Using an old Sever for a PC?

[asand1]

A guy at work offered me a server he has for $50. It has dual Xeon quad core 3.6G CPUs, 16G of DDR2 RAM, and 4 500G HDDs. It already has a PCIe video card in it also.

Has anyone got any experience with this.

I would install Linux of some sort, probably Ubuntu.

 

[OVERKILL]

It'll work great! Might be a bit power hungry though.

 

[simple_gifts]

Good chance you will not be able to stand being in the room with it.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Not very energy efficient, but other than that, I don't see an issue. It might help you heat the house in the winter.

 

[Subdued]

that's going to be loud

 

[spackard]

I think Amazon still gives you the first year free, you can install an Ubuntu server AMI there and overall cost you a lot less.

 

[asand1]

Originally Posted By: spackard
I think Amazon still gives you the first year free, you can install an Ubuntu server AMI there and overall cost you a lot less.


I don't want it for a server, I want it for a dual CPU Xeon workstation.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: asand1
A guy at work offered me a server he has for $50. It has dual Xeon quad core 3.6G CPUs, 16G of DDR2 RAM, and 4 500G HDDs. It already has a PCIe video card in it also.

Has anyone got any experience with this.

I would install Linux of some sort, probably Ubuntu.


just the memory is worth more than 50$? Why are you hesitating?

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: asand1
A guy at work offered me a server he has for $50. It has dual Xeon quad core 3.6G CPUs, 16G of DDR2 RAM, and 4 500G HDDs. It already has a PCIe video card in it also.

Has anyone got any experience with this.

I would install Linux of some sort, probably Ubuntu.


I only buy old Dell workstations off the Dell auction website now and rehab them myself. Most come with an OS usually winXp or 7 have larger capacity mother boards and processors with a decent video card much like a server. So I replace the HD with a Western Digital 7200rpm 1Tb drive and max the ram table out. They usually last 4 years before issues as I run them 24/7 at work. The system I am typing on is one I have at home. I paid $150 for the system, $50 for the HD $35 for ram and $70 for a 22" Dell used monitor. So for under $350 I have a decent system that will last at least 4 years. Plus since they are Dell I can import the service tag into my Dell online account and get all of the drivers and patches off the Dell website for free.

For $50 I would buy it in a minute. What brand, model is it?

The Dell auction is here: http://www.dellauction.com/

 

[Kawiguy454]

+1 it will be loud and use a lot of power. Most of today's software doesn't take advantage of multi-core let alone muti-processors so uless youre running multi threaded apps like photo/video processing or Computational fluid dynamics calculations it will be just like any other cheap computer.

...Also a server will have very basic video card not good for much and wont have room for upgrade. may be worth buying and parting out check prices

 

[asand1]

He thinks it is a Dell Poweredge 1600sc. I'll have photos and a model # tomorrow.

 

[simple_gifts]

PE 1600SC only supports 4Gb RAM.

So either it isn't a 1600 or it doesn't have 16Gb RAM.

Let's hope your promised ferrari isn't a yugo.

 

[cptbarkey]

That is old hardware frankly, but it would be good as a SQL server for a small business.

 

[Rand]

That has to be the wrong model.

that model of dell was Single core Xeons of about 500cpumark
circa 2004

in other words my 70$ 1037u is about 2x as fast as a dual xeon 1600sc

 

[asand1]

He sounded very sure of the specs, but he was very doubtful of the model. I'm just waiting for his email and hoping its a decent video card and a PCIe X16 slot.

I did confirm that its in a tower rather than rack mount, and its pretty quiet.

 

[JustinH]

So it has 4 possible SAS hard drives of unknown age in a RAID array.

Are you ready to start buying enterprise drives $$$ when ones dies in the array.

This would be something good for someone who is running several virtual machines at once or servers.

For 50 bucks play around with it, it would be a good learning experience.

 

[simple_gifts]

Odd since 500Gb is not a produced SAS size IIRC; maybe it is SATA.

edit; it appears it is; i've never seen 500gb, usually 300,600 etc. 500Gb is probably 7.2K

 

[asand1]

If nothing else Ill have two 3.6G quad cores to swap into 775 PCs maybe. The power supplies could also be modded for CB/HAM use. The RAM would only sell on Ebay and Im not going to do that. If I cant use it for a PC I will either pass on it or scrap/re purpose it.

I was guessing on the HDD size, I really dont remember what he said they were, but Couldnt I ditch the whole raid and run one standard
HDD?

 

[Quattro Pete]

So what happened?

 

[asand1]

I passed on the deal for a number of reasons. But it turns out the mobo has been swapped out and the drives are all SATA. Probably is a desirable unit. Oh well.