TonyMiles Posted June 23, 2013 Posted June 23, 2013 Finally been given the go ahead to get a new server for the primary school I work in and was just wondering what is the best make\ config to go for. The school has about 400 users. Our current server is a HP Proliant which I've not been impressed with as we have had two hard drive failures. One was replaced under warranty the other we had to pay for. Any recommendations gratefully received.
speckytecky Posted June 23, 2013 Posted June 23, 2013 Dell T610 with built in LTO or removable external HD. Consider also taking advantage of extending Dell's superb warranty.
jmak Posted June 23, 2013 Posted June 23, 2013 Dell have some good deals on part ex at the minute. If your server is under 5 years old, they'll give you £250. Find out what price they'll do for a 5 year warranty at time of purchase. The only reason I was on their site was the very high quote they gave me to extend the 3 year warranty we have for our current server - it's well on the way to the cost of a new new server!
speckytecky Posted June 23, 2013 Posted June 23, 2013 Good point @jmak Interestingly when I was renewing our warranty I was also a tad surprised at the direct price quoted by Dell and eventually got a couple of quotes for the same Dell warranty from resellers which came in considerably cheaper. Dell have some good deals on part ex at the minute. If your server is under 5 years old, they'll give you £250. Find out what price they'll do for a 5 year warranty at time of purchase. The only reason I was on their site was the very high quote they gave me to extend the 3 year warranty we have for our current server - it's well on the way to the cost of a new new server! 1
TonyMiles Posted June 24, 2013 Author Posted June 24, 2013 The school only have one server so it does everything. DHCP,DNS, AD\Users, Printer and File server and Group Policies. The budget is around 1k to 2K
ICTDirect_Dave Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 The school only have one server so it does everything. DHCP,DNS, AD\Users, Printer and File server and Group Policies. The budget is around 1k to 2K Hi Tony! We specialise in refurbished servers and can provide you with a remarkable amount of power for your budget! If you want to drop me an email or give me a call I would be happy to discuss some options with you.
TonyMiles Posted June 24, 2013 Author Posted June 24, 2013 Hi Dave, not sure about refurb if I'm honest.
seawolf Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 The school only have one server so it does everything. DHCP,DNS, AD\Users, Printer and File server and Group Policies. The budget is around 1k to 2K Holy Cow! Only $2,000 max for the server that runs everything for the whole school for 400 students and staff? If that's all you have, you'd better build it yourself because if you buy one from HP,Dell, etc. you'll be spending a good portion of your budget on the label on the front and the support contract. Use a SuperMicro chassis, Intel xeon board and CPU, 16GB RAM, redundant PSUs, a good SATA HBA and the best HDDs you can afford (Hitachi, WD Re, or Seagate Constellation). I would normally say use SAS drives for a critical server, but a SAS HBA and drives would consume all of your budget. http://www.supermicro.com/products/index.cfm No, you won't have a big company providing support, but you'll know the box inside and out and will be able to easily upgrade and fix it, and will still have the individual warranties for each of the components. Personally, I would consider turning your current server off for a few hours (fake an outage) and then asking your head if they think the server is worth more than $2,000 to them now! Hugely shortsighted!
seawolf Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 Sorry, you're in the UK, you'll need this link instead http://www.supermicro.co.uk/index_home.cfm
ICTDirect_Dave Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 Hi Dave, not sure about refurb if I'm honest. Thats fair. However there are a large number of schools that use us for both servers and desktops. We cover you for a year on servers so if something goes wrong you have piece of mind. After that if something needs fixing we will help you out at cost pricing. That said our servers rarely have any problems as we test them thoroughly before sending them out.
jamin100 Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 Yeh I must admit thats low for the only server in the school.. I have 2 x HP DL380 G7's one with 16GB RAM and the other with 32GB RAM. I also have 2 old acer altos servers 500 users and around 200 W7 clients. You really need at least 2 servers so that you can replicate everything and move roll around incase one dies.
TonyMiles Posted June 24, 2013 Author Posted June 24, 2013 I know our budget is low, but that's because we have no cash, we might be able to push for 3k but certainly no more. As ever I'm fighting against the Head and Governors who don't understand the importance of a server and what it can do for them. I understand about the refurb but I'm not sure the Head will go for that but if that's the only option. I'm having a meeting with the Head on Wednesday to discuss the options.
john Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 I can vouch for ICT Direct kit its quality stuff and if your budget cannot stretch to top end new the kit from ICT Direct is well worth it 1
VeryPC_Andy Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) Hi @TonyMiles, @seawolf is correct in thinking the best spec value/ £ spent on a new server will be to go with a custom build Supermicro. We integrate Supermicro Servers for Schools and webhosting companies. I'll send a PM across with my details and a few questions in order to give an idea of what you can get for your money Edited June 24, 2013 by VeryPC_Andy doesn't make sense!
TonyMiles Posted June 24, 2013 Author Posted June 24, 2013 Thanks for the advice, I never really thought about building a server before. I've built PC's so it shouldn't be any problem
jmak Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 Holy Cow! Only $2,000 max for the server that runs everything for the whole school for 400 students and staff?! Pretty standard over here - I simply don't have budget to do anything else, so it comes down to good DR procedures (and tightly crossed fingers!)
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