Database Servers — SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL

Database workloads divide into two hardware profiles: OLTP (high-frequency transactions, latency-sensitive) and OLAP (analytical scans across large datasets). Both benefit from the same baseline — fast clock speed, low NUMA latency, large memory pool, NVMe-tier storage — but the I/O pattern differs significantly.

For OLTP (SQL Server, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL with heavy write traffic), the bottleneck is usually transaction-log write latency. Pro Disk Network stocks Intel Optane NVMe (P5800X, DC P4800X) and Samsung PM1735/PM1743 NVMe SSDs that deliver sub-30µs write latency — 10× faster than enterprise SAS SSDs.

For OLAP / data warehouse / SAP HANA workloads, throughput dominates. We stock 4-socket Xeon Platinum platforms (Dell R940 / R940xa, HP ProLiant DL580 Gen10) with 6 TB+ memory configurations using 128 GB and 256 GB LRDIMMs.

Storage controller advice: most modern database servers use HBA mode (passthrough) plus software-defined storage (Storage Spaces, ZFS, mdadm RAID). For sites still running hardware RAID, the top choices are Broadcom MegaRAID 9560 / 9580 (PCIe Gen4, NVMe RAID) and Dell PERC H755 / H965 — all stocked.

Featured Database Servers — SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL

Frequently Asked Questions

How much memory do I need for a SQL Server with 500 GB database?

For SQL Server, target 70-100% of your active dataset in memory. A 500 GB database with a 100 GB hot working set should run on 256 GB minimum, 512 GB for comfort. SQL Server Enterprise Edition can use unlimited memory; Standard is capped at 128 GB. Pro Disk Network stocks 32 GB and 64 GB DDR4 RDIMMs for major server platforms.

What RAID level is best for transaction logs?

RAID 10 (or RAID 1 if log is sub-100 GB) — never RAID 5/6 for the log volume. Sequential write performance matters more than capacity. For pure-NVMe builds, mirror two Optane drives for the log and use a separate NVMe RAID 10 for the data files.

Do I need ECC memory for production databases?

Yes — every modern enterprise server requires ECC RDIMM/LRDIMM. We never ship database-class servers with non-ECC memory. ECC catches single-bit errors on the fly and reports double-bit errors, both of which would cause silent data corruption on a non-ECC platform.

Can a refurbished R740 handle a 1 TB SQL Server database?

Yes — a Dell R740 with dual Xeon Gold 6248R (24 cores each, 3.0 GHz), 384 GB DDR4-2933, and a Broadcom 9460-16i HBA wired to 4× Samsung PM1735 1.92 TB NVMe drives in RAID 10 is a common SQL Server build for databases up to ~3 TB. About $9-13K refurbished from us, vs $35K+ new.

Other Use-Case Hardware

Part of

Enterprise Storage Hub

View all 132 pages →

Enterprise HDDs, SSDs, NVMe, SAS, SATA, RAID controllers, drive caddies and storage array hardware.

Related Pages