Crucial Claimed to Save up to 35% by Installing DRAM and SSDs in Servers

Memory and storage account for over half of a typical server’s bill of materials (BOM) cost.

If money wasn’t a constraint, buying pre-configured, fully-loaded servers to power organisation would be a no-brainer. But the reality is that budgets are a barrier to providing fast system performance across your enterprise and affect what you can buy. However, by purchasing servers with minimal pre-installed components and then installing server memory and enterprise SSDs, you can save up to 35% on memory and storage – and maintain OEM server warranties.

Crucial ANZ, Australian office of Crucial, brand of memory and storage upgrades and trademark of Micron Technology, Inc., have identified that the biggest cost drivers when buying new, fully-configured servers are memory, storage, the processor, the chassis and the power supply.

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To see the impact of adding hardware to an OEM server, the company compared the costs of purchasing a fully-configured server against a minimally-configured server that was upgraded with after-market memory and SSD upgrades.

For the purposes of real-world comparison, they chose the Dell PowerEdge R730xd because of its popularity, upgradeability and performance, then priced the base model against a fully-configured model on the manufacturer’s site. Included in the base cost was one installed Xeon E5-2650 v4 2.2GHz processor, one installed 32GB 2400 MT/s DDR4 RDIMM, one chassis with up to twelve 3.5-inch HDD bays, one installed 2TB 7.2K RPM SATA 6Gb/s 3.5-inch hot-plug HDD, and one 495W power supply. ⁽²⁾

As of this writing, the saving by self-installing server memory and enterprise SSDs was over $7,000 or 35 percent per server. While prices often change, the relative ratio between a fully-loaded configuration and one that’s upgraded later typically doesn’t change much.

The cost difference of populating your servers with DRAM from a manufacturer like the company instead of getting it preinstalled applies across all major server manufacturers. The reason being server manufacturers source server components like memory and storage from other companies. When you buy server components direct from the memory and storage manufacturer, you get proven reliability and savings.

This means you can populate your own servers and save. You can also keep your OEM warranty intact, ⁽¹⁾ achieve the same level of DRAM and SSD performance, and save up to 35% on the cost of their memory and storage by installing firm’s server memory and Micron Technology, Inc. enterprise SSDs.

⁽¹⁾ Installing Crucial server memory does not invalidate OEM warranties. Some major server manufacturers have reserved the right to void the warranty based on their discretion.
⁽²⁾ Included in the base cost is one (1) Xeon E5-2650 v4 2.2GHz CPU processor; one (1) 32GB DDR4 RDIMM, 2400MT/s, dual rank, x4 data width; one (1) chassis with up to twelve 3.5-inch HDDs; one (1) 2TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 3.5-inch hot-plug HDD; and one (1) single, hot-plug power supply (1+0), 495W. The Dell PowerEdge R730xd server was built and priced on the Dell manufacturer website with no discounts factored in.
⁽³⁾ OEM server part numbers were retrieved from the Dell manufacturer website’s PowerEdge R730xd server builder page. The Crucial and Micron part numbers were retrieved from their respective manufacturer website.
⁽⁴⁾ Prices recorded as of 18 January 2017, and may vary. All prices for Crucial and Micron products are based on MSRPs and all other prices are based on prices listed on the server OEM’s manufacturer website. All prices noted are based on the currency exchange rates as of January 18, 2017. Cost comparison is for illustrative purposes only on the relative difference between the cost of a fully-configured server and a new, base model that’s upgraded with aftermarket components. No discounts for any brand were factored into the final price.