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This is something new that I’m trying, I’ve been thinking about creating a regular VLOG as a way of communicating with other techies and readers of this blog (techhead.co).
So here it is, my first VLOG which covers my wanting to refresh my dormant, and now slightly outdated, vSphere based home lab.
I’ve always looked towards the HP entry level range of servers for my home lab, particularly due to them running very good deals on them from time to time.
I like the tower form factor of server for my home lab, so HP’s ML110 and ML115 models have been a great fit. That is until they went end-of-life…
The HP MicroServer came along and provided a nice small form factor, also at a good price (when discounted). Though the limitation I always found with the MicroServers was the 16GB maximum memory, and the CPU horsepower could sometimes be a little bit restrictive, although this was less of an issue with the Intel based CPUs found in the MicroServer G8. This didn’t make the MicroServers bad lab machines, far from it, they offered great bang for buck, though I just missed having the ability to upgrade them to accommodate multiple virtual machines running more demanding resource requirements found with modern day operating systems and applications.
I still have my ML110 and ML115 servers, though they are getting a little long in the tooth now, ie: 5+ years, and I could do with something fresh.
So I’m back in the market for a new lab server, something that won’t break the bank but with enough resources at its disposal to run all, or at least the majority, of my vSphere lab infrastructure.
This got me looking at different brands of entry level server with the most obvious place to start being Dell. Why Dell? Well, I work for EMC and as you’ve probably heard we’re currently in the process of merging with Dell to create the largest IT company on the planet – exciting stuff, as I’ll get exposure to even more cool tech. Also, Dell owns and runs the Alienware gaming PC/laptop brand, what’s not to like?
I got in contact with the great folks over at ServersPlus (.co.uk) and they informed me of an attractive deal that Dell is currently running on their entry level PowerEdge T20 tower servers. So this seems like the right time to order my first Dell lab server, I look forward to trying out a new brand of lab server.
Although ServersPlus are a UK based company I have heard of them shipping to Europe before, though I’d recommend contacting them if you are based outside of the UK to find out the logistics and costs associated with doing this.
Here is the link to the Dell PowerEdge T20 deals at ServersPlus – just remember to factor in the cost of increasing the memory to either 16GB or 32GB, along with a SATA disk if you buy the Celeron based T20 model (as it doesn’t come with a disk as standard, although the XEON model does, ie: 1TB SATA).
Please let me know what you think of the VLOG format, and if this is something you’d like to see more of regularly in the future. Thanks. 
Hi Simon
I have been looking at the same thing, having gone through the same server history as yourself and although they have all had there plus points, performance restrictions have always been a frustration.
So I have bitten the bullet and gone for a DL160 G6 – lots of capacity and quite an influx in the market currently second hand.
Space wise I am putting it in the garage and using this as a server rack – https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack – cheap but effective.
Hi Dave,
Nice, the DL160 G6 should fit the bill nicely. I’m always amazed at how cheaply you can pick up SMB and enterprise level servers second-hand these days. It almost comes down to a case of not whether you can afford to buy them, but whether you can find space and can afford to run them. Not a bad predicament to have. 🙂
I like the LackRack solution, I haven’t seen that before. Good ole Ikea!
I’m going to place my order for the Celeron model of the Dell T20 tomorrow, and going to have a look around at how to best source some cheap memory to hopefully take it up to 32GB.
Thanks for the comment, and have fun with your DL160 G6.
I just found your site…I have been getting eBay servers here lately to build my own home Virtual Lab. I picked up (2) HP DL580 G5’s with (4) 6 core processors and 128GB ram for $500/each delivered and I just picked up a DL580 G7 with (4) 8 core processors and 64GB ram for $500 delivered. At idle they draw ~530 watts each. I run them through an APC 1250 UPS to handle the surge load and only one per electrical circuit. I think the G7 is going to be the only one running from now on as it has power accommodations for real video cards and 48 empty RAM slots and a bunch of PCI slots for expansion. Except for some kind of physical backups or fail over I don’t see any reason I would need another machine than the G7.
I’m looking forward to checking out the rest of your site.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the comment, and welcome to TechHead!
Wow, that is quite some set-up you’ve for there! You’re definitely not going to be short of any lab compute resources any time soon. 🙂
Just running the G7 makes sense. How cheaply can you pick up memory to start filling those 48 slots? 48 slots, I still find that amazing, as even if you used 2GB DIMMs you’d still be able to achieve 96GB of memory.
Let us know you get on with your new servers, along with any photos of your lab.
Have fun!
Hi Simon, longtime reader here, 1st time commenting.
I’m going to the opposite side of you. I’m tiring to get rid of my “enterprise” servers and migrating my lab to common desktops. I have a pair of DL380 G7 with 2 8-cores and 256gb of ram. Now they are powered of and I’m running 5 i7 desktops with 32gb and 16gb of ram and they are doing so well for my needs.
Cheers from Brazil and I like the vlog. I’m thinking in doing something like this for my blog too
I started off with an RM server years ago then Dell sc440’s then after that came the HP micro servers. I’ve now got a single white box pc with 32GB’s ram running workstation. This serves me well for the most part as I don’t often need nesting. However when running nested ESXi its not uncommon for my pc to BSOD (despite several rebuilds and component swap outs). So I’m thinking of getting a T20 for taking over hypervisor duties and using my white box as a control tier. The other option I’m still considering is moving it all to cloud but then keeping track of cost is a concern.
I don’t have the space or the WAF for loads of kit or anything too noisy. But more often than not running 32GB is still a limiting factor and you cannot properly lab things out with the resource and infrastructure requirements of modern services as it soon all adds up.
Hi Simon,
What about the HP ML10v2? It’s cheap with the Pentium and can handle Xeon CPU’s and up to 32GB of memory.
Cheers
any updates on which T20 model you went for ? also interest to know which ESXI image you used – I can’t find the T20 in approved H/w list. Have you got it working and if so which image did you use ?