[WANTED] Server of reasonable spec

[shabbaranks]

Hey guys,

Im looking to get a server setup at home to have a mess about with. Ideally it would have the ability of hardware raid and a half decent amount of storage/ram etc. The plan is to install vmware on it, I have looked on ebay but not sure which are bargains etc

If anyone has one they wish to get rid of or has recently purchased something of the sort and can give me an idea that would be great - thanks!

 

[nozzer]

Ebay seems a pretty good place for them. I manged to get a Dual opteron with 2Gb RAM for virtually nowt a while back and have that running VMware Esxi set up with about a dozen different VM's no problem (everything from Server2008 to linux available whenever I want them)

Things like - Rackable Systems 2U Rackmount Server 2x AMD Opteron 2GB on eBay (end time 12-Aug-10 14:24:39 BST)

or

HP PROLIANT DL380 G3 SERVER XEON 2X 3.20GHZ/1GB/36.4GB on eBay (end time 30-Jul-10 12:02:22 BST)

or

DELL POWEREDGE 6600 SERVER XEON 2x3.0GHZ / 3GB / 2x73GB on eBay (end time 30-Jul-10 13:34:58 BST)

seem pretty good but you may need to do some research to find something that is suited to your particular needs (the above will all handle what you mentioned above but are relatively old technology these days).

You really have to decide what you want to spend and what you expect for the money. You'll also need some knowledge of the box your getting - a lot of server systems are very different to use than normal PC's !

A small example is that a lot of servers will have some form of management console rather than any form of video output. The console may require you to connect via serial or ethernet or (in some cases) some proprietory format. You may have no option for connecting a normal monitor/keyboard/mouse.

 

[shabbaranks]

Thanks for the info nozzer, I work in IT and so understanding servers etc is kinda my job. Only really used desktops as media servers at home but wanna take it to the next step. I've always been put off with having a proper server at home rather than a desktop as noise etc was always an issue. But as you said price wise server technology has come down loads in price and so its pos to pick up something half decent - if you get lucky :O)

Also trying to find a floor standing server as apposed to rack mounted as it will (ideally) sit in a cupboard.

Will get hunting and see if I can find a bargain...

Thanks for the info

 

[hatab]

i know what you mean about noise lol some of those hp/compaq servers kick out a hell of a din.

I got a Dell PowerEdge 440SC Tower with Intel Xeon 2.66Ghz DUAL CORE CPU and 3g Mem for £180 from dell (new) a couple of years ago, it has built in sata raid but loads of pci slots for a scsi array controller.
i was never a fan of dell servers but this one is ok as an entry level machine for home use.

i see post is a few days old did you find anything ?

if you go hp/compaq have loads of cd's firmware / smartstart / install assistant that includes insight manager etc

let us know what you go for

 

[jfish]

as we are talking about redundant servers, apparantly one of the servers in the data centre where I work is consuming too much power (dont ask how come) and I have been told to migrate it to a Blade server.

This is a beefy server, its a Dell 2 x Quad Core CPU, 2 TB Disk storage and 36 GB RAM and will be redundant within 6 weeks, if I have my way, it will be heading home with me

 

[shabbaranks]

Alrighty... Still nowt as yet, Im currently in Oz so I dont plan to buy until I get back to the UK in Sept.... Was considering the pre-built HP/Dell etc etc option but from experience they are effin loud. As stated in a previous thread the newer servers are noisey to start with and then get quieter - I was working on an HP G6 the other day for example - but prices are stupid.

Will defo be going for hardware RAID rather than software, was also looking at SSD'd for the OS etc but again prices are exspensive and the support for them isnt all that regarding firmware.

As I say no rush so I'll prob would have built it about 10 times on paper before purchasing - oh well!!

Cheers