Need a server

Limericks wrote: »

Need to buy a server for a network I am building. I am looking at the dell r310 but after I add what components I need (raid controller, extra hard drives for raid5 more ram) it's coming to about 1500 euro. That is a bit over budget. I need the server to be compatible with windows server 2008 r2 aswell.

In my past experience dell have been a rip off for consumer products so maybe they are for business aswell?

Anyone got any recommendations for a server?

mbroaders wrote: »

What will it's purpose be? What level of redundancy does it need etc....If it is just a file server you can get by with a fairly low spec server if you start adding more roles you will need more power

As MBroaders asked above, what will its purpose be?

I have used Dell many times in the past, and love there stuff, but you will need the cash.

Depending, again, on its purpose, you could buy second hand, or, build a new one, cheap enough.

Limericks wrote: »

It will also be used to administrate said pc's and any pc's connected via wifi.

Also, I have an old dell poweredge at my disposable but everytime I try to install windows I can't see the drives because of the scsi drivers, also I cannot find those online anywhere either. I am trying to install server 2008 r2 on it.

What do you mean by "administrate" PC's?

if it's not going to get too much heavy usage, the hp microserver is a great buy for the money, especially if they do the cashback offer again on it. check out the thread in bargain alerts for heaps of info on it.

next in my list would be the HP ML110 G6 or G7 depending on your budget. available in several flavours, the more modest of which will leave you change from 300 quid for the base model (which i personally own, currently used as a NAS & ESX host with 9 hard drives jammed in it) and is upgradable to a respectable socket 3ghz quad core xeon and 16gb ram should you need more grunt under the hood.

edit: actually, the price of the ML110 G6 seems to have jumped considerably since i got mine, even tho it's now old kit. still a decent buy tho if you shop around.

not for 300 odd quid for the server you won't, not hardware raid anyway, altho i believe there is limited soft raid onboard, but the hp cashback scheme is 140 euro which would more than make up for that and allow you to buy a decent raid card.

if you wanted to give the hp microserver a shot, you could get it done for just over a grand and you'd still get the €140 cashback from HP (assuming it's still on, but it's been running for over a year now, so no reason to think it won't continue this month).

you could also save money if you wanted to go for smaller disks (and maybe even add a hot spare) and you can also save by going with a cheaper RAID controller, depending on your budget versus your needs.

ebuyer had the low end ML110 G7 for £229 yesterday plus £100 cashback, but it's already up to over £400 again now.

i should have got a couple whilst i had the chance, i knew it was too good to be true.