{"id":978,"date":"2008-01-20T20:36:19","date_gmt":"2008-01-20T20:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/01\/controlling-costs-when-buying-a-pc.htm"},"modified":"2009-01-01T00:56:38","modified_gmt":"2009-01-01T00:56:38","slug":"controlling-costs-when-buying-a-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/01\/controlling-costs-when-buying-a-pc.htm","title":{"rendered":"Controlling costs when buying a PC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Much of what I write on this blog is based upon my experiences as a consultant\/infrastructure architect for a leading IT Services company but as my day job becomes less technical there&#8217;s an increasing amount written based on the time I spend working with technology on my home network.&#160; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.markwilson.it\/\">markwilson.it<\/a> doesn&#8217;t have a large IT budget and it&#8217;s become increasingly apparent that my pile of aging, but rather good, Compaq Evo D5xx SFF PCs no longer provides the hardware features that I need.&#160; Consequently, I needed to buy a small server &#8211; ideally a dual-socket machine, with quad-core CPUs and up to 16GB of RAM (I had a couple of spare 500GB SATA hard disks to re-use and also some spare NICs). I didn&#8217;t have an exact figure in mind, but was hoping to spend no more than &#163;500-600 and knew that specification would probably be too expensive but then I found an offer on the Dell website for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www1.euro.dell.com\/content\/products\/productdetails.aspx\/pedge_840?c=uk&amp;l=en&amp;~tab=specstab\">PowerEdge 840<\/a> &#8211; starting at &#163;179 plus VAT and shipping.<\/p>\n<p>The PowerEdge 840 is more like a workstation than a server but it has the option to upgrade the standard dual-core Intel Pentium processor to a dual- or quad-core Xeon.&#160; For a dual-socket machine with the ability to go up to 16GB of memory I&#8217;d have needed to move up to a more expensive model but the PowerEdge 840 specification would give me what I need to set up a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/10\/low-cost-enterprise-virtualisation-from-xensource.htm\">XenExpress<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/11\/hyper-v-is-the-new-name-for-windows-server-virtualization.htm\">Windows Hyper-V Server<\/a> server for evaluating products and running the basic markwilson.it infrastructure (everything except the website, which is hosted for me by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ascomi.net\/\">ascomi<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t bought a PC for years (except my Mac Mini) and didn&#8217;t feel confident to make the right selections, so I called a trusted colleague, Garry, who may be a CTO now but still gets techie as required!&#160; He gave me some great advice for keeping the costs down &#8211; and these are equally applicable to any major OEM PC\/Server purchase:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you really need that optional extra?&#160; Don&#8217;t be afraid to buy the basic system from the manufacturer and source additional components elsewhere.&#160; <\/li>\n<li>Use a cashback site (e.g. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.topcashback.co.uk\/markwilson\/ref\/index.htm\">TopCashBack<\/a>).&#160; Using this, I was able to get cash back on the pre-tax value of the goods purchased. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Following Garry&#8217;s advice, I could see that by sticking with the basic memory and disk options (being ready to take them out when it arrives), I could buy larger components elsewhere and still save money.&#160; I upped the CPU spec, but left the rest of the system almost at the basic level with 512MB of RAM, one 80GB disk (to take out and use elsewhere &#8211; or even just give it away) and one 250GB disk (to downgrade my external hard drive and use the 500GB disk from that instead).&#160; I stuck with the basic DVD-ROM drive (I&#8217;ll take the writer from one of the PCs that this server will replace) and rejected options for floppy disk drive, modem, additional NICs, tape backup, UPS, etc. as I already have these things at home.&#160; I also rejected options for RAID controllers as I can pick up a less capable but inexpensive SATA RAID controller elsewhere.&#160; Finally, I said no to operating system and backup software &#8211; whilst Small Business Server 2003 R2 may have been nice, Windows Hyper-V Server will only be a few pounds when it releases later this year and XenExpress is free.