Building virtual server with Dell Poweredge T110

[pcsql]

I want to build a virtual server (Windows Server 2008 R2) for testing applications in different OS including IIS with SQL Server 2000/2005/2008/or newer version and also using it for demo purpose. This server may be accessed remotely. This is definitely not intended to run as a production server so workload is not heavy.

I'm thinking about buying the Dell Poweredge T110 but need to know the minimum configuration I should get.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bedwlr1&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&link_number=17970705

It seem that I should get at least XEON 3440 since it supports HT.
Single Rank vs Dual Rank - not sure which one to get and whether to get it from Dell too.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Do you already have Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server?

If so, build it yourself. Specs for my Hyper-V server are in my signature. My system can easily run a web server, SQL Server 2005, and a couple client systems. The main thing is to make sure you have enough RAM for each system as it cannot be shared. Each virtual system requires it's own dedicated amount of RAM.

SQL Server and IIS are not exactly system hogs. Each could run easily on single core processor systems, unless you're doing massive server side scripting (IIS) or dealing with huge databases and thousands of simultaneous transactions (SQL). In a development/test environment, I don't think you really need a massive server. Something similar to what I have should do, nicely.

-Wolf sends

 

[pcsql]

Wolfshadw,

I just plan to buy the Poweredge T110 without OS. Since it is not a production server, RAID is not necessity.

So far, I'm thinking to get Poweredge T110 with the following configuration:

XEON 3440 - just to get the HT feature
2x2GB Dual Ranked UDIMMs - cheaper than 4x1GB Single Ranked UDIMMS and can add 2 more 2GB later on

This configuration will cost $547.

I don't quite understand the Hard Drive Configuration but I don't need RAID.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Well, you must be getting some sort of discount. When I set up that configuration, my total comes to $883 and I can build a server for less than that. For $547, though, that configuration should be fine for a development platform.

-Wolf sends

 

[pcsql]

Well, you must be getting some sort of discount. When I set up that configuration, my total comes to $883 and I can build a server for less than that. For $547, though, that configuration should be fine for a development platform.

-Wolf sends

Yes, there is a $336 instant savings. I just use the link I provided to get that discount.

 

[pcsql]

Best answer selected by pcsql.