Hmm, dual-Opteron 1U server priced at...

[mechBgon]

I got a promotional email from company X (I had gotten a server quote from them once). How's this sound for $2200:

Products will be shipped in the order of their receipt upon the launch of the AMD Opteron? processors. The estimated availability of the AMD Opteron? -based servers will be on or after April 22nd.

Entry-Level Server

? Dual AMD Opteron? processor 240 Series
? 2GB total system memory (maxes at 12Gb or 16Gb using six or eight 2Gb ECC DDR333 DIMMS, looks like this depends on which board you opt for)
? One 40 GB IDE Hard Drive (internal) (two internal HDD bays)
? 24X slim CD-ROM

It features one PCI-X slot and two Gigabit LAN jacks. They're listing a fancier model with U320 SCSI onboard, and some 2U models also. It has a 350W power supply. Unfortunately they aren't listing pricing for the comparable dual-AthlonMP and dual-Xeon servers (they work off a quote-request system) so I can't really see how this compares to the price of, say, a comparable 1U dual-AthlonMP or dual-Xeon setup from them.

I didn't name Company X, since it might seem overly promotional, but it's a company whose dual-AMD products have been covered by AnandTech in the past. Wouldn't surprise me to see Anand review their dual-Opteron at the release date.

 

[Wolfsraider]

mechBgon

wouldn't you want a bigger power supply for duals?

i know it depends on the quality but most duallies i have seen run 2 smaller psu's or at least a 400 watt quality psu.

mike

 

[Remedy]

You can run a system like that on a 250watt power supply or even just 235. It really isn't a matter of wattage or who makes it but what the supply was intended for. There are a number of Xeons and AthlonMP's running on supplies that low in wattage. But the rails are stronger than anything those garbage enermaxes can sustain.

 

[Wolfsraider]

true

i guess i was just expecting a bigger psu lol

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
You can run a system like that on a 250watt power supply or even just 235. It really isn't a matter of wattage or who makes it but what the supply was intended for. There are a number of Xeons and AthlonMP's running on supplies that low in wattage. But the rails are stronger than anything those garbage enermaxes can sustain.

235-250 watts for dual Xeon is a BAD idea, a VERY BAD idea seeing how a 3.06 Xeon has a max Icc of 69.1A, which at 1.525V means a max power consumption of 105 W. So 2 CPUs would be over 200 watts just to feed the CPUs

You might be able to get away with such a small PSU on the low-end 2 GHz Xeons that have a max Icc of 45.4 A which at 1.5V means just over 68W per CPU. Either way, for the prices companies pay for these server-level CPUs, why would you cheap out on the PSU?

source

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I'm sure not having an AGP card helps a lot as well. Which may help to explain the lower voltage PSU for these applications.

 

[mechBgon]

Out of curiosity, I was checking out Supermicro's 1U dual-3.06GHz Xeon servers to see what they use... looks like some 350W and 400W PSUs.

 

[Remedy]

Who said anything about "cheaping" out? EPS and GES power supplies have been this low in wattage since they arrived on the market. Anyone who's actually dealt with rack can agree to it. Here is an example over here.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Who said anything about "cheaping" out? EPS and GES power supplies have been this low in wattage since they arrived on the market. Anyone who's actually dealt with rack can agree to it. Here is an example over here.

Wow, I guess I was wrong 😱. Though given that the 2.8GHz Xeon uses up almost 90W of juice (per CPU) that has to be running close to that 250W mark. Considering that you add 2 sticks of RAM, a 7.2K RPM hard disk, and the mobo (incl. the northbridge), they must be running real close to that 250W limit. Then again, a 1U server has by definition very limited expandability and space is at a premium; I really doubt we'll be seeing this kind of a PSU for a server with RAID 5 Cheetah 15K RPM drives.

MechBgon, 350W - 450W should be fine for all current duallie processors especially in a scenario where it's not handling much in the way of storage. I just thought that a 250W would be cutting it pretty close given the power consumption of these processors.