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From there you can compare models and hunt down the features that are important to you, such as multiple integrated NIC’s, IP based management, chipsets, and so forth. Before comparing motherboards, it’s obviously helpful to know what processor(s) you’d like to go with in your server. When choosing your motherboard, the primary considerations are the number of sockets, the socket type (which determines processor support), and RAM capacity / DIMM slots. You should also consider any expansion cards you might need such as RAID controllers, NIC’s, whatever else because a 1U is going to have some very restrictive space to work with. 1U boxes typically only hold around 4 disks, while a 2U might hold 10-12 disks and so on.
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You should also know your disk requirements before choosing a chassis. If your strategy is to build several less powerful boxes instead, you’re probably better off with many 1U chassis’s to make the best use of your rack space. Because of that, we chose a 2U chassis so that we could fit more equipment. Will you be building a powerhouse with the intention of virtualizing the hardware, or will you be building many single purpose devices instead? In our case, we were planning on virtualizing a single powerful box with an expansion plan of adding additional powerful boxes and virtualizing those. When choosing a chassis, it’s important to consider your overall strategy for your servers. It’s not as simple as it might seems at first. The first two decisions you need to make are the chassis and the motherboard. Disclaimer: I am not an expert in server hardware, these are my opinions and what I have learned so far. In the end, if you’re successful, you’ll have made the best choice in my opinion because you’ll have saved the most money and learned a lot in the process. There are very valid points against option 3, but so what. If you haven’t guessed already, this post is about option 3, building your own server. But you’ll have the most control, the biggest bang for your buck, and the most fun/misery. You might choose incompatible components, parts that don’t fit your chassis, or completely wrong equipment. You’ll do all of the research yourself and you’ll buy every component individually.
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