Christmas Opening Times 2017 and Thank you
Published by Marketing Team on the 19th Dec 2017
Please note that we will be closing our offices at 4pm on Friday 22nd December and re-opening 9am Wednesday 3rd January 2018.
If you have any urgent orders please ensure these are sent to us by 3pm on Friday 22nd to avoid disappointment.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for a superb 2017. Every year we grow and this year hasn’t been an exception to the norm – We’ve almost doubled our head count, doubled our stock holding and close to doubled our custom server build turnover.
We’re all looking forward to 2018 and continuing to grow, despite uncertain times with the UK economy.
Thank you,
Richard Parry
Director
AMD EPYC vs Intel Xeon
Published by Marketing Team on the 18th Dec 2017
It’s an interesting one – AMD hasn’t had the best reputation the past 10 years for it’s CPUs.
The latest iteration of the AMD server CPU, named EPYC was released on June 2017 to worldwide acclaim and scepticism.
Previously for the past 10 years AMD has produced the AMD Opteron CPU. A fairly affordable, but poor CPU. The CPUs ran very hot and required massive amounts of cooling – Where there is heat there is power usage – So the AMD Opteron series CPUs were terribly power hungry, making it a non-starter for a lot of applications – Generally servers need to be as power efficient as possible.
In addition to the power issues was availability. European and UK supply of AMD Opteron CPUs was poor – Very few distributors had their products in stock and almost always were on long lead-times.
It seems AMD has listened and sorted themselves out. AMD EPYC CPUs run very cool, have an industry leading range of core count CPUs and when compared to an Intel CPU, core for core, the EPYC CPUs can be up to quarter of the price.
So the question is – Should I buy one? Yes and No, of course. AMD EPYC CPUs are high-end – the lowest model core count is 8 and equivalent of this would be an Intel E5-2620V4. Pricing at this range is very similar to Intel, but with the motherboards costing more than Intel equivalents, and only a few vendors producing them (Supermicro and Asus being the main ones) it’s still a niche market.
AMD EPYC is for HPC. At the higher core counts, as mentioned earlier, the 32 core CPU is around a quarter of the price of the Intel equivalent. For HPC this makes the Intel CPUs a very attractive option.
Server Case UK are premium Supermicro and Asus partners, producing servers daily for many markets and whilst we still favour Intel platforms, we are more than happy to explore AMD EPYC solutions for our customers.
If you’re considering an AMD EPYC based system and would like to talk to us about the viability or as a proof of concept for a larger installation please give us a call on 01283 576162 or drop us an email to [email protected]
Did you Know - We manufacture servers for CCTV Storage
Published by Marketing Team on the 18th Dec 2017
Server Store has been providing custom built CCTV storage servers for years – We have a huge amount of experience, not only with the hardware, but also with the software.
What is a CCTV Storage System? It’s a DVR (such as what you’d get from Hikvision or Swann), but using server components. The primary benefits of using a custom built CCTV system is expandability and reliability.
A traditional DVR is a single system, usually running embedded Linux or a custom simplified OS. Most of these systems also have a single or sometimes dual hard drives, fixed internally. They can usually be expanded, but usually by replacing existing drives, meaning archived footage would be unavailable, for example.
These DVR’s also come with a single PSU and have no fault tolerance. Models with any kind of RAID/backup/data protection are rare and very expensive.
CCTV is important wherever it is installed and any downtime could be expensive – Downtime could mean missing an employee damaging or stealing products, it could mean missing an intruder or something else.
This is where our custom CCTV servers come in. They run Windows and can run a range of CCTV software. We can provide simple systems with a few TB of storage, up to very large multi-site mirrored installations, running in a disaster recovery setup.
We’re partnered with Cathexis (a local business to us) and Milestone for their software applications – otherwise more commonly known in the security industry as VMS (Video Management Software)
There’s a huge amount of benefits using VMS software on a custom CCTV system over traditional single DVR’s, and these include;
- Expandability. Using the right server with expansion abilities it allows for additional storage to be added very easily. This means you can add more cameras easily without compromising on recording quality.
- Reliability. Our systems are built using server grade components, backed with warranties that allow for quick and simple replacement in the event of a failure. Some of our models include power redundancy – such as dual power supplies, so the system will be uninterrupted in the event of a power supply failure.
- Data Archiving. VMS software allows for very easy archiving of footage. As storage can be easily expanded on our systems too, this allows for potential of years worth of HD footage if required.
- Remote Usage. Mobile apps are available allowing easy viewing of footage as well as live streams. The mobile apps can also control PTZ cameras, too.
- Backup. Our CCTV systems can be backed up to either its own local storage, to a network connected device (such as a NAS) or even into the cloud. This is particularly important in the event of a fire or disaster where video recordings need to be accessed when the physical CCTV was stolen, failed or damaged.
We have a range of CCTV Servers available on our site to view and configure. If you need any help choosing the right model for your immediate and future needs please speak to our sales team on 01283 576162 or drop us an email to [email protected]
Introducing our new Server Store Website
Published by Marketing Team on the 18th Dec 2017
We’re really pleased to announce our new Server Store website has gone live. After around 8 months in development, upgrading our previous successful Server Shop UK website we are finally there.
Our new website has tripled its available product catalogue, allowing over 100 servers to be easily configured and purchased online. There’s now also a huge catalogue of over 50 servers from tier 1 brands such as HPE, DELL and Asus, pre-built and can be with our customers in as little as the next working day.
We’re now one of the first to introduce the Asus barebone servers to be configured online.
Our configurator is very easy to use and smart. It knows the minimum, maximum and recommended configurations for RAM, based on the number of CPUs in the system and will ensure you can’t get it wrong. All components in each system are compatible, so it’s not possible to choose a system which won’t work right.
Our online sales however are only a small fraction of what we do at Server Store. We provide completely custom built configurations, from single servers to datacentre suites.
We can also provide full OEM on specific systems. This allows you to brand up the systems to match your own corporate identify, or if you’re creating a product/solution for your own company. If you’re interested in an OEM solution please give our sales team a call on 01283 576162 or drop us an email to [email protected]
We also welcome feedback on our new website, good or bad – If you have a moment and would like to give us some feedback it would be most welcomed – Please just drop an email to [email protected] - Thank you.