&#160; As I&#8217;m not in the market for Windows Server 2003\/2008 Enterprise or Datacenter editions I&#8217;ll have to deal with the guest VM licensing separately &#8211; but that&#8217;s no different to my current situation.<\/p>\n<p>After this, I had my server ready to order, at a total price (including shipping and VAT) of just under &#163;392 (and around &#163;14 cashback due).&#160; Then I started looking at the last part of the solution &#8211; 8GB of DDR2 SDRAM.&#160; Interestingly, although the PowerEdge 840 supports up to 8GB of RAM, the &quot;build your system&quot; website only lets me choose up to 4GB &#8211; in 1GB DIMMs.&#160; I needed 2GB DIMMs in order to get the maximum memory installed.&#160; Dell would sell me these at a competitive price of &#163;49.02 each but wanted &#163;22.33 to ship four of them to me (total price &#163;218.40).&#160; My normal memory supplier (<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<!--\ncommissionjunction_crucial_text();\n\/\/--><\/script>) could sell me two 4GB kits (each 2x2GB) for &#163;244.38 (although the price has since fallen to just &#163;164.48) and I could earn cashback on both of these offers but the non-ECC RAM available at sites like eBuyer was much less expensive.&#160; According to Crucial, I can install non-ECC RAM in a server that supports ECC, but googling turned up some advice from newegg.com:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"http:\/\/images10.newegg.com\/UploadFilesForNewegg\/itemintelligence\/NI_System-Memory\/NIC-Pro-Do_I_Need_ECC_and_Registered_Memory-v1.1e.doc\">\n<p>&quot;[The] chances [of] a single-bit soft error occurring are about once per 1GB of memory per month of uninterrupted operation. Since most desktop computers do not run 24 hours a day, the chances are not actually that high. For example, if your computer (with 1GB of memory) runs 4 hours a day, the chances of a single-bit soft error happening (when your system is running) is about once every six months. Even should an error occur, it won&#8217;t be a big issue for most users as the error bit may not even be accessed at that time. Should the system access the error bit, this little error won&#8217;t result in a disaster either &#8211; the system may crash, but a restart of the system will fix that. That&#8217;s why ECC memory is not a necessity for most home users. <\/p>\n<p>Things are very different when it comes to workstations and servers. To begin with, these systems often utilize multi-gigabytes of memory, and they usually run 24\/7 as well. Both of these factors result in increased probability of a soft error. More importantly, an unnoticed error is not tolerable in a mission-critical workstation or server.&quot;<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">[Source: <a title=\"http:\/\/images10.newegg.com\/UploadFilesForNewegg\/itemintelligence\/NI_System-Memory\/NIC-Pro-Do_I_Need_ECC_and_Registered_Memory-v1.1e.doc\" href=\"http:\/\/images10.newegg.com\/UploadFilesForNewegg\/itemintelligence\/NI_System-Memory\/NIC-Pro-Do_I_Need_ECC_and_Registered_Memory-v1.1e.doc\">newegg.com article: Do I need ECC and registered memory?<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I decided to use ECC RAM as, even though my server is not mission critical, it will be on 24&#215;7 and running several virtual machines &#8211; all of which could be susceptible to memory errors.&#160; Dell Technical Support also advised me that non-ECC RAM would cause POST errors.<\/p>\n<p>I still needed to get the best deal I could on memory and Dell were only quoting me for PC2-4200 (533MHz) RAM when the PowerEdge 840 will take PC2-5300 (667MHz) RAM.&#160; As the Dell RAM is actually from Kingston, I decided to see what Kingston recommended for the PowerEdge 840 and found that there is a product (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ec.kingston.com\/ecom\/configurator_new\/partsinfo.asp?root=uk&amp;LinkBack=http:\/\/www.kingston.com\/ukroot&amp;ktcpartno=KTD-DM8400BE\/2G\">KTD-DM8400BE\/2G<\/a>) which is a 667MHz version of the 2GB 240-pin SDRAM that the server uses.&#160; Furthermore, I could get it from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smcdirect.co.uk\/\">SMC Direct<\/a> for &#163;53.55 a module (&#163;219.58 for all four, shipped).&#160; Then, Dell Technical Support advised me that there is little advantage in buying the faster RAM as the front-side bus for my Intel Xeon X3210 is 1066MHz and the 2x multiplier matches whereas the 667MHz RAM would match a 1333MHz bus.