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Home Server recommendations (for a friend)
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Home Server recommendations (for a friend)

Hey all,

A friend of mine is looking to build a home server for some VMs, I suggested a few rack servers, but he's trying to steer clear of rack servers (as he has no place to mount properly, and no room). With that in mind, I thought I'd ask LET.

What would you recommend cheaply for a beginner? I suggested a Dell PowerEdge, but he doesn't want to spend $500-600 for a small server.

Thanks

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Comments

  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider

    What's his budget? I've recently build my home server with dual E5-2670 and 64GB RAM, you can get a fully equipped motherboard for around $500 and not have to upgrade for a while. Mine ended up costing more because I changed it's case to a tower.

  • @trewq said:
    What's his budget? I've recently build my home server with dual E5-2670 and 64GB RAM, you can get a fully equipped motherboard for around $500 and not have to upgrade for a while. Mine ended up costing more because I changed it's case to a tower.

    Cheap, so I'm going to say $300 or less. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse

  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider

    @GCat said:

    @trewq said:
    What's his budget? I've recently build my home server with dual E5-2670 and 64GB RAM, you can get a fully equipped motherboard for around $500 and not have to upgrade for a while. Mine ended up costing more because I changed it's case to a tower.

    Cheap, so I'm going to say $300 or less. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse

    Ebay then, you can get some good server deals but he's going to have to deal with a server case if he doesn't want to fork out more money.

  • @trewq said:

    @GCat said:

    @trewq said:
    What's his budget? I've recently build my home server with dual E5-2670 and 64GB RAM, you can get a fully equipped motherboard for around $500 and not have to upgrade for a while. Mine ended up costing more because I changed it's case to a tower.

    Cheap, so I'm going to say $300 or less. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse

    Ebay then, you can get some good server deals but he's going to have to deal with a server case if he doesn't want to fork out more money.

    Mind linking to a few?

  • BochiBochi Member
    edited December 2016

    Recently built a server for a small company for virtualization.
    It includes a E3-1260L v5 which I quite like due to the low power consumption and its comparably good power.
    It sits on a SuperMicro X11SSH-TF (2x 10GBase-T) within a SuperMicro Tower Chassis - the setup works quite well.
    However, depending on RAM and disk requirements this might not get that well along with the budget...

    /EDIT/
    As the budget now got added: Forget about my suggestion. :P

  • NickNick Member, Patron Provider
  • Great, but sadly it states Shipping to Canada is unavailable

  • For that budget, I think your recommendation of a cheap poweredge is just about all he can afford.

    Thanked by 1GCat
  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider

    @GCat said:

    Great, but sadly it states Shipping to Canada is unavailable

    Use a shipping forwarder? Doubt it would be more than $40. That server is great value.

  • WeblogicsWeblogics Member
    edited December 2016

    @trewq said:

    @GCat said:

    Great, but sadly it states Shipping to Canada is unavailable

    Use a shipping forwarder? Doubt it would be more than $40. That server is great value.

    I have a T110 which I purchased a few years ago and they are nice and quiet home servers. However that server in the link is in USD. By time the OP pays exchange on it, shipping fees and the forwarder costs, it is not so great of a value.

    Here is another T110 from ebay.ca.|ebay.ca/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-T110-II-Tower-Server-Xeon-E3-1220-QC-3-1GHz-4GB-2x250GB-DVRW-H200-/262741145477?hash=item3d2c97b785:g:WKwAAOSw4GVYPgyi

    Thanked by 2trewq GCat
  • @Weblogics said:

    @trewq said:

    @GCat said:

    Great, but sadly it states Shipping to Canada is unavailable

    Use a shipping forwarder? Doubt it would be more than $40. That server is great value.

    I have a T110 which I purchased a few years ago and they are nice and quiet home servers. However that server in the link is in USD. By time the OP pays exchange on it, shipping fees and the forwarder costs, it is not so great of a value.

    Don't forget that they will likely also have to pay customs duty and a border broker fee.

    Thanked by 1GCat
  • Depending on what/how much he wants, the DL360 G6, IBM X3550 or equivalent is still a really good price/perf. The L5630 or L5640 are cheap, fast and reasonble in power consumption.

    My X3550 with 2 L5630's and 28GB ram cost me 120€~

  • MagicalTrain said: My X3550 with 2 L5630's and 28GB ram cost me 120€~

    Where did you purchase from?

  • MagicalTrainMagicalTrain Member
    edited December 2016

    Ebay Germany.

    Bought the X3550 for 70€ with the wrong CPU and only 4GB ram. Bought 2 L5630's and the 24GB ram for 50€ afterwards. (DDR3 ECC ram is rather cheap on ebay with good deals 1GB=1€)

    Should be able to find reasonbly priced ones in Canada as well if I can in Germany (servers are generally hard to find here for good prices)

    Look through this category on ebay:
    http://www.ebay.ca/sch/Servers/11211/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=x3550

    HP Generation 6 is also good. Dell should (?) be the r310, but I never see Dell servers in Germany, so no idea.

