dual cpu server questions

jackofalltrades

jackofalltrades

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I am wanting to pick up a cheap dual cpu server I understand it will be obsolete to most folks here this is first and foremost a toy to play with but would like to use as a whole house backup server. and some other things like vm machine. I have been looking at poweredge R610 and such era systems because tower servers seem to cost a lot more for the same specs.
I am looking for advice I have been building and tinkering for at least 15 years but never dealt with servers.

I am trying to keep total startup costs below $300 just so you know where I am shooting for. I prefer to make a informed decision before making a serious mistake.
 
It's a good time to pick up older (Xeon?) servers.

Because they tend to use more power than the newer stuff you can get some pretty capable machines at a good price.

Many companies tend to toss the machines as in the long run they save $$ in electricity by upgrading the machines even though they are still quite powerful.

Have fun.

~RF
 
I know I have not asked any question, I have gotten a lot of good information as of lately and also cannot make any purchase right now, so it seemed pointless some other things are more important.
 
natex.us but would cost more for the power.

ServerMonkey in the U.S sells off lease systems also.
 
Thread title "dual cpu server questions."



In 3 posts you have yet to use a question mark. ( ? )
 
TType85 said:
FWIW: If you want to go cheap and lower power than a 1366 system you can do something like this:
R420 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OEMR-R...-2x-Heatsink-1x-550W-PSU-iDRAC7-/382233596699
2x E5-2620 v1 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2620-2-00GHz-6-core-LGA2011-Processor-SR0KW-/162686505063
32GB Ram to start http://www.ebay.com/itm/32GB-4X8GB-...-240-PIN-1333MHZ-for-Servers-WS-/162138736093
Click to expand...

R420 is a 1356 board, those are 2011 CPUs. Not compatible. Careful.

Thankfully E5-2420s are cheap too https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=SR0LN
 
jackofalltrades said:
How about this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R610-Server-2x-E5540-2-53GHz-8-Cores-24GB-RAM-SAS6i/192287543518?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

or would this be better?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R900-4-x-2-93GHz-X7350-Quad-Core-32GB-DRAC-5-3-Year-Warrantty/371854299396?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
Click to expand...

I would say no on the R900 and would probably steer away from the R610 at least set up that way. 12x2GB is probably all the memory slots so if you want to upgrade, you have to buy all. A setup with the 56xx chips and minimum 4GB dimms would be better.
 
jackofalltrades said:
do you have to replace all the memory in the same size chips? like all 2 gb or all 4 gb?
Click to expand...

It is best to keep them the same, but I think a some boards will let you mix to some degree. If the board is triple channel and has 6 slots per processor, you might be able to do 3x2 and 3x4 but I never tried it.
 
On dual CPU machines pay close attention to WHERE on the board (which slots) you insert your memory in.

The total amount of memory you have will determine which slots to use.

~RF
 
I can see I have a lot to learn about these machines, If anyone has more information or cautionary precautions for me fire away it can only prevent a mistake down the road.
 
MrGuvernment said:
natex.us but would cost more for the power.

ServerMonkey in the U.S sells off lease systems also.
Click to expand...

I bought a Quanta barebone from Natex and while it did run it was a bit noiser than I would have liked. If you go the rackmount route stick with the name brands (Dell, HP, SuperMicro, IBM, Chenbro, etc).
 
Overall, depending on your storage needs, an R510 or R710 may be better choices than an R610, as they tend to have more hard drive bays. The differences in performance are negligible.

I'd pair low-wattage CPUs with a decent amount of ram regardless - L5640s for example, 6C/12T and 60 watts and very low cost.

For a backup server, an LSI 9211-8i is $50 and should be able to utilize the storage PCI express slot in either, and be able to drive the hot-swap cages in either without issue.
Slap FreeNAS on there and you have a very capable and reliable storage server that won't light your wallet on fire.

Remember that Xeons of that era are triple-channel [E/X/L](55xx and 56xx) and that you'll want to avoid memory at "powers of two" to get best bandwidth.
 
