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I <3 my job: new 8xMP ordered!

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brooker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 4, 2007
140
0
PacNW
It's time to phase out the 3 yr old AMD server for one of my clients -- so naturally i recommended a Mac Pro. They gave me a $5k budget, and let me run wild! Woo Hoo! Best of all, this server sits at my desk @ home.

Yesterday i had to buy two dell desktops for another client. I felt dirty. I hate the dell config process. There is pages and pages of meaningless BS "options" that i had to wade through to make sure they weren't gonna stick me with something.

But, oh, the cleansing joy of ordering from :apple:!

Here's what i've ordered:

Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
1GB (2 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 7300
Bluetooth + Airport Extreme
Wireless keyboard and mouse

Here's what i will order next, once the MP ships:

6GB RAM from OWC
2x250 raid 1 boot vol
2x10k Raptor raid 0 for data
20" widescreen from Dell (2007WFP - $270 refurb. Anything better for the price out there?)


My plan is to run a few virtual servers for database and test environment purposes. Hopefully VMWare will allow me to tie a few specific cores to each one to prevent cache hunting issues. I can do my dev work in a VM to access idle server power, without worrying about causing any trouble.

Now for the best "waiting" of all... Hurry on, UPS man!
 
B

bld44

macrumors 6502
Apr 21, 2007
404
0
Seems to be bigtime overkill for a server to me too- especially at home. That's like getting a Ferrari and putting the lowest grade gasoline in it (speaking in terms of your internet, unless you're plugged into some big backbone at home :rolleyes: )
 
C

cwong5

macrumors newbie
Sep 4, 2006
12
0
Drool. Overkill or not. Can I ah... "borrow" a core or two? :p
Great stuff! How exciting!
 
B

brooker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 4, 2007
140
0
PacNW
Pressure said:
Isn't that a bit little space for a server?

Otherwise great computer...wish I had it :p
Click to expand...

The main purpose if for a handful of intensive database applications... that have prooven too much for the processors in our existing server. So we don't need tons of storage, just quick access to what we are working with. No video or audio or anything.


bld44 said:
Seems to be bigtime overkill for a server to me too- especially at home. That's like getting a Ferrari and putting the lowest grade gasoline in it (speaking in terms of your internet, unless you're plugged into some big backbone at home :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...

My home is set up as a commercial grade web host -- i have the equivelent of a t1, thanks to some cool routers. So this Ferrari is running on premium!

iSaint said:
May I ask, why couldn't you 'suggest' a Mac system for these clients? :confused:

Congrats on your own purchase!
Click to expand...

Great question... I did last time I did some purchasing for them. We got two mini's that have been terrific... almost. I haven't found a way to get them to play nice with Exchange calendaring functions (oh lord, how i hate Exchange). I'm working on easing them off Exchange, but we still have some work to do for that.

CanadaRAM said:
Holy @#$% - Raptor RAID 0 for data>>> Hope to heck you have a really solid backup strategy.
Click to expand...

I'll use a few external drives for back-up, and likely sync off site every few hours. It's not a ton of data (currently the db is about 10GB, but growing), so it should be fairly easy back up often. But you are right, ya never can be too careful when it comes to backups, especially when dealing with a raid 0.




And finally... thanks to all who were concerned that this may be overkill. I understand the sentiment, but i'm a little confused how such conclusions can be drawn without full knowing my application of the tech. Here's the answer to the question you didn't ask: This will host a few web apps -- one that currently has pages with db queries that max 2 Opterons for 45-60 secs at a time for a single access (and this is accessed by ~thousand people across the state). Every bit of speed-up on that helps ensure concurrent connections don't lag horribly. Another internal app has queries that run for 15 minutes at a time, slamming the server (i can't run these during reg business hours).

We are converting a lot of paper-based and localized db applications to a centralized web-accessible interface. It's pushing the limits of yesterday's technology, and is only growing. the new server should help us catch up, and will provide the needed room to grow, as it becomes possible to do more and more over the internet.

So, this new machine should put 'slow' to death. It's very exciting for us. Many thanks to those who share the excitement!
 
Spanky Deluxe

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors demi-god
Mar 17, 2005
5,285
1,789
London, UK
I don't think I've ever met a person before that would actually *need* an Octo Mac Pro... until now!! That sounds like some beastly stuff you're going to be running on it, make sure to report back on how it all goes, I'd love to hear how successful it all works out!

I forget right now but aren't there Raid solutions that offer the speed of Raid 0 with the safety of Raid 1? Ones that use 4 drives? There's space in the Mac Pro for up to 6 SATA drives. Putting six in is a little tricky but 5 is fairly simple with a little bit of know how. I wouldn't suggest this kind of thing to most people, but your situation warrants it!!

One of these would let you mount 6 SATA drives and using a 3.5 to 5.25 hard drive mount, a standard power to SATA power adapter and threading a SATA cable from a spare connector on the motherboard through to the optical drive cage will let you put a 5th drive in for very little effort.
 
Multimedia

Multimedia

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2001
5,212
0
Santa Cruz CA, Silicon Beach
Two SATA HDs Easily Fit Under A Top Optical With Both SATA Cables Already Up There

Spanky Deluxe said:
I don't think I've ever met a person before that would actually *need* an Octo Mac Pro... until now!! That sounds like some beastly stuff you're going to be running on it, make sure to report back on how it all goes, I'd love to hear how successful it all works out!

I forget right now but aren't there Raid solutions that offer the speed of Raid 0 with the safety of Raid 1? Ones that use 4 drives? There's space in the Mac Pro for up to 6 SATA drives. Putting six in is a little tricky but 5 is fairly simple with a little bit of know how. I wouldn't suggest this kind of thing to most people, but your situation warrants it!!

One of these would let you mount 6 SATA drives and using a 3.5 to 5.25 hard drive mount, a standard power to SATA power adapter and threading a SATA cable from a spare connector on the motherboard through to the optical drive cage will let you put a 5th drive in for very little effort.
Click to expand...
There are TWO SATA drive cables in the optical bay and plenty of room for two SATA HDs under the top optical drive.
 
B

brooker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 4, 2007
140
0
PacNW
Multimedia said:
There are TWO SATA drive cables in the optical bay and plenty of room for two SATA HDs under the top optical drive.
Click to expand...

of course! good thinking; i will certainly give that a try. i have plenty of 250GB drives kicking around. it would be great to fit a few more into the system. RAIDing across the pata and sata connection is prolly not optimal, but using the spare optical connection for a hd sure beats usb.

thanks for the inspiration, y'all!
 
I

imacdaddy

macrumors 6502a
Feb 2, 2006
661
0
brooker said:
My home is set up as a commercial grade web host -- i have the equivelent of a t1...So this Ferrari is running on premium!...(and this is accessed by ~thousand people across the state)....Every bit of speed-up on that helps ensure concurrent connections don't lag horribly.
Click to expand...

Dude, your dedicated T1 connection is only 1.5Mbps! You need to re-work your performance to bandwidth ratio. Your MP may do all that computing nicely, but your bandwidth may be a bottleneck for your clients as well. You say thousands of people and to ensure concurrent connections? What's the utilisation on your connection?

Enjoy your MP though...real jealous!
 
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