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On Sunday, 21 February 2021 22:01:00 GMT Michael Everitt wrote: > > Ok, it's time to get serious - you're doing Proper computing now, not > just web browsing and email... Thing is I'm not sure I am. If it is mostly CPU limited currently, their refurbished HP Proliant servers there are giving me 3 to 4 times the CPU performance for ~£800. The DELL PowerEdge T710 looks more promising I can end up with 6 times the CPU, and 144GB of RAM (which will sort memory issues -- I hope they don't still do that full memory check by default on boot) for ~£700 (or less if I decide 144GB is excessive). But that is across 2 CPUs/12 cores, so I suspect I'd keep it mostly busy, but the actual speed up would be less than 6 times. I also end up with 11 empty disk bays or something insane, and lose a chunk of office space. If I have one SSD on one SATA bus I'm not sure what the server hardware is buying me (other than more RAM slots, and a bigger CPU socket), and I can probably get some of that for less on a modern desktop system. In contrast to refurbished servers I can get a low end gaming PC with AMD Ryzen 5 3400G (or better) which is nominally better CPU performance than the Proliants can get to for substantially less (although my son is more likely to try and lay claim to it). Indeed I can get a new gaming laptop for less than the servers offering similar CPU performance, although memory slots are a problem there. I'm sure at some point I shuffle off CPU bottleneck onto another bus where the server wins hands down, but it is not clear at what point that happens. Whilst I joked about 144GB of RAM, I actually only need "a bit more RAM", I can run most of the current VMs in 2GB, and 4GB of testing tools, I quickly swallow up the remaining 2GB with the usual desktop stuff. 16GB is probably sufficient for the foreseeable. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dcglug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq