (initial OS install from USB stick)
- Price: $1031*2 = $2061
- Opengear IM4004-5 Management Gateway
- Price: $495
- US Robotics Unamanged 8-port GigE Switch
- Price: $65.46
- Drives
- Cables
- Price: ?
- Rack mounting hardware
Price: $129.99 * 2 = $259.98
- Open box, but two sets of rails for the price of one (with a 90 day return warranty)
Tenative Total Price: $3252.38 (more likely ~$3500 when all is said and done)
3.1. Why Two PowerEdge 2970s
Although this setup would use 6U rather than 5U, the PowerEdge 2970 offers a much better price/performance ratio than the 1U R410. For a bit less than a single processor R410 we could have eight cores on both machines (avoiding a difficult/time consuming processor upgrade later on).