Specifying a SQL Server or Oracle database host: cores, licensing and NVMe (UK 2026)
A database host is the one server where buying the wrong CPU costs you twice — once for the silicon, and every year after in per-core database licences. Get the core count, memory and storage latency right and a modest t…
What is CXL (Compute Express Link)? A plain-English guide for server buyers
CXL, or Compute Express Link, is one of those acronyms that has gone from research curiosity to a line item on server spec sheets in a remarkably short time - and most buyers have never had it explained plainly. In one s…
Spec'ing a VDI host in 2026: GPU, RAM density and users-per-host (UK)
A VDI host is not a general virtualisation host with desktops bolted on. The economics live and die on users-per-host, and that number is set by three things working together: how much frame buffer each session needs, ho…
DIMM population rules: how to fill memory slots for full bandwidth (UK 2026)
Two servers with identical CPUs and the same total RAM can differ by a third in memory bandwidth, purely because of how the DIMMs were placed in the slots. Memory population is not cosmetic - it decides whether you get t…
How to spec a VMware vSphere host in 2026: a UK build guide
Most virtualisation hosts are bought wrong in one of two directions: over-specified on cores you'll never licence, or under-specified on memory and RAM-bound within a year. This is the build framework our engineers use w…
RAID 1 vs 5 vs 6 vs 10: choosing the right level for your server (UK 2026)
RAID is the one storage decision people copy from the last server without thinking, and it is also the one most likely to lose data when a drive fails. The right level is not a matter of taste - it falls out of three num…
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