New Harware on the way!

For those of you who have followed my blog regularly, you know that I have always been into working with new and exciting hardware and seeing what I can do with it utilizing the Oracle product stack. From my first simple web server installation to host our first web site, to the full sized rack packed with enterprise hardware (SUN E450s, E420s, dell blades, load balancer, etc).

Well, I've moved in a new direction. Short of getting Oracle to lend me an Exadata machine I don't think I can go much further in the "big iron" direction, so interestingly I've been pointed in the "portable power" direction. I'm looking for the most power I can pack in a small package.

So, after reading through a bunch of reviews I settled on a boutique hardware builder named "Maingear" located out of New Jersey. Going on their site reminded me of any of the major hardware organizations with one exception, instead of having a never-ending list of different chassis selections, they focused on a select list of machines, and when it came to component selection, even the least expensive machines utilized name brand components (Intel, AMD, ATI, etc).

I ended up selecting their x-cube chassis as we are looking for portable power, this is an interesting small form factor chassis but I ended up being able to load it with components that would normally be in a full sized chassis. I had the option of loading it with 16gb of ram, the Intel i7 quad-core processors, dual 2tb drives in a RAID configuration, a bevy of video cards, and a lovely 1KW power supply to make sure all these components have the juice they need.

After I made the heart-wrenching decisions on what to take and what to cut, I placed my order. Usually, that would be where most new machine experiences would stop until it arrived, but Maingear has been unreal with their customer support. I have actually been able to speak with the person that is going to be building my machine! On top of that, I have been in a bit of a time crunch and their customer service has been something that I can't even describe.

As a quote from one of my email exchanges with a Maingear team member reads: "As a smaller company, we still have that “passion” for perfection, competitive spirit and belief in customer satisfaction".


If the machine itself gets half the attention that I have gotten as the customer, I can't wait to open it up and see what it can do when I load the Fusion stack on it.

Stay Tuned!