Razor Blade

If you get a server like that, make sure you pick up some drive trays to mount your drives also. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-Dell-3-5-SAS-SATA-Hard-Drive-Tray-DF238F-PowerEdge-R630-R730-R730XD/254121989725?hash=item3b2ad9d65d:g:FIYAAOSwqDha-22U https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-x-3-5-Tray-Caddy-For-Dell-R720-R710-R730-G302D-F238F-R510-KG1CH-ch09/143148204131?hash=item21544c4063:g:wDMAAOSwKk5cdEUf:sc:USPSFirstClass!45248!US!-1

I've experienced a similar issue... I run PFsense in a VM and occasionally after an upgrade it will exhibit the same symptoms (except for working with PFsense dashboard open). Even restarting the VM it would work okay for about an hour then start acting up again...Restoring the VM to previous snapshot yielded the same result. The only thing I was able to do to seemingly correct it when the problems happened was going to the interfaces tab then released the lease on my modem (as in the WAN interface), waited about 60 seconds then renewed it. After that it works fine. I haven't been able to track down a root cause yet as it happens so very rarely... Also I wasn't sure if it had to do with running PFsense in ESXI or not. Hopefully you are able to find a resolution soon.

Does that mean it was bought on Amazon? I've had many times where "new" products came to me obviously used when bought on Amazon. Hell I had a SanDisk flash drive I bought that was not only opened but had "BAD" written in sharpie on the packaging! Amazon is always quick to resolve said issues though. I received a prepaid postage label and they offered to schedule pickup (which wasn't necessary). I have bought a few Arctic products and their quality is acceptable. The pictured item (as said above) was likely a product someone went full ape on trying to install it then returned it. It is just a theory...the world may never know what that poor cooler went through before it got to you.

More information would be helpful... what OS are you using? If Windows, does the drive not show in file explorer or when you try to put files on it does it show some sort of error? Do you know information about the drive? (brand? type?)

If budget is a factor, that can be a problem. That Norco case alone is going to set you back about $400. You're also going to have to make sure you have a sufficient power supply to support the number of drives you will run.

The rule I go by is always try to increase capacity when you're buying drives to put in an array... The reason I said go for fewer higher capacity drives is for power consumption and future upgrade potential. For example, if you only have 6 bays available in your computer and buy six 4TB drives for a total of 24TB, in the future if you want to increase capacity, you're stuck replacing a bunch of drives instead of adding them. If I wanted 24 TB I would rather buy four 6TB drives or two 12TB drives. Depending on how much "usable" space you require as well as your budget would determine what drives make the most sense to buy.

My advice is...don't. For NAS use in a home, more capacity with fewer drives is better in almost every way. The only disadvantage being if you ever replace a drive, the rebuild will take much longer. But advantages like lower power consumption, cost per TB, and simplicity far outweighs the potential failure inconvenience.

The following is just my opinion... Enough of advantage to buy all new drives? Most definitely not... the Ironwolf drives are really nice