Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Is $15,000 per server normal?


Yes.

"Server" implies redundant power supplies, 4-?? disks, an excess of high quality capacitors, a heavy steel case, a motherboard probably 4x the area of a typical ATX motherboard, ECC RAM, far more RAM slot capacity, etc.

Furthermore, extended service contacts are the norm. Five year same day on site service isn't unusual. Five year 24/7 on call/next day replacement is typical. One year warehouse service is unheard of.

That's just the device itself. Servers also imply a rack to put them in, real estate for said racks, 24/7 HVAC for said real estate set to substantially below room temperature, and an expectation to run it (and consume electricity) continuously. You also need network architecture to support them.

This isn't even getting into the realm of stupid specced servers. 512GB RAM? Easy. 128 cores? Sure. Disk space, network capacity are cost limited: if your server is limited by network speed or disk capacity you can simply punt a briefcase full of money at your supplier and get more. You want all of that arbitrary capacity disk space to be SSD that's just an accounting problem.


When you are a large enterprise ordering from the likes of HP, $15k is a budget server. I'd see bills for "Hadoop nodes" that were $650k/rack.


I would imagine switches, firewalls, UPS, temp control, fixtures, and facility security are also significant cost factors.


A top tier Xeon CPU is $10k alone.


Once you get into the TB range with memory and disk, and 64+ cores, easily.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: