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Dell T5500 for VMWare ESXi
Hi, I'm planning building a VMWare Virtual Lab and I'm considering buying a used T5500. Questions regarding this build will this be good enough to run VMWare ESXi 5.1, and if something goes bad with my PSU can I replace it with Seasonic Platinum series for example? I will be running Windows 2012 Server, exchange, Winodws 7, 8 to test and learn...
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Dell-Precision-T5500-Xeon-Quad-Core-E5530-2-4GHz-12GB-300GB-SAS-DVD-RW-RadeonH-/300997036836?pt=DE_Technik_Computer_Peripherieger%C3%A4te_PC_Systeme&hash=item4614d24b24
Thank you.
theflash1932
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October 29th, 2013 12:00
You should be able to replace the power supply with a third-party PSU.
The configuration should be ok - you probably won't be able to run Exchange in a VM with much else with this configuration). Your real bottleneck is going to be the controller. I would recommend using a PERC 6/i not a SAS 6/iR. It seems to come with a single 300GB SAS disk ... are you getting more disks?
svt11
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October 30th, 2013 01:00
Yes, I will put something like WD 2TB Red or Black or maybe just 1TB and an SSD for the ESXi. I have another question - how much PCIe slots are there, because I might put something like USB 3.0 card for installing OS-es directly. Also, where is 2nd CPU riser board put? Thank you.
theflash1932
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October 30th, 2013 10:00
The manual explains where the riser goes and about the expansion slots (2 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x16/x8, 1 PCI slot, 1 PCI-X slot).
http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/Common/precision-t5500_setup%20guide_en-us.pdf
If you are running SATA (7200 RPM) drives instead of SAS (10k/15K RPM), performance will be affected. The number of disks and the RAID level you choose will also have an impact. If you choose the higher-end PERC controller, I would NOT get consumer/desktop grade drives - get enterprise-class drives.
Dev Mgr
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October 31st, 2013 07:00
You may want to check the PSU on that T5500. I haven't looked in the T5500 I have, but in the T7500 that I have the cabling is so unique in regards to cable lengths that I cannot replace that PSU with anything but another Dell (T7500) PSU. Pin-out wise they may be compatible, but the powercable to the 2nd CPU riser had to go from the top of the chassis, around the edge of the (massive) motherboard to the bottom of the T7500 case. A generic powersupply wouldn't have the cable lengths for this (and may not have the powercable for the Dell unique 2nd CPU riser).
svt11
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October 31st, 2013 11:00
I think this could be enough..., but I'm not sure, I'm going to research for longer cables as you say
http://www.moddiy.com/products/Seasonic-Single-Sleeved-Power-Supply-Modular-Cables-Full-Set-%252d-Black-%7B47%7D-UV-Blue.html
iskampc.com/760w-seasonic-ss-760xp2-platinum-modular.html
Thank you.
TA SSE
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November 7th, 2013 20:00
This is for DEV MGR, are you running ESXi on your T7500? If so, was there anything special you had to do to get it running? If you aren't running VMware on it, does anyone know for sure you can run it on there? I'm looking at setting up a test lab myself and can get the T7500 extremely cheap. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!!