More RAM is more.
As if 72GB wasn’t a lot of RAM I’ve come across 144GB to add to my Dell R710. This will give me enough overhead that I can size VMs less conservatively!
So just how loud is a Dell R710?
Can you run your R710 on your coffee table without annoying your spouse? How about in the middle of the dining room? Read here to find out if you find the noise tolerable!
Breathing some life into my R710
I recently picked up a (a few months ago) Dell R710 in order to leverage its higher memory and CPU capacity compared to the 2950 III’s I run from time to time in my lab. I bought it with dual Xeon E5530 CPUs which are 4-core CPUs clocked at 2.4 GHz. It only came with 12GB of DDR3 RAM, however, which is a bit limiting for an ESXi host. My plan is to swap the E5530’s with E5649 (6-core, 2.53 GHz) or X5670’s (6-core,...
When an APC rack meets a homelab, machining, and TIG welding
When you get a great deal on an APC AR3100 but find out it has two sets of rear doors you just machine some stuff and weld it together, right?
Ever wonder how much power a PDU draws?
Hi again! Soon I will be moving a rack of about 8-10 servers, two 48 port switches, an MD1000 full of disks, and some other odds an ends to a location equipped with a 240v 30A circuit. Naturally, I need something to plug into the L6-30R receptacle and because I will be remote of this setup I’d like to be able to flip a server or switch off entirely in case of issue. There are times where an iDRAC just goes brain-dead and the...
RAID Levels – Spans, Stripes, IOPS, Oh My!
“What RAID level should I use?” “Raid 10 is better than RAID 5.” These are all common discussion topics but the truth is that there is more to it than that! Check out this benchmark test showing the strengths and weaknesses of each configuration!
About Me
I am a Sr. Systems Engineer by profession and am interested in all aspects of technology. I am most interested in virtualization, storage, and enterprise hardware. I am also interested in leveraging public and private cloud technologies such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and vRealize Automation/vCloud Director. When not working with technology I enjoy building high performance cars and dabbling with photography. Thanks for checking out my blog! 
