SHMUPS FORUM SERVER DONATION DRIVE *please read*

[AntiFritz]

Threw in a little something for banning Friendly.

I don't think Friendly is actually banned, is he? I know there was a temp ban for Off-topic to curb all his pro-Sony noise, but just figured that he was too proud to return or something.

Yeah, I thought he was just banned from off topic. And considering I don't think I've seen him post much outside of there...

[Skykid]

I'm not bothered about the details, just pleased with the outcome.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Chipped in a few quid, i'm pretty new here but I like the site and i've gotten plenty of good info from it. Long may it continue.

[system11]

What size donation will be required to implement ignore lists?

There is no amount of money which will get us to implement that wholly devisive feature. It's always so annoying when you see conversations splinter due to the mix of people who can/can't see what's being said.

Also - thanks to everyone who has donated so far! I'm doing a lot of ebay combing to try to find the best bang/buck/power efficiency option. As an aside has anyone here ever worked with IBM X3550 servers? I'm familiar with the HP DL360 line but not really anything else since work is a full HP shop. Reading server review sites is pointless because they basically say everything is excellent after 2 hours of use and just mark it according to cost, which is useless when you're shopping for reliability.

[Hexxellor]

I'm fairly new here too but this site has such a wealth of information and I would hate to see anything happen to it.

I also try to help out as far as supporting the shmup scene as much as I can since they are such a long-time love of mine so donating to this cause was a no-brainer.

Thanks for everything you do to keep this site going and to all the people keeping it alive.

[Vectorman0]

Thanks for keeping the forum alive! I'm glad I could donate a bit.

[Emuser]

Pitched in $10. Its not a lot from $10 for 1 person to cover the costs you're aiming at, but its the least I can do. Too many good times to be had here. I was a late comer and only around for a little under 4 years now, but I'm glad I stumbled upon this place.

[cools]

As an aside has anyone here ever worked with IBM X3550 servers? I'm familiar with the HP DL360 line but not really anything else since work is a full HP shop. Reading server review sites is pointless because they basically say everything is excellent after 2 hours of use and just mark it according to cost, which is useless when you're shopping for reliability.

Up until 4 years ago where I am was full HP. Then one merger and acquisition later we're introducing IBM kit. Other than a corruption problem on a SAN (a fun few days for those looking after that), I've not seen nor heard of any hardware problems with the servers. We use X3500 and X3550 throughout, most of them running VMWare rather than bare metal.

One particular X3550 has been well travelled. It was used as a temporary DC on every site while the merger was happening, and had been used for the same purpose in the past. It had visited sites in Poland, Sweden, had a few trips back to Spain, all 20-25 (I forget how many there were at the time) UK sites and finally got put into storage a few days ago. Most of these sites do not have data centres, are lucky to have a dedicated room, even more to have air conditioning, and are extremely dusty.

I prefer the IBM stuff now. It just works - a good 50% of the HP had something weird about it. Reliable hardware nonetheless, but odd compatibility problems and firmware/driver decisions that I've not seen anything of from IBM.

[slk486]

Threw some on the bonfire as well. The good people around these parts far outweigh the not-so-much-ones

[RGB]

Just chipped in a few $ as well Long live the shmupsforum !

[Dave_K.]

Donated.

[beatsgo]

Just tossed in $10 to keep this place alive and well

[Animaitor]

This place is way too cool. No job at the moment but what the hell. Some money is going your way, amigo! Thanks to system11 and the rest of the mods.

[xavierjesus]

$20 incoming comrade!

Gracias!

[Jelloman581]

Donated for good juju!

[Mad Grab]

My Impress wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for this forum. Donated!

[Annoyboy]

Donated because this is the only place where I can keep up with DTP's endless(ly amusing) torment.

[SePh1r0tH]

Donated as well!

This is one of the few forums I actually use.
Thanks for your work

[ratlhead]

Donated. Thanks for keeping the best gaming forum alive!

[spadgy]

I was just thinking the other day it's been way too long since I donated here. I'll get on it very soon!

[channelmaniac]

$100 donated by Arcadecomponents.com

Thanks to all on the site for the helpful information and warm reception over the years.

Raymond

[Nick420]

I love this forum! The fun shmups and this site have brought me is amazing. I visit it most days and enjoy the discussions, it's refreshing to read opinions/comments from what comes across as a highly intelligent bunch and not the usual youtube'ish drivel.
Upon reading your post system11 I think that the commitment you have made is extremely commendable. Thank You!

I will glady donate.

[kingka]

I love this forum!!
I don't post as much but I learn alot from here !!!!
donations coming in!!! viva Shmups forum!!!!

[brokenhalo]

$50 to my favorite website. Thanks for keeping it going, system11.

[trunk]

I rarely post but read and learn so much. Donated

[system11]

Thanks for all the contributions so far, you'll be pleased to know that the server will be here on Monday in theory. The level of donations has meant I've been able to buy something from the next generation of servers instead, which have 30-40% lower power requirements - this will bring down the monthly hosting bills slightly. Depending on how much is left in the pot when I factor in shipping and service charges for swapping the hardware over at the provider, I may be able to buy a flash backed write cache module for the raid card instead of just the built in read caching. If anyone can get those parts from HP cheaper than I can from retailers please get in touch.

There were several options, in the end it's a HP DL360 G6. More bang for the buck was available with Sun X4170s and the build quality on those is amazing, but they're heavy on the juice since low spec ones don't really exist. Lenovo RD210s were the next best power for the money, but I couldn't find any with on-board read cache and the well priced ones had very hungry X series Xeons. I paid a touch more so that it comes with L series 55xx Xeons - they use even less power although the core speed is lower. That said it's still *significantly* more powerful than the current machine with enough storage and RAM to run both mirrored.

[Austin]

It's not much, but I just donated a little.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

That said it's still *significantly* more powerful than the current machine with enough storage and RAM to run both mirrored.

[Casey120]

That said it's still *significantly* more powerful than the current machine with enough storage and RAM to run both mirrored.

That's awesome


Press and hold A button for even more power !

[lewisit]

[...] a little assistance would be appreciated.

so I just paypaled a little