[SOLVED] Dell Precision R5500 vs PowerEdge R610 or R710 ?

[CMonroe]

Hey All,

Haven't posted anything in a while, but I'm thinking about building a small home lab so I can tinker. fiddle, and train. I recently purchased a rack mounted Precision R5500 on a whim, upgraded to dual X5690, and installed an RX580 in it. Oddly enough, I couldn't get my extra RX480s to install drivers, so I had to use the RX580 in instead; probably a topic for another thread...

Now to the question....
I have an opportunity to either buy another R5500, or a R610 or R710 for the lab for roughly the same money (+/- $50). I know the Precision is a 'workstation' and the PowerEdges are 'servers' but is there really any tangible benefit to installing my server OS on a server over a R5500 workstation?

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Glendor

 

[kanewolf]

Hey All,

Haven't posted anything in a while, but I'm thinking about building a small home lab so I can tinker. fiddle, and train. I recently purchased a rack mounted Precision R5500 on a whim, upgraded to dual X5690, and installed an RX580 in it. Oddly enough, I couldn't get my extra RX480s to install drivers, so I had to use the RX580 in instead; probably a topic for another thread...

Now to the question....
I have an opportunity to either buy another R5500, or a R610 or R710 for the lab for roughly the same money (+/- $50). I know the Precision is a 'workstation' and the PowerEdges are 'servers' but is there really any tangible benefit to installing my server OS on a server over a R5500 workstation?

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Glendor

The R710 will be noisier since it is a 2U unit and the R610 will be noisier than the 710 since it is a 1U unit.

 

[CMonroe]

Thanks for the reply. Do you think the 2U R710 will be louder than the 2U R5500?

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the reply. Do you think the 2U R710 will be louder than the 2U R5500?

Yes.

 

[CMonroe]

So, aside from the R5500 being quieter, both R710 and R5500 have redundant PSU, RAID, hot-swap drives, etc... Is there any other benefits to installing Windows Server on a R710 'server' rather than a second R5500 'workstation'? It kind of feels like they have more in common than differences.

 

[kanewolf]

So, aside from the R5500 being quieter, both R710 and R5500 have redundant PSU, RAID, hot-swap drives, etc... Is there any other benefits to installing Windows Server on a R710 'server' rather than a second R5500 'workstation'? It kind of feels like they have more in common than differences.

The R5500 has power options for graphics cards that the 710 may not. I never worked with a 710. The 720 did have supplemental power plugs for GPUs, I don't know if the 710 did.

 

[CMonroe]

LOL
I feel like we're dancing around the answer.

It sounds like the R5500 would be as good, if not better, than the R710 for my Windows Server in my home lab.

Right?

 

[kanewolf]

LOL
I feel like we're dancing around the answer.

It sounds like the R5500 would be as good, if not better, than the R710 for my Windows Server in my home lab.

Right?

I don't know of any reason not. I didn't realize the R5500 was a 2U box also. Most of the "workstation" chassis are larger with slower, quieter fans.

 

[CMonroe]

My final update and post on this topic.

I ended up buying both a R610 and R710 to go with my R5500. The R710 is the loudest BY FAR. The R610 is noticeably quieter, and the R5500 is the quietest. I don't know if my servers are typical or atypical, but that is just my experience.

Hopefully, someone else finds this useful.

Regards and best wishes,
Claude