Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Sandeep's Hardware Recommendations

Anyone with questions or comments on Sandeep's extremely helpful and brilliant post on hardware recommendations should post here.

Did not think the link worked, but now does.

I have a question for Sandeep.
I want to use my MU money to buy 6 new PC's to replace aging workstation clients.
I want the most kick-[censored], high end computers that will see me through the next 5 years.

What do you recommend?

I don't understand your question.

Do you have any space constraints? If an average off the shelf desktop will fit, I'd recommend getting the MicroATX High Intel Build Configuration with the SSD. Those are more powerful than most people's servers on this board. They will be "kick-[censored]", very fast, and with incredible multitasking ability. You can probably get away with 64GB SSDs instead of the 128GBs if you store files on your server. The 128's are on 40 dollars off at the moment, so I'd probably get those. Peripherals are up to you. Maybe some new 24" Monitors and recycle the old monitors for dual screens on some of the computers. Whatever your staff likes best.

Also, since these intel motherboards have PXE, you can setup just one computer with all the programs and customizations and then deploy the image to the rest of the computers. Will save hours and hours setting up.

EDIT: I plan on doing this configuration as well as soon as I get MU check.

I think he meant link to the parts. I one upped that and made them ready to go packages. It's in the spreadsheet. There's a Order Sheet in the Excel file with each package preconfigured on Newegg.com. That's what the last reserved box was for. Can you please give me editing permissions again?

All set. Let me know when you are done.

I think I'm done. Are the links working for you?

I can't click on the Excel links to get to NewEgg. I can copy and paste it. The other links take you to NewEgg anyway. What is the difference.

Are you going to put together a manual for install or be available for PMs?

That is an amazing thread you did. You will definitely do well in med school with that OCD.

Sandeep, I have no space constraints. Therefore MicroATX High Intel Build Configuration with the SSD is the ultimate best recommendation?
please confirm.

And thank you so much for your expert advice.

I think he went with microATX because of possible size constraints.

Midtower are somewhat easier to build and modify simply because they are larger.

In scanning his specs, his very high and high were the same board and processor for the two categories, thus will have similar performance.

The ITX machines are even smaller but will take a bit of a performance hit.

All appear to be nice machines. Depends on how much you want to spend. Easier if it is gov'ment money, or if you are independently wealthy (yeah, right.)

I was thinking videos might be better. Also, fixed the Excel links.

Motherboard doesn't really affect performance unless you are overclocking. The reason I went with same was due to the Q67 Chipset which supports Intel vPro. This allows for easy deployment, streamlined management, and high reliability. The main only difference between the High and the Very High is the processor. The Very High has the 2600 while the High has the 2400. The difference between these processors is hyper-threading (4 Physical, 8 Logical vs. 4 Physical, 4 Logical, respectively). There is a negligible difference in clock speed as well. The benefits are only seen in highly threaded applications like video encoding. No benefit is to be expected in office tasks. But then again, you do get bragging rights.

Sandeep,

Fantastic job, thanks so much.

It appears our old VGA jack only monitors are not supported by the Intel mobo. Is that the case?

It also looks like the Intel mobo can be set up with raid 1. Correct?

Thanks again. Gene

I'd still stick with the microATX since they'll be easier to manage. (They have handles on them. Less strain on your back) Like I mentioned earlier, case is whatever you like best. Everything else is the same. Even the motherboards. You can get half and half if you wanted to ha.

The motherboard has a DVI-I port which supports analog connections. In fact, they even include the needed adapter for a VGA Monitor. It also has a DVI-D (for digital)/ HDMI monitors as well as display port for those ultra fancy out there.

It can but I often advise against using RAID on a motherboard. Especially if it's above RAID 0 or RAID 1. I can spec a computer using server hardware if you'd like. I can make another thread called Server Recommendations. You can install Windows 7 on there if you want to.

Sandeep,

I meant to say raid 1, I edited the post to correct this.

Yes, to have server recommendations would be great as well!

Do you ever sleep?

Thanks again. Gene

Once in a while haha. You're welcome

Please make a separate thread called "server recommendations."
Your expert advice is well respected.

A work in progress.

I haven't seen your work in progress. Three things:

1. I am sure most know this, but you may want to make it very clear that these computers have to be built. Some may think you add the parts to the cart, pay for them, and the computer shows up.

2. It is ironic that so many use P2P and yet you will spend all this time on servers.

3. Plus, while someone may screw up the mobo install or the processor on a client, that would be OK, but to build a faulty server would be more of an issue.

I figured I could put them in the cart, have Newegg ship to Sandeep, and the computer would show up in my office. Is that not how it works?

Yes, exactly. Sandeep delivers it himself to your office and actually builds them there. If you buy more than five, you get a free server.

But, actually, one could think that NewEgg, like Dell or HP, would build the computer and ship it to you.

