DELL XPS 15 9550-4444SLV CORE I7 512GB SIGNATURE EDITION LAPTOP A family member recently got a Dell XPS 15 Core i7, with the 512GB SSD option. With a need for virtualization performance and a bit of light gaming, the extra bit of umph of the Core i7 seemed worth the trade-off in battery life. After…
Long road trips and podcasts go together nicely, such as my recent 2 hour Saturday excursion to a Microsoft focus group gathered by Paul Thurrott. Boy was I entertained and educated as I drove, and I kept thinking that it would sure seem likely that folks who visit TinkerTry would love to hear this…
Yesterday, I said: Next torture test? Abuse of that 10GbE connection to the loaner Supermicro SuperServer right next to this one... Well, that's what I went and done. Since the moment the idea entered my brain, until the test was done, I couldn't get the unanswered question out of my head. I just…
First, you got your Samsung 950 PRO NVMe M.2 drive, 512GB size, specs here. Next you got another identical 950 PRO (borrowed), installed in the same PCIe 3.0x4 equipped Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T, using a simple $20 PCI adapter. Available now on Amazon in 256GB and 512GB sizes, 1TB not…
Configuration On Amazon. Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T with 128GB of RAM (Bundle 2) BIOS 1.0b (directions here) BIOS set to UEFI for Windows 10 fresh install, using Microsoft's MediaCreationTool.exe to make the bootable USB 3.0 flash drive installer media no network connection through the…
This is one of those home lab housekeeping duties that I just hadn't gotten around to. Kind of gets your attention when your datastores start to fill, or you can't Storage vMotion VMs in. Eventually you get weary of the warnings, and you certainly don't want to get to 100% full, when VMs get…
Nov 10 2015 Update #1 - Supermicro has already updated some of their product pages, with apparently no changes to SKUs or part #s or components, details below. Nov 10 2015 Update #2 - ServeTheHome has now published SR-IOV details at THE BROADWELL-DE INTEL XEON D-1500 SERIES AND SR-IOV. More…
Available now on Amazon in 256GB and 512GB sizes, 1TB not expected until early next year. These past few hours, I've been quite enjoying doing some basic tests of my two new 950 PROs, 512GB capacity, ensuring I'm getting expected performance levels. I short, I am! This first series of tests use…
You know what's cooler than a Samsung 950 PRO? Two Samsung 950 PROs. The Xeon D-1540 SoC platform has PCIe 3.0 by 4 lanes, for both the single PCIe slot, and the single M.2 socket. That means the speed should be roughly the same, regardless of where it's located. That's something I'm about to…
How to boot from NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express). Why is that a thing to learn? Well, consider that it's an entirely new storage technology. The issue is not so much about the tiny M.2 2280 form factor, or PCIe or U.2 connections. It's everything to do with leaving legacy SATA/AHCI behind, which…
Nov 03 2015 12:00pm EST - After a few days of delay, my qty of the 512GB version just arrived from Amazon via USPS, details below. Original article below: You may remember the announcement article last month that explains why this long-awaited drive is so widely anticipated. No more hunting for…
I recently saw Scott Davis, CTO of Infio, speaking at the Virtualization Group - Boston. It was held right at VMware's location in Cambridge, MA, right near Boston. It's the same place Scott used to work actually. He did an amazing job bringing the audience through a brief history of computer…
Source: Intel Here's an inside view of the 750 Series, with the heat sink/airflow channel removed, as pictured on Amazon. This is a quick and simple look at the physical attributes of the card, and how to properly install this speedy device in your Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T. Should you…
What arrives every Sunday, has just the right mix of personal and professional stories, and always includes interesting tips and forum highlights? Yes, it's the Veeam Community Forums Digest, authored by backup and storage legend Anton Gostev (@gostev), Vice President of Product Management at Veeam…
You may recall my recently-published my home lab storage strategy: Superguide: SuperServer home virtualization lab storage tiers, platinum through bronze, how many efficient drives fit inside this tiny chassis? Body of text Sep 25 2015 Modest System Requirements. Maybe I'll need to rethink that a…
This hardware is not on the VMware vSAN Compatibility Guide. For All Flash vSAN, you are supposed to use enterprise storage with PLP (Power Loss Protection / Super Capacitors), and pass through drive controllers that have high queue depths (which SATA doesn't have). See also Requirements and…
Source: Intel Here's an inside view of the 750 Series, with the heat sink/airflow channel removed, as pictured on Amazon. Click to shop. If you use ESXi 6.0 Update 1, and you're lucky enough to possess an Intel 750 NVMe, you're still going to want to use the latest Intel NVMe driver install…
You can go with RAID for increased resilience and/or speed. Or you can go simple JBOD, and simply use the magic of VMware's Storage vMotion to move VMs among tiers at will, depending upon your needs for which speeds.Click to see more. I have chosen the latter approach for my Supermicro SuperServer…
Updates to this article below. Click the image twice for a much closer look. Recently, I managed to temporarily get 2 SuperServer 5028D-TN4T loaners. Fired up Windows 10 on one of them, with BIOS 1.0b set to UEFI mode.Here's a picture, with the heat sink/airflow channel removed. Click to view Intel…
Source: Intel I managed to temporarily get 2 SuperServer 5028D-TN4T loaners. One of them already traveled 6,440 miles with me earlier this month, as I demonstrated the capabilities at Microsoft in Indianapolis, then over to the San Francisco Bay area to hang with a bunch of virtualization,…
The links below are where you go, to get them both. But really only if you need these new features. Or if you have a circumstance or problem where Supermicro 24-Hour SuperServer Technical Support has directed you perform an upgrade. See also warnings, pictured. I've heard from Supermicro support…
Oct 22 2015 Update - now available for pre-order on Amazon, in 256 and 512 GB sizes, at amzn.to/1MGvfVW. Expected to ship on October 29th, mine is expected to arrive on October 30th! Updates below. If you've followed TinkerTry for a while, you'll know that I'm kind of a speed freak. I strive to…
It was good to have a fairly comprehensive look at both QNAP and Synology at VMworld 2015. Hopefully you'll find these informal product overview tours helpful, with some information included that pertains to the home lab enthusiast. See also at TinkerTry Synology at CES 2012: VMware…
Get AOMEI Backupper Professional Edition Download trial Purchase Purchase, with lifetime free upgrades Obtain NFR version for MVPs, MCPs, MCTS, and VCP/vExperts A few months back, I may have made a mistake by trying out Samsung RAPID Mode in an attempt to speed up my Windows 8.1 SSD noticeably. I…
TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here, not my employer's.
Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2024, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.
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After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. So far, Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh looking a little better for 2024. More cores, but still just PCIe Gen4 and DDR4. Looking ahead, I'm glad it's Pat Gelsinger at Intel's helm. I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when Pat was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.
Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi
