Question Dell T30 Prebuilt or get Build via Compter Store

JD007

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Jan 2, 2010
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Hello Guys, for last few days I am searching on this forum and debating with building a fileserver for 5 peoples. Option is either buy a prebuit Dell T30 (Fixed Configuration. Intel® Xeon® E3-1225 v5, 8GB Memory ECC, 1TB Hard Drive and 1 Year Warranty for 579 CDN) or build one. I have a computer store who can build for around a $1,000 CDN, hardware is .. CPU E2124, mobo ASUS WS C246 PRO ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C246, RAM 16GB ECC Kingston, 750 Watts Corsair PS, Samsung EVO pro 250 NVeM boot drive and ATX case with 6 internal 2.5 and 3.5 drive bays.

Pros of the first option price is half, pros of second option is much powerful and a newer HW both have one year warranty, dell might have a better warranty/service. Currently fileserver I am using I built myself 7 years ago, E6500, 4gb non-ecc ram g.skill (tested with memtest86 up to 10 passes), boot drive intel ssd 530s, storage ssd evo 860 500gb, second internal mirror drive WD black 640GB, backblaze continuous backup, and WD element external backup with 6 versions retrieval and raid1 NAS mirror daily backup.

Any personal experience to go with prebuilt and build issues, where later regretted not go with prebuilt or vice versa.

Third option is throw out the old HW (cpu, ram and mobo) and build myself a new one under $275 and test the ram with memtest86+ up to 10-15 passes.

Thanks
 
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JD007

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Jan 2, 2010
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Thanks for your feedback... only clarification, would it make sense if I test 8/16GB non-ecc ram and test it with memtest86+ the risk is more manageable vs ECC ram. the only thing I am debating between above options is the ECC RAM (everyone recommend ecc ram, and what is the guarantee data wouldn't be corrupted by using ecc ram) and because of ecc ram option cost is almost 2 to 4 times more.

I reviewed my existing system resources when all of us (4 of staff people) were reading/writing data simultaneously on the existing server, RAM usage is around 2.5GB (incl. win10 pro) and cpu usually at 25%, the bottleneck was WD black which is replaced with Samsung SSD 860 EVO. Only reason I want to update the system because cpu, ram and mobo are 7 yrs old. fingers crossed no data error in last 7 years by using non-ECC ram. The each file size we work with is around 30mb to 60mb not very huge.

Thanks