Dell 2950III,is there a way to speed up boot? And can I improve graphics? And can I migrate OS which is on a sata drive to a sas to improve speed?

1. Migrate from what - a physical machine(s) or another VM?  If a VM, from VMware or Hyper-V? You will be running 2008R2 on the hardware?  Then Hyper-V with that?

2. No updated driver.  The "crummy" graphics are server-grade (meaning, it is adequate for most server use), and the video hardware is limited to what you see.  Try searching the site for others who have added graphics cards.  Servers are not designed to be used with add-in graphics, so it will very much be a game of trial and error to find one that will work.

3. It should not take 4 minutes.  How long does it take to get to the CTRL-E prompt?  How long does it take at the very beginning - with the progress bar at the bottom?

You won't get 10 VM's, each with its own core - the 2950 supports two quad-core processors without hyper-threading.  As long as they are not heavily used (processor use), then you might be able to run 10 light-duty VM's.

First thanks for the quick response. 2nd its about 50 seconds before the blue dell logo goes away then 2min of the black screen saying it has 32gb ram and 2x 3ghz quad core ...discovered Drac card then 5 sec countdown then 45 seconds of it saying virtual drives once it hits windows its fast. Running bios 2.7.0 3rd I want to change the physical drives to SAS drives then run VMs off sata so the OS drive is faster.but I don't want to reinstall the OS just change drives over. 4th I'm running hyperV and each machine. Has 1 core and 1 GB ram and uses around 50-70% CPU and around 512 ram.So can I run hyper threading to share cores and balance load since I saw a pdf on dell.co saying its supported on 2950? Once again thanks for responding, Nick

50 seconds is fairly long at the Dell screen and 2 minutes is long for the processor screen, but it may be because of the amount of memory that is installed.  Did you also update the ESM/BMC when you updated the BIOS?

So can I run hyper threading to share cores and balance load since I saw a pdf on dell.co saying its supported on 2950?

Where did you see that?  The highest-end processor the 2950 [III] can take is the X5470, which does not support hyper-threading, so you will have a max of 8 logical processors (2x4 cores) to use amongst your VM's.

Thanks again, it came with the bios at 2.7.0 and I I never reset it for fear of it messing with the RAID I can try pulling the drives at next power down and reset it. I saw it on a PDF on dell.com saying operating systems that are supported by Dell /some what supported I can put a link on in 12 hours when I have access to my work laptop.but thanks for your help so far.

ok I couldn't find pdf but you are correct http://ark.intel.com/products/34446/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5450-(12M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB)?wapkw=x5450

that shows features

But what about the had drives, is there a way to upgrade them to SAS from SATA without reinstalling the OS?

But what about the had drives, is there a way to upgrade them to SAS from SATA without reinstalling the OS?

No, because you can't mix SAS and SATA in the same array, so there is no way to migrate or swap from a SATA array to a SAS array.  You could backup/restore or clone directly from one to the other, eliminating the need for a storage middleman (external HDD, etc.).

I was told to "clone" I drive I need to clone it to a identical drive? Is that true? Also how much speed boost would I be looking at ? I rent/host small game servers off of the individual VMs would upgrading the is drive help or better off all WD red drives ?(WD red drives are sata but designed for raid) thanks again Ps how much power should this computer pull if on 24/7 in a clement controlled room?and is the max hard drive size 1tb or 2tb I was told 1.8tb but that makes no sense I have perc 6 card I really do appreciate you answering my questions

I was told to "clone" I drive I need to clone it to a identical drive? Is that true?

An "identical drive" - not sure what they would mean by that.  Check your cloning software - in some cases, you need to clone to a "drive" as large or larger than the original, in some cases, that is not required.