 
NobleX13 said:
I bought a Quanta barebone from Natex and while it did run it was a bit noiser than I would have liked. If you go the rackmount route stick with the name brands (Dell, HP, SuperMicro, IBM, Chenbro, etc).
Click to expand...

rack mount in the end it is all the same parts on the inside anyways.
 
jackofalltrades said:
I am looking these these auctions tell me which one seems to be the best choice
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-1950-2-x-2-33GHz-Quad-Core-32GB-4TB-RAID-Rail-Kit-Included/372098411971?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Proliant-DL360-G5-2-x-2-33GHz-Quad-16GB-2-x-120GB-6Gb-s-SSD-3-YR-WNTY/292105216845?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Proliant-DL380-G5-2-x-2-33GHz-Quad-16GB-2-x-120GB-6Gb-s-SSD-3-YR-Warranty/371662550849?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-2950-2-x-Quad-E5345-2-33GHz-16GB-2-x-300GB-10K-3-YR-Warranty/371633924526?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

These are the servers I can afford I am looking at these because of price and they need nothing out the gate to start with.
Click to expand...

The Dells are going to be loud and they are VERY VERY VERY old.
 
I picked up a poweredge 1950 and a 2950 locally for cheap I know some here are thinking way too old but I feel they were cheap enough to decide if it would be worth shelling out more money I find them a little loud but I'm not extremely picky. I have found startup it a bear but once running they seem decent.

If anybody has any advice on proper usage I would appreciate it!
 
I agreed with you totally. Old server is cheap and easy to manage. Actually you can extend the cpu configuration to 4 or 6 core. It is ot much more expensive. such as Quad Cpu for only 5 Euro.
 
The one I ended up with is dual quad 1.6 ghz with 4 gigs ram, my first question is would I be better suited to pick up more ram or faster cpus? I also have 6 146 gig SAS drives at 10K
 
I picked up a 4P (4 CPUS) AMD G34 Dell server earlier this year for $400 on eBay. Came with everything ready to roll or it needed an HDD. I can't remember if it came with a HDD or not. Either way it was 4x 6276 CPUS for a total of 64 cores. Been rocking it with BOINC projects ever since.
 
jackofalltrades said:
The one I ended up with is dual quad 1.6 ghz with 4 gigs ram, my first question is would I be better suited to pick up more ram or faster cpus? I also have 6 146 gig SAS drives at 10K
Click to expand...

Not unless you've got a specific task to accomplish.

Otherwise, just "get your learn on" with what you have.

The concept is the same on a 100.00 server and a 30,000 server!

Enjoy!

~RF
 
RFOneWatt said:
Not unless you've got a specific task to accomplish.

Otherwise, just "get your learn on" with what you have.

The concept is the same on a 100.00 server and a 30,000 server!

Enjoy!

~RF
Click to expand...

That is what I'm doing I am enjoying the challenge I am going to start with windows server 2003 and then some other OS like Linux
 
RFOneWatt said:
On dual CPU machines pay close attention to WHERE on the board (which slots) you insert your memory in.

The total amount of memory you have will determine which slots to use.

~RF
Click to expand...
I am wondering on a 2p AMD system if the ram has to be the same size per cpu ram slots, what I mean is can I put in ( quad channel) 4 1 GB ram on one cpu and 4 2 gb ram for the second CPU ram slots?
 
I can't speak for the Dells but on my Supermicro X8ADAi dual-CPU I have 6x8GB and 6x2GB DDR3 ECC for a total of 60GB RAM, no issues at all.

I *AM* careful to make sure each channel has either 8GB or 2GB sticks and that the channels match on both CPUs.
 
Shadowmeph said:
I am wondering on a 2p AMD system if the ram has to be the same size per cpu ram slots, what I mean is can I put in ( quad channel) 4 1 GB ram on one cpu and 4 2 gb ram for the second CPU ram slots?
Click to expand...

I have a Dell 2x opteron server. It has 8 dimms. 6 of them have 16gb and the other 2 have 8gb. I get a warning at boot about a non optimal ram config, but the server works fine. Esxi shows 112gb.
 
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