Ideal Server Hardware Choice

[Tim]

Tony Dietrich:
>>> 2. One fan failure (at 14months).

Tim:
>> Ones that run constantly or only now and then?  Some PC fans have
>> surprising short lives, and that's not due to faults, but how long the
>> manufacturer expects them to work for.

Tony Dietrich:
> Constantly .. that machine just happened to be my own office system!  And 
> since I tend to use that to test stuff, AND it wasn't switched off over the 
> entire 14 months (AFAIR) I wasn't too surprised .. leaving a system doing 
> batch compiling and test runs for entire weekends does kinda send the fan 
> wild.

According to some specs that I've seen, some fans are only rated to run
continuously for about 18 months.  That may be fine for many home PCs
which spend more time off than on, but no good for servers.  Even more
so if they're fans that can't be easily replaced (e.g. ones that are
bonded in as part of a CPU block or the graphics cards, or deeply
embedded in the PSU brick).  I think server fans ought to be standard
models, though long-life, easily replaced, and using ducts to the parts
that need directly cooling.

> Seriously .. I suspect that one reason I (and James Wilkinson, see rest of 
> thread) get good systems from 'local' builders is that in the UK ( I have no 
> idea what its like in the rest of the world) we can walk into a local builder 
> and spec exactly what we want built.  I can tell my builder "I want ASUS mb, 
> nVidia video, XXX memory, etc, etc" .. and if I don't get it, I don't pay, 
> and I don't use that builder again.

I can do that here, but only from quite limited choices.  If I wanted
specific parts that they didn't have, I'd have to buy them directly from
some supplier, if I could find one, not from a shop.  They won't deal
with anything else, and will give you all sorts of excuses about why.  I
really don't beleive that they couldn't buy anything that I could, nor
that they can only buy parts in quantity.  And that's if I just want
parts to build a box.  

On the other hand, if I was to get them to build me a box, it's quite
common for you to choose a 128 meg video card, a 140 meg hard drive, but
they'll pick the particular parts, and they may well be different from
what they told you while you were negotiating the package.  Sometimes
that's because they found what you wanted to use didn't work with each
other, sometimes it's because they'll just do whatever they want to.

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