# Testbed guideline **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 27, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/testbed-guideline/4971 "2011-07-27T03:15:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JF1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JF1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JF1)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/testbed-guideline/4971/1 "2011-07-27T03:15:27Z")
I'm in the process of building a small testbed to test performance of ES. Would you have any hardware recommendation? I'm looking to build a 2 node cluster initially and scaling it until I reach say 5 nodes. I want to evaluate performance and key features such as high- availability/redundancy. What is most important in selecting the hardware? For example, should I get fast disk such as 15KRPM SAS, but low capacity or high capacity 7200RPM SATA drives? How many core make sense? How much memory? Any insight is greatly appreciated. Specific recommendation such as Dell R410, 415, welcome. JF. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/testbed-guideline/4971/2 "2017-07-06T03:59:11Z")