In Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 Microsoft introduced SMB 3.0 which greatly improves shared storage performance. After playing with it a bit, and I think others can concur, whereas SMB 2.1 was not a superior performance option, this generation of Windows SMB 3.0 does a lot to bridge the gap between it and faster protocols such as iSCSI...
Supermicro is adding another motherboard to the burgeoning list of current LGA 2011 Intel Xeon E5 offerings with their X9SRL and X9SRL-F. The main difference between the Supermicro X9SRL-F motherboard and the X9SRL motherboard is that the Supermicro X9SRL-F has IPMI 2.0 remote management capabilities while the Supermicro X9SRL motherboard does not. This makes the Supermicro X9SRL motherboard slightly less expensive....
Today we are looking at the Intel Xeon processor E5-1620 which is a really interesting alternative to the Intel Xeon E3-1200 series. With only 4 cores, 8 threads running at 3.6GHz base and 3.8GHz max turbo, and a relatively mundane 10MB of cache, the Intel Xeon processor E5-1620 is not going to be the fastest LGA 2011 part by...
As we all know, Windows Server 2012 has gone RTM and now a lot of folks are preparing hardware for one of the biggest releases this year in the server space. I am personally building a new test configuration and wanted to share a few tips and tricks that I am using to prepare the build. Just as a...
Today, we are taking a look at the Leadtek Winfast GT 640 Server GPU. It features a low-profile GPU which users may be interested in for HTPC and server applications. With the new Ivy Bridge CPU, we now have access to PCIe 3.0, and to tackle this nVidia bought out the new Kepler based GPU 600 series. Over the next...
After Jeff's awesome writeup of his LSI SAS 9202-16e performance experiences, I did want to do a quick piece looking under the hood of the LSI 9202-16e. For those that missed it, this is a $200-300 ebay card that LSI supports but has not released. (You can see an ebay search here but be warned they are hard to find.) The big bonus...
We are very close to the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and I thought I would take a moment to discuss both hardware requirements and my recommendations. There are four new versions of Windows Server 2012: Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter. Gone are Web, Small Business Server, Enterprise and HPC server versions from Windows Server 2008 R2. As...
The Gigabyte GA-7PESLX is a new server motherboard from Gigabyte supporting up to two Intel Xeon E5-2400 Series CPUs. Gigabyte is relatively new in the server space but is making a dedicated effort to enter the market building on the success of its desktop motherboards. Previously we looked at the Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 which was a dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 series platform...
The Intel Core i7-3770 is perhaps one of the less glamorous CPUs Intel produces, especially compared to the i7-3770K, but why? It is still one of the fastest Ivy Bridge CPUs around, yet is eclipsed by the Core i7-3770K in coverage on the web. To be sure, the K variant has an unlocked multiplier and a 100MHz faster base...
Today we are looking at how-to install OpenIndiana on ESXi 5.0 in order to make an All-in-One ZFS server. The basic premise of this method is that one can utilize a virtual machine, passing through SAS controllers with VT-d or IOMMU to create a ZFS-based storage subsystem. Once this is done, it is fairly easy to install operating systems...