WD red drives are sata but designed for raid

Specifically, they are low-power SATA drives designed for NAS devices, not for server RAID solutions.  You may or may not have issues with them.

is the max hard drive size 1tb or 2tb I was told 1.8tb but that makes no sense I have perc 6 card

The PERC 6 supports a maximum physical disk size of 2TB.  A 2TB disk will give you about 1.8TB of "usable" disk space, given the difference between advertised and actual sizes (binary vs. decimal).

how much power should this computer pull if on 24/7 in a clement controlled room

Take a look at this to see if you can get the numbers you are looking for:

 

ah ok ill go with them since it will be cheaper per TB and they say "The right choice for NAS, no other drive is designed specifically for home and small office NAS systems and PCs with RAID."http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810

I would assume they would preform better than a regular SATA drive since they SATA III and let the RAID card fix problems instead of the drive trying to. Heck, SSD is cheaper for a 500gb drive .

Thank you for being so helpful.

ah ok ill go with them since it will be cheaper per TB and they say "The right choice for NAS, no other drive is designed specifically for home and small office NAS systems and PCs with RAID."http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810

Look at the list of compatibility though ... there is not a single enterprise (server) RAID system listed.  They might be ok for PC's with RAID, as the requirements are MUCH more lax, but they are power-savers - probably running at around 5400RPM (and probably the reason for the lower price) - and those power-saving settings will likely give you headaches on a PERC.  Let us know how it goes though.

I would assume they would preform better than a regular SATA drive since they SATA III and let the RAID card fix problems instead of the drive trying to. Heck, SSD is cheaper for a 500gb drive .

The PERC is a 3Gbps controller, so there will be no benefit to getting a SATA-3 drive over a SATA-2 drive, and given the power settings, it likely will perform about on par with any old SATA drive, and probably lower than a performance SATA drive, like the Black, and certainly lower than an enterprise-class SATA drive.  I realize you are using this at home, so performance isn't a big issue - it may work for your setup.  Also the RAID card can manage disk defects and performance, but ONLY if the drive is fully compatible, which the Red is not. 

I wish you well, I really do. I just wouldn't be too confident in a Red on the PERC, so be prepared with backups, just in case.

 

well, currently it has 2x500GB Maxtor's SATA I so I would assume any newer drive would be better but you are correct this is in my home however I will be renting out the VMs to people to run small gaming servers off of(ex MInecraft, Halo) so I want it done correct but on a budget .

That is why I was leaning towards a WD RED since it could preform better than regular SATA according to amazons listing on them (link below)"Desktop drives are not traditionally designed for RAID environments and have controls that prevent the RAID controller from assisting in the event of an error which can cause the hard drive to drop off the RAID after a period of time. Rebuilding the system often requires several hours and can have a significant impact on downtime and productivity."

WD RED http://www.amazon.com/WD-Red-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B008JJLZ7G/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1397074694&sr=1-2&keywords=wd+red

However I did look it up and a enterprise drive is not that much more. Also I would get 2years more warranty, which is always welcomed.

WD RE4 http://www.amazon.com/RE4-Enterprise-Hard-Drive-WD1003FBYX/dp/B003SANWI6/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1397074506&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=entriprise+sata

Do you think I will get a noticeable speed/reliability improvement? And will it cost a lot more in power to run a month(I don't care if it goes up like 5$ I just am worried that it might spike like $20 since I will be running 4-6 of those drives )?

Thank you

That is why I was leaning towards a WD RED since it could preform better than regular SATA according to amazons listing on them (link below)"Desktop drives are not traditionally designed for RAID environments and have controls that prevent the RAID controller from assisting in the event of an error which can cause the hard drive to drop off the RAID after a period of time. Rebuilding the system often requires several hours and can have a significant impact on downtime and productivity."

Yes, this is true, but remember that those same RAID settings also vary greatly between consumer RAID solutions and enterprise RAID solutions, so those same problems can crop up when drives are used on a controller where they are designed to do different things.

Do you think I will get a noticeable speed/reliability improvement? And will it cost a lot more in power to run a month(I don't care if it goes up like 5$ I just am worried that it might spike like $20 since I will be running 4-6 of those drives )?

There will be a difference.  WD has "certified" - tested and designed - the RE4's to work on PERC controllers.  They did not design for those types of enterprise devices for the other lines (like the Red).  They should be very reliable and the performance will be better using the RE4's instead of the Reds.

As far as power savings go, I seriously doubt the Reds will save you as much as $20/month - maybe for the whole year.  I don't know exact numbers, but I doubt it is more than a few bucks/month.