Dell PowerEdge 2850 Server 64-bit Intel Xeon

You know what this means right?

The PowerEdge 2850 offers up to six hard drive bays, up to two Intel Xeon processors (single-core or dual-core) supporting an 800MHz Front Side Bus and up to 16GB2 of DDR-2 memory, the PowerEdge 2850 server is designed for top-notch performance today and the ability to expand in the future. And it packs all of this into a space-conscious 2U chassis. Additionally, the system includes support for PCI Express, the latest development in I/O throughput that helps your server keep pace with advances in I/O technologies. Plus, the PowerEdge 2850 server is designed to support expansion with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology that supports both 32-bit and 64-bit applications enabling you to easily expand into 64-bit technology.

Form factor
2U rack height

Processors
Up to two single-core 64-bit Intel Xeon processors at up to 3.8GHz
or up to two dual-core 64-bit Intel Xeon processors at 2.8GHz
Front side bus 800MHz

Cache
Up to 2MB L2 per processor core

Chipset
Intel E7520

Memory
256MB/12GB DDR-2 400 SDRAM; 16GB with availability
of dual rank 4GB DIMMs2

I/O channels
Three total: three PCI-X slots (64-bit/133MHz) or two PCI Express
slots (1 x 4 lane and 1 x 8 lane) and one PCI-X slot (64-bit/100MHz)

Drive controller
Embedded dual channel Ultra320 SCSI; internal and external routing

RAID controller
Optional dual channel ROMB (PERC 4e/Di), PERC 4/DC and PERC 4e/Dc adapters

Drive bays
Six 1 inch; Ultra320 hot-plug SCSI drives or five drive bays and one tape drive bay
Maximum internal storage Up to 1.8TB with 300GB HDD

Hard drives
36GB, 73GB, 146GB and 300GB (10,000 rpm) Ultra320 SCSI
18GB, 36GB, 73GB and 146GB (15,000 rpm) Ultra320 SCSI

Internal storage
10K/15K RPM SCSI drives

External storage
Dell PowerVault SCSI and Dell/EMC fibre channel storage

Tape backup
options Internal: PowerVault 110T
External: PowerVault 114T, 124T, 132T and 136T

Network interface card
Dual embedded Intel Gigabit4 NICs; single and dual port Intel PRO/1000
MT Gigabit adapters, Intel PRO/1000 MF (optical)

Power supply
700W, optional hot-plug redundant power

Availability
ECC memory; Single Device Data Correction (SDDC); Spare Bank;
Memory Mirroring; hot-plug SCSI hard drives; optional hot-plug
redundant power; hot-plug redundant cooling; tool-less chassis;
high availability fibre channel and SCSI cluster support; optional
ROMB with battery-backed cache; optional Split Backplane;
optional PERC RAID controller

Video
Embedded ATI Radeon 7000-M with 16MB SDRAM

Remote management
Baseboard Management Controller with IPMI 1.5 compliance, accessible
via network or serial port; optional slot-free DRAC 4/I
Systems management Dell OpenManage

Rack support
4-post (Dell rack), 2-post and 3rd party; Cable Management Arm

Operating systems
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Microsoft
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition; Microsoft Windows
Server 2003, Standard Edition; Microsoft Windows Server 2003,
Enterprise Edition; Red Hat Linux Enterprise v2.1; Red Hat Linux
Enterprise v3; Red Hat Linux Enterprise v3 Advanced Server EM64T;
Novell NetWare 5.1 and 6.5

Manufacturer Part# : PowerEdge 2850

One server for all my gaming needs =)

* Xeon 3.00 Ghz 64 Bit CPU with Hyper Threading
* 1024 kB L2 Cache
* 2nd CPU Socket
* 2 Gig DDR2 ECC RAM
* 2 x 18 Gig 10k Seagate Ultra160 SCSI drives in RAID 1 configuration
* Perc 4e/Di with 256Mb cache memory dual channel RAID controller
* 2 x Spare Disk Caddys included (Server can take 6 drives)
* DVD Rom Drive
* Floppy Disk Drive
* 3 x PCI-X 64 Bit Expansion Slots
* 2 x hot-pluggable, 700-W power supplies in a 1 + 1 redundant configuration
* 2 x 10/100/1000 NICs
* 4 x USB Ports (2 Front + 2 Rear)
* PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse Ports
* Serial Port
* Windows Server 2003 Standard COA

Clean install of Server 2003 SP2

While cruising the wide world of web recently, I landed on a .gov website with an interesting article that I thought had some interesting results. The premise of the article is that the US Department of Energy wanted to know how vehicle maintenance effected fuel mileage, specifically dirty air filters. So they did an experiment with 4 cars:

2003 Toyota Camry 2.4L
2007 Buick Lucerne 3.8L
2006 Dodge Charger 5.7L
1972 Pontiac Grandville 455ci (aww yea)
Now, I encourage you to read through the whole article, but if 27 pages of government written science experiments doesn’t sound exciting to you, then you are in luck, because I am about to give you the cliff notes in my own words.

Here is a link to the full experiment in PDF form.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

Here we go – The people doing the test first set up a series of gauges on the intake of each of the engines so that they could measure the air pressure before the filter, the pressure drop across the filter, and the intake manifold pressure.



