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Cheap physical hardware?
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Cheap physical hardware?

I was wanting to rent a cheap server to play around with, but now I'm wanting to look at the possibilities for cheap physical servers. My budget is around $100, and I don't even know if at that price you can even get one. I am wanting a bare minimum server, and for my budget, I'm guessing used is the only option, if that. Specs don't really matter, but I would like it to be upgradable.

Comments

  • Location?

  • You want hardware you own in your house, right? You can probably find something used for that price, but IMHO one of the good things about the Kimsufi line is your server is connected to an unmetered 100Mbit line, which at least in my case is faster than my home connection.

    If you want to own physical hardware in your home, you can go in many directions; cheap used servers from eBay, a brand-new $35 Raspberry Pi, there are many options. Hell, if your current computer has a VT-x enabled processor and 4GB+ RAM you don't even need another machine--just install say, Ubuntu Server or any other distro and you can have a server without ever spending a dime.

    The Kimsufi line is pretty much whitebox, desktop grade hardware on a 100Mbit line. It's cheap, you can't upgrade, and they only offer hardware support. That being said, I personally love the service. I have a KS-2 with a 2TB disk with them and I have a dedibox from online.net. Online.net offers 1Gbit connections. Bottom line is you can take that $100 and go in many directions: buy a Kimsufi, an Online.net dedibox, or use virtualization on your existing rig and spend it on beer :P

    Also, it's above the $100 mark but maybe if you use virtualization for now and save your money, if you save up about $300 you can get a TS140 from Amazon. The barebones TS140 with 4GB RAM and an i3 with no HDD is $219, I added 4GB RAM and a 1TB HDD plus an SSD I had laying around and came out at less than $350. The TS140 has a 280 watt PSU that'll be cheap on electricity and it is definitely upgradeable.

  • JamesBotJamesBot Member
    edited December 2014

    @cloudbells said:
    Location?

    My house.

    @im_jmz said:
    You want hardware you own in your house, right? You can probably find something used for that price, but IMHO one of the good things about the Kimsufi line is your server is connected to an unmetered 100Mbit line, which at least in my case is faster than my home connection.

    If you want to own physical hardware in your home, you can go in many directions; cheap used servers from eBay, a brand-new $35 Raspberry Pi, there are many options. Hell, if your current computer has a VT-x enabled processor and 4GB+ RAM you don't even need another machine--just install say, Ubuntu Server or any other distro and you can have a server without ever spending a dime.

    The Kimsufi line is pretty much whitebox, desktop grade hardware on a 100Mbit line. It's cheap, you can't upgrade, and they only offer hardware support. That being said, I personally love the service. I have a KS-2 with a 2TB disk with them and I have a dedibox from online.net. Online.net offers 1Gbit connections. Bottom line is you can take that $100 and go in many directions: buy a Kimsufi, an Online.net dedibox, or use virtualization on your existing rig and spend it on beer :P

    Also, it's above the $100 mark but maybe if you use virtualization for now and save your money, if you save up about $300 you can get a TS140 from Amazon. The barebones TS140 with 4GB RAM and an i3 with no HDD is $219, I added 4GB RAM and a 1TB HDD plus an SSD I had laying around and came out at less than $350. The TS140 has a 280 watt PSU that'll be cheap on electricity and it is definitely upgradeable.

    Thanks, I'll look up that TS140, mabye I can find a used one for a cheap price. Also, it will mainly be used for personal, and friend use. So I don't really care about it being on my own network.

    Also, would you know of any cheap used servers in particular?

  • If it's for your own house, you could always buy or reuse an old laptop with a broke screen as a server.

    Thanked by 1ucxo
  • rickey318rickey318 Member, Host Rep

    Are you looking for a 1U server or just a small little one? If so I have a unused 1u server we can maybe make a deal on that I don't need anymore. Pm me. Or like im_imz said a raspberry pi is a great low cost device the can make a great small server and save money on power or a laptop with broke screen.

  • @rickey318 said:
    Are you looking for a 1U server or just a small little one? If so I have a unused 1u server we can maybe make a deal on that I don't need anymore. Pm me. Or like im_imz said a raspberry pi is a great low cost device the can make a great small server and save money on power or a laptop with broke screen.

    I was considering something like a Rasberry Pi, but I want something upgradeable.

  • @NumaPlay said:
    I was considering something like a Rasberry Pi, but I want something upgradeable.

    If you're thinking ram and hdd upgradable then you can do that with a lot of NUC's or mini itx boards upto a point.

  • rickey318rickey318 Member, Host Rep

    @NumaPlay said:
    I was considering something like a Rasberry Pi, but I want something upgradeable.

    Oh ok, you cant really upgrade a Pis ram. If a 1U is to much noise and power investing into a mini itx board will save u room and power and allow for upgrading later on.

  • krs360krs360 Member
    edited December 2014

    I have two 1us at home which aren't being used the noise from these is pretty insane, would be best suited in an attic or basement.

    I used to use an old laptop which a broken screen for server purposes, nowadays I have cheap online.net boxes to play with.

    I'm all honesty you could probably find someone giving away desktops suitable for your needs - in the uk we have something called freecycle - picked up two old machines from there and used one as a router running Ubuntu server and two nics

    RPIs are cool but they run arm, depending on what you want to do you may find the software you want to run doesn't have an arm port - teamspeak for example

  • I agree with the suggestions about using old laptops/desktop PCs/etc. if you're just looking to experiment or have a home server for you and some friends. You really don't need to spend 100$ on that.