A possible business opportunity? Building all the computers (and server), set up SBS 2011, the domain and shares, faxing, Amazing Charts, and any other programs. I might need a partner though haha.

It makes question what makes a server, the hardware you put in it or the operating system you use? The point would be to get people to use server grade hardware while still using Windows 7 (if they prefer). That way, they at least have the hardware reliability of a server which is a pretty big plus. But I'm going recommend SBS Essentials because sharing files and folders is even easier than Windows 7 and it you can join Win 7 Home Premium/XP Home edition computers to the domain as well which I thought was pretty cool.

It's not that hard, you can build a computer with just a Phillips screw driver. There are temperature monitors for the CPU which let you know how well you've done and how stable. Most people run a stress test before they finish. I guided someone over skype and they built it in less than 30 minutes. And that was a full tower gaming computer.

Have to be careful not to overestimate. But, I would recommend the same thing. Just to get them on any SBS platform would be cool.

I actually thought about getting some decent servers with Foundation Server, load them with software and AC and ship them to people, then setting up their domain. Doubt I could provide support though.

It's difficult to recommend my usual since building a server now is pricey. Hard drives prices are insane. I bought 3 WDRE4s 500GB Enterprise drives for the price of one right now. Making recommendations will be tougher.

Hi Sandeep,

Please spec your "usual" server.

We can always wait until hard drive prices come down.

I would like to be able to research the components, and think about things for a while.

BTW, by midnight EST last night NewEgg was sold out of the midtower case you recommended. Do we call this the Sandeep Effect?

Thanks. Gene

I bought 3 WDRE4s 500GB Enterprise drives for the price of one right now.

????3 for the price of one sounds pretty good!!!!

Great read and very informative considering I'm in the process of building a few workstations (and a server) myself. Definitely look forward to reading your 'server recommendations'!

Just wanted to point out that with a large amount of RAM (I would say greater than 8GB), you can consider removing/shrinking the pagefile and disable hibernation to free up space on a SSD. Or alternatively, if there is an additional (non-SSD) storage drive being used, the pagefile could be moved to that drive.

Here are some guides that helped me:

***Explains how to do it***
http://techgage.com/article/disabling_windows_pagefile_hibernation_to_reclaim_ssd_space/

***LONG read, scroll down 2/3 down to see the results and how they can apply to a given situation***
http://www.tweakhound.com/2011/10/10/the-windows-7-pagefile-and-running-without-one/

It just seems a bit much to say that you must commit so much drive space, when there are diminishing returns (for the pagefile) when you have more RAM than you actually need. Also, if you have a SSD, boot-ups/shutdowns are a few seconds which kind of eliminiate the need for hibernation. Of course, everyone and their computer is different so there is some risk of blue-screening or running out of memory, but if its a client computer with no important data I feel its at least something worth considering.

Sorry for the long comment. I have a 120GB Intel X-25M and its been fun tweaking the heck out of it. Its been almost 2 years now and still runs great. And FWIW, I'm going to say that Intel makes some of the best SSD drives in terms of reliability. I recently purchased 2 more Intel 310 SSDs and noticed that those drives carry a 5 year warranty! Nice to have a company stand by their product like that.

Oh, and one last thing....a piece of hardware I'd recommend adding would be an appropriately-sized UPS. Don't want that shiny new computer becoming a toaster with the next storm. Or maybe that's something in your upcoming server thread?

That was coming up in the server thread haha. UPS on each desktop might be a little overkill. However, I must admit, I do use on my personal desktop.

Thanks mfmg,

I just purchased an Intel SSD. Haven't started using it. I guess it's tough with the OCZs having the best specs. Having trouble with two out of seven machines with nightly auto-reboots and the BIOS not finding the SSD.

Interesting that you brought up the page file. I read a TechNet article once about pagefiles on the server when you have 20GBs of RAM on it. 30GBs of a pagefile seems crazy.

It's usually not a good idea to disable the page file because some programs are designed to use the page file and secondly, if you exceed the amount of RAM you have, you get a blue screen. Even with 16GB of RAM here, I don't disable the page file. Hibernation could be disabled but some people still like it even though an SSD is pretty fast. I will probably disable it. Apparently, I already did ha.

They were cheaper before the Thailand flood. I got them for 65 each back in April. Now it's 190 for 1 on newegg.

Yeah, I think you said it backwards.

I bought (past tense) 3 for the price of one "right now" or were you talking to Gene? O well, the post above should clear it up.

EDIT: I see it how it could be confusing without some punctuation in there haha.

I bought one drive today for what it would it have cost me for three drives a year ago.

Past tense comes around pretty quickly. Two brilliant doctors came to the same conclusion, lol. J/King around.

That's what the "right now" part cancels out.

I see what you're saying. But, I guess we'll just have to let this one go "for now."