Couple questions about Dell PowerEdge R720 before I buy (CLOSED)

#1

So below is what I am ordering. It is Dell PowerEdge R720 8 Bay SFF Server (2.5"), 2x (2.7 GHz) 12-Core Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Processor, 384GB RAM(24x16GB), and 1TB SSD SATA 6GBps 2.5” Solid State Drive. Also purchasing 2 2TB m.2 drives separately. Dell PowerEdge720

Ok so my questions:

  1. Is it ok to order SSD for the bay? I thought I remembered someone saying not to…? I also plan on ordering 2 2TB M.2. Does speed matter or just get the cheapest M.2’s?(Will look into brackets for these)
  2. Is the basic network card ok?
  3. Is this ok to run in a room where temperature can get to 90F? (Only super hot days in summer. Can always turn off on these days)
  4. Overall does this look like everything I will need? Any suggestions?
#2

Hey Jay,

1.)
you are perfectly fine going for ssd in front bay. But keep in mind that you have to modify the raid-Controller to “non-raid” mode.

Speed does not matter in regard of rewards. But may become later. I would never purchase the cheapest you can get. Those always fail. Just a matter of time. Look for longlife and balanced in performance. That should work.

2.) as long you have at least two ports (one for LAN, one for public IPs) your fine. In case you want to use iDrac and it isn’t licensed you will need another port if you don’t want to share.

  1. well… 90 F is not what a server wants to work at but it will work. Fans will go crazy though. So you better screw the server to the ground so it won’t takeoff. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
  1. looks good!
#3

You also will need 5tb ssd, not 4tb. Don’t unplug it, you need good uptime. I do have some running in 90F+, but it is not connected to the house, suuuuper loud. Get the best SSD’s you can get measured by TBW.

#4

Great information. Could you explain why he needs 5tb ssd instead of the 4tb i have (and was shown in the diy explanation) and what a second (Lan) port would do?

#5

Isn’t he going for 5 TB by 1TB ssd and 2x 2TB M.2?

#6

Correct it will be 5TB. Comes with a 1GB SSD for front bay. Plus the 2 2TB ones that I am buying.

#7

Second nic port is for use of public IPs assigned for the node. This only becomes relevant when providing public IPs to the farm/node.

#8

The optimal farming ratio is 100GB of SSD and 8GB of RAM per thread.

Here the server has 2x12 cores, thus 24 cores. This is 48 threads (1 core is 2x threads).

Thus 48 * 100 = 4800 GB SSD = 4.8TB SSD, thus 5TB.

#9

Ah, thank you @Mik! That makes sense since mine has 16 cores so would have 3,2TB SSD. Seems the above configuration is more efficient then… Seems i missed this useful information before.

Second nic is clear as well @sigzag, seems this may only become useful when i drop the server in a datacenter at some point and getting more than one. Thanks

1 Like
#10

Good to know your questions have been answered.

Concerning question 3., if you read the Dell R720 manual, there is clear information on what temperature the server can handle. Here is the summary:

For the R720, between 35˚C and 40˚C (or 95˚F and 104˚F), with 5% to 85% relative humidity, you can have this <10% of annual operating hours (around 36 days per year), and between 40˚C and 45˚C (or 104˚F and 113˚F), with 5 to 90% relative humidity, it’s <1% of annual operating hours (around 3.6 day per year). All this considers that there is no direct sunlight.

From 10˚C to 35˚C (thus from 50˚F to 95˚F), it’s considered standard operating temperature. With relative humidity from 10% to 80%.

I’ll let the link for this, check page 57:

Since all questions have been answered, I will put this post as CLOSED so other farmers will know it has been resolved.

Thanks @RobertL for the good questions and everyone else for your great answers.

EDIT: I’ll make a Q+A out of this temperature question, it’s good for other farmers to have this in mind!