    If you should decide to try one of the countless ARM boards, don't use a Raspberry Pi if you want to use it as a server (rather than a media player or sensor platform). The network on those is terrible, as is the CPU (though the graphics acceleration seems to make it useful for playing movies, which I never tried). For a server, a BeagleBone Black, Banana Pi or something like that would be better suited -- you don't need the hardware support that comes with the RPi's huge community, but the more powerful hardware of BBB, BPi etc. goes a long way. (... says the guy who's running a BBB as a file server and has demoted his RPi to measuring temperatures and sending limericks by email)

  • Well, I might try what others say and get a crappy old desktop and upgrade a few parts.

  • Where do you live? HP often do cashback deals on Microservers, so you can often get something like a HP N40L for £200 but with £100 cashback from HP so it works out around £100.

  • @hostnoob said:
    Where do you live? HP often do cashback deals on Microservers, so you can often get something like a HP N40L for £200 but with £100 cashback from HP so it works out around £100.

    United States

  • rskrsk Member, Patron Provider
  • @ucxo said:
    I agree with the suggestions about using old laptops/desktop PCs/etc. if you're just looking to experiment or have a home server for you and some friends. You really don't need to spend 100$ on that.

    If you should decide to try one of the countless ARM boards, don't use a Raspberry Pi if you want to use it as a server (rather than a media player or sensor platform). The network on those is terrible, as is the CPU (though the graphics acceleration seems to make it useful for playing movies, which I never tried). For a server, a BeagleBone Black, Banana Pi or something like that would be better suited -- you don't need the hardware support that comes with the RPi's huge community, but the more powerful hardware of BBB, BPi etc. goes a long way. (... says the guy who's running a BBB as a file server and has demoted his RPi to measuring temperatures and sending limericks by email)

    Even better one of these...

    http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/39137/new-raspberry-pi-killer-on-the-block-quad-core-for-35

    Thanked by 1Lm85H4gFkh3wk3
  • @rsk said:
    There are trusted sellers on ebay. You can get a highend 1u for your price range.

    Fantastic deal. I recommend popping out some of the RAM, though. Like, just keep 1 or 2 sticks in it. They consume 10 watts a pop, which is a lot.

  • ucxoucxo Member
    edited December 2014

    I'm drooling over these as well, but it seems they aren't actually available yet (alleged 7 day lead time from Hardkernel themselves and available "soon™" from their German distributor)...

  • Ebay had a special on TS140s with E3 1220v3s a while ago. ~350 with 4G of ram. Check for those over the i3 version that is at a compareable price. This thing is the quietest server I have ever owned.

  • Just looked it up for you, http://m.ebay.com/itm/291140796467
    It's a 1225v3 actually, 4 cores no HT. Nice for a home server though.

  • @NumaPlay
    where do you currently live at?
    I could sell you a used server i have.

  • @VENETX said:
    NumaPlay
    where do you currently live at?
    I could sell you a used server i have.

    USA, but it probally going to cost more then I'm wanting to spend.

  • @NumaPlay
    I could ship the server to you if you live in the USA then. I hope close to California.
    Are you interested with any RAM, CPU, or HDD? or just the barebone?
    I have roughly 30 servers not in use.

  • @VENETX not to be rude/hijack this thread but you say you have 30 servers not in use, well I might be interested in one or two depending on specs and price. I'm not exactly rolling in cash but depending on what you have I might be interested.

  • @krs360 said:
    I have two 1us at home which aren't being used the noise from these is pretty insane, would be best suited in an attic or basement.

    I used to use an old laptop which a broken screen for server purposes, nowadays I have cheap online.net boxes to play with.

    I'm all honesty you could probably find someone giving away desktops suitable for your needs - in the uk we have something called freecycle - picked up two old machines from there and used one as a router running Ubuntu server and two nics

    RPIs are cool but they run arm, depending on what you want to do you may find the software you want to run doesn't have an arm port - teamspeak for example

    Well agreed, I have one sitting behind my desk unused because of the sheer noise it makes when powered on is comparable to a jet engine, besides that an old computer or even a barebones PC which is a micro ATX or even Mid-Tower will probably be one of the best upgradable options as they're cheaper to take to bits and add HDD's etc to. The PI was a good idea but as you said it's hardly upgradable, it depends what the use is for really.

  • Use the odroid-c1 and mount nfs shares from somewhere else

  • I actually bought a dell poweredge r200 off of ebay. and it came with a pentium 4 processor but I upgraded it to xeon processor, and also added 4gb of ram to it. it works real good I have it sitting on my desk next to me running vmware esxi in my house in my room. I would use it to host all of my hosting but stupid centurylink costs too much just to even get a single ipv4. like $10/month=$100/year.

  • What about a DIY PC from used parts? It's cheap and it works.

  • Look at Dell CS24-SC on ebay. Generally dual L5420 or L5430. They were a special Dell build. Single power supply 1U, 4 3.5" SATA hot swap trays. I picked up one with 16gb ECC RAM and 4 trays shipped for about $150. Noisy, but good for the basement attic. Draws only 1.2 amps loaded. Tons of them on ebay. Make sure you get the slide in trays for your disk drives, otherwise they're about $15-$20 ea. I wouldn't put one in production use, but for home use, it's fine. Mine's setup with Proxmox and runs SpotWeb, Plex, File Server, and a bunch of development VPS setups.

  • Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've looked at all of them, and some of the cheaper ones might work. However, I've also found the ODroid-C1, and while its not upgradeable as I would like it to be, it will probally work for me, plus its only 35 bucks.

  • i got a couple ibm dual quadcore 1u in Chicago local pickup if anyone interested

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