Home Forums Discussions IT, Networking, PCs and more The Top Mistake I'm Seeing with AC Servers

I'm seeing one mistake over and over again when people build or spec a server for Amazing Charts.

The Hard Drive Controller.

Getting super awesome processors and tons of RAM is all fine and dandy. Getting those SSD drives is great, too. But then people will get a horrible controller card to run those SSD drives. And then complain about AC being slow.

Controllers such as the Dell H700 and H720 came out before SSD drives became mainstream. Yes, these controllers will run SSD drives, but they cannot handle the throughput of the SSD. SSDs send data to the controller faster than the controller can process it. You are literally causing a Denial of Service attack inside your own server.

Controllers that have no cache, such as the H330, are just as bad. They can't handle SSD drives.

For Dell Servers, you want the H740 controller or higher. The H730 is acceptable, but you really want the H740 or higher. That means you have to get a Dell R740 or higher server.

Think of it this way. You have a sports car with a 1,000-horsepower engine, T56 6-speed transmission, and a Strange Rearend. Everything you need to get all that power to the back tires. Yet, your back tires are regular street tires. So, what's going to happen at the drag strip? You're going to sit on the line and spin. Your tires can't handle all that power because they don't have the grip to translate that power to raw movement.

Feel free to reach out to me for more details or if you need help getting a new server.

James