Then with each of the 3 fuel injected cars set up this way, they did a series of lab tests and driving tests. They started by measuring the pressure drops across clean & clogged air filters. They “clogged” the new filters by wrapping the filters with paper towels. (Note to self: Wrap friends air filter on 4/1/2012).



Then they moved on to the driving tests by measuring the time it took to accelerate from 20 to 80 mph at WOT (wide open throttle). Clearly there is a performance decrease in these engines. Just thinking about how the engine must feel during this test makes me want to grab an inhaler. Now these cars know what it feels like to be a Karmann Ghia.



Next up, they measured the fuel economy for each individual car with and without the clogged air filters. Here is just one example of the results, this one below happens to be the 2003 Toyota Camry. As you can see, they did 3 different driving tests for each vehicle, and there is not a measurable decrease in fuel economy. The results were the same for all three cars. Strange huh? It is apparently because if less air goes into the engine, the computer knows it, and offsets fuel to match the smaller amount of air. Wrap your brain around that one for a moment.



Oh. Then the big ol’ carbureted 1972 Pontiac Graaaandville entered the air filter party. It was officially time for the 455 to shine and show the young whipper snappers who’s boss…



A similar set of gauges was hooked up to the air intake and all of the pressures were measure for a clean vs. clogged filter. As expected, when they did the driving tests in the Grandville, it immediately tried to eat the clogged filter whole and swallow it like a champ. It was having no part of this “less air” test. On the graph below, you can see that the lack of air flow greatly hampered its acceleration time.



Amazingly, even with a carburetor, the 20 foot long rolling couch only lost 2 – 2.5% of its fuel economy during these tests. One of the tests couldn’t actually be performed because the Pontiac was struggling so badly to breath that it overheated every time they tried to run it. Poor 455.



So what exactly can we gain from this data? Hmmm, well I guess it’s nice to know that somebody is testing these types of things to keep the public informed. It certainly surprised the heck out of me that a clogged air filter doesn’t seem to effect a fuel injected vehicle’s fuel economy, though I’m not surprised that it kills every single hope of performance. Does this mean you shouldn’t change your filter? Not really. It just means that if you changed it recently in your Subaru with hopes of getting better gas mileage, you may be disappointed. Sorry me. The good news is that if you change your story a bit and tell yourself that you bought the fresh new air filter for better throttle response (obviously), you instantly feel better about the purchase. Phew.

All images borrowed from:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

I defy anyone not to laugh at this!

A mother took her five-year-old son with her to the bank on a busy lunchtime.

They got behind a very fat woman wearing a business suit complete with pager.

After waiting patiently for a few minutes, the little boy said loudly,
"Wow, She's fat!”

The mother bent down and whispered in the little boy's ear to be quiet..

A couple more minutes passed by and the little boy stretched his arms out as far
As they would go and announced; "I'll bet her bum is this wide!"

The fat woman turned around and glared at the little boy.

The mother gave him a good telling off, and told him to be quiet.

After a brief lull, the large woman reached the front of the queue.

Just then her pager began to emit a "beep, beep, beep"
The little boy yelled out, "Run for your f*****G life, she's reversing!!"
:raspberry

Last week was my birthday and I didn't feel very well waking up on that morning.

I went downstairs for breakfast
hoping my wife would be pleasant and say,
'Happy Birthday!',
and possibly have a small present for me.

As it turned out,
she barely said good morning,
let alone
' Happy Birthday.'

I thought....

Well, that's marriage for you,
but the kids....
They will remember.

My kids came bounding down stairs to breakfast
and didn't say a word..
So when I left for the office,
I felt pretty low
and somewhat despondent.

As I walked into my office,
my secretary Jane said,
'Good Morning Boss,
and by the way
Happy Birthday ! '
It felt a little better
that at least someone had remembered.

I worked until one o'clock ,
when Jane knocked on my door
and said, 'You know,
It's such a beautiful day outside,
and it is your Birthday,
what do you say we go out to lunch,
just you and me..'
I said, 'Thanks, Jane,
that's the greatest thing
I've heard all day.
Let's go!'

We went to lunch.
But we didn't go
where we normally would go.
She chose instead at a quiet bistro
with a private table.
We had two martinis each
and I enjoyed the meal tremendously.

On the way back to the office,
Jane said, 'You know,
It's such a beautiful day...
We don't need to go straight back to the office,
Do We?'

I responded,
'I guess not.
What do you have in mind?'
She said,
'Let's drop by my apartment,
it's just around the corner.'

After arriving at her apartment,
Jane turned to me and said,

'Boss, if you don't mind,
I'm going to step into the bedroom
for just a moment.
I'll be right back.'
'Ok.' I nervously replied.

She went into the bedroom and,
after a couple of minutes,
she came out
carrying a huge birthday cake ...
Followed
by my wife,
my kids,
and dozens of my friends
and co-workers,
all singing 'Happy Birthday'.

And I just sat there....

On the couch....

Naked. :weeping

Its amazing how fast they grow up.


From leaving the hospital.

To crawling



To Standing up.