&#160; On that basis, I stuck with the Dell quote, saving myself a fiver and potentially earning some more cashback (actually, I didn&#8217;t get cashback because it was a telephone purchase but that was more than offset by Dell waiving the shipping charge as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/01\/how-my-dell-customer-experience-suddenly-got-better.htm\">goodwill for the problems I had experienced when buying the server<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>So, here I am, a couple of weeks later, with a quad-core system, over a terabyte of storage (after swapping some disks around) and 8GB RAM for less than &#163;575.&#160; Buying my RAM separately (even from the same supplier) got me a better deal (although Crucial&#8217;s subsequent price drop would have made an even bigger difference) and Garry&#8217;s TopCashBack advice saved me some more money.&#160; This is how the costs stack up (all including VAT and shipping, where applicable):<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Price<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"odd\">\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www1.euro.dell.com\/content\/products\/productdetails.aspx\/pedge_840?c=uk&amp;l=en&amp;~tab=specstab\">Dell PowerEdge 840<\/a> server<\/td>\n<td align=\"right\">&#163;391.98<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"even\">\n<td>4 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ec.kingston.com\/ecom\/configurator_new\/partsinfo.asp?root=uk&amp;LinkBack=http:\/\/www.kingston.com\/ukroot&amp;ktcpartno=KTD-DM8400AE\/2G\">Kingston KTD-DM8400AE\/2G<\/a> DIMMs (from Dell)<\/td>\n<td align=\"right\">&#163;196.08<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"odd\">\n<td>Additional disks, NICs and CD\/DVD writer (sourced from existing PCs)<\/td>\n<td align=\"right\">&#163;0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"even\">\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.topcashback.co.uk\/markwilson\/ref\/index.htm\">Cashback<\/a><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\">-&#163;14.23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"odd\">\n<td><strong>Total paid<\/strong><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\"><strong>&#163;573.83<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Further information<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"http:\/\/www.crucial.com\/uk\/support\/mem_type.aspx?type=package&amp;value=choose\" href=\"http:\/\/www.crucial.com\/uk\/support\/mem_type.aspx?type=package&amp;value=choose\">Memory specification terms<\/a><br \/><a title=\"http:\/\/www.crucial.com\/uk\/support\/glossary.aspx\" href=\"http:\/\/www.crucial.com\/uk\/support\/glossary.aspx\">Memory terms glossary<\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <!-- Static Ad --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.TopCashBack.co.uk\/markwilson\/ref\/index.htm\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Online Cashback\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.topcashback.co.uk\/images\/banners\/468x60.gif?w=700\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much of what I write on this blog is based upon my experiences as a consultant\/infrastructure architect for a leading IT Services company but as my day job becomes less technical there&#8217;s an increasing amount written based on the time I spend working with technology on my home network.&#160; markwilson.it doesn&#8217;t have a large IT &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/01\/controlling-costs-when-buying-a-pc.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Controlling costs when buying a PC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[114,32,60],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dell","tag-pc-hardware","tag-server-hardware"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Controlling costs when buying a PC - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/01\/controlling-costs-when-buying-a-pc.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Controlling costs when buying a PC - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Much of what I write on this blog is based upon my experiences as a consultant\/infrastructure architect for a leading IT Services company but as my day job becomes less technical there&#8217;s an increasing amount written based on the time I spend working with technology on my home network.&#160; 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