The Pursuit of Homelabs, Part 3 – How I Learned To Love the R710

Bells and whistles

Here are some highlights of the R710:

  • 2x LGA 1366 processor sockets, compatible with Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 processors
  • 18x DDR3 800-1333 RAM slots, with a realistic maximum of 144GB (18 x 8GB) of memory
  • 6x 3.5″ drive bays, with a realistic maximum storage of 30TB (6 x 5TB drives with an H200 or better RAID controller)
  • 4x 1 gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing some VMs to have dedicated NICs to achieve better network segmentation
  • 4x PCI-E slots for most expansion needs (including a RAID controller)
  • 1x slim optical drive slot (allowing replacement with a 2.5″ SATA drive)

Compared to the maximum features of modest builds costing twice as much (1 processor socket, realistic memory cap of 32GB, 1 on-board NIC, etc.), the R710 clearly offers way more bang for my buck and better fits my needs.

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