    But those are racks, so if you dont want that, Id simply look for towers with 55xx/56xx era Xeons. I like the price/perf, thats all.

    Thanked by 1GCat
  • @gcat

    https://www.hpe.com/uk/en/product-catalog/servers/proliant-servers/pip.hpe-proliant-microserver-gen8.5379860.html

    Go for a HP Microserver! Cheap as chips and comes with a iLO.

    Processor can be switched out too, theres a compatibility chart someone drew up once on Reddit.

    AH

  • GCat said: he's trying to steer clear of rack servers (as he has no place to mount properly, and no room).

    Ikea's your friend

    Thanked by 2GCat karjaj
  • Can recommend, when idle it uses only 25 watts and my average is around 40

    Thanked by 1GCat
  • @dodedodo said:

    GCat said: he's trying to steer clear of rack servers (as he has no place to mount properly, and no room).

    Ikea's your friend

    Damn, what product is that

    Thanked by 1GCat
  • @dodedodo said:

    GCat said: he's trying to steer clear of rack servers (as he has no place to mount properly, and no room).

    Ikea's your friend

    Is this from where RackTables got the name?

  • zrunnerzrunner Member
    edited December 2016

    @Yoda said:
    Damn, what product is that

    That's the Ikea 'Lack' sidetable i bought like 10 of them awhile back when it was on sale for ~5$ and i just noticed that might be the new price for it as its still at that price.

    I got a post here somewhere with what i did with 2 of the tables and some machines.

    I also got one of those Dell PowerEdge T110 II with a E3-1280v2 in it (maxed ram and a lot of ssds and pci-e cards) runs very quiet so works great at home, just 1 big chassi-fan in it in the front that blows air over the passive CPU cooler (just a heatsink) and the RAM sticks.

    Those HP Microservers are also good if you're gonna run it at home and dont have any room for big chassis etc, i'll go find my post with the setup as it has one of the gen8 microservers in it and i'll edit my post for pictures.

    Edit: Ikeas 'Lack' sidetable and a HP Microserver gen8 (and some other stuff)




    Thanked by 1GCat
  • @zrunner said:

    >

    Looks very nice. What modifications was needed to the table? :) think I'll pick up a couple

  • zrunnerzrunner Member
    edited December 2016

    @Yoda said:
    Looks very nice. What modifications was needed to the table? :) think I'll pick up a couple

    That's the beauty of the 'Lack' it fits perfectly with 'standard' rack equipment, those 5 1U servers on picture are just stacked on eachother with 2 lack tables, one standing on the other.

    Edit: I should point out that those are 'mini' 1U machines so they are not that deep, which i guess you actually can see on the pictures.

  • @Yoda said:

    @zrunner said:

    >

    Looks very nice. What modifications was needed to the table? :) think I'll pick up a couple

    The new Lack tables sadly have hollow legs, so you will need to reinforce the legs if you want to put in racks with higher weight.

    Thanked by 2zrunner GCat
  • @MagicalTrain said:
    The new Lack tables sadly have hollow legs, so you will need to reinforce the legs if you want to put in racks with higher weight.

    Oh thanks good to know as the plan (eventually) is using some more of those lack tables in similar setups in other rooms (its 5 more of those basements with fiber/switch/network equipment) should be fine as its all low weight stuff but still good to know, might also be why the price has been lowered as it's hollow legs now, and this is somewhat off-topic :)

  • @MagicalTrain said:

    @Yoda said:

    @zrunner said:

    >

    Looks very nice. What modifications was needed to the table? :) think I'll pick up a couple

    The new Lack tables sadly have hollow legs, so you will need to reinforce the legs if you want to put in racks with higher weight.

    Should be alright for one 1U server though, right?

  • @Yoda said:
    Should be alright for one 1U server though, right?

    Was just reading up about it on my localized ikea site says it should handle up to 25KG.

    Length: 55 cm


    Width: 55 cm


    Height: 45 cm


    Max. load: 25 kg

    Thanked by 1GCat
  • @zrunner said:

    @Yoda said:
    Should be alright for one 1U server though, right?

    Was just reading up about it on my localized ikea site says it should handle up to 25KG.

    Length: 55 cm


    Width: 55 cm


    Height: 45 cm


    Max. load: 25 kg
    <br

    Sweet thanks. Sorry @GCat for hijacking your thread!

  • @Yoda said:

    @MagicalTrain said:

    @Yoda said:

    @zrunner said:

    >

    Looks very nice. What modifications was needed to the table? :) think I'll pick up a couple

    The new Lack tables sadly have hollow legs, so you will need to reinforce the legs if you want to put in racks with higher weight.

    Should be alright for one 1U server though, right?

    Yeah, but need to be careful with putting in screws and the like still.

    Thanked by 1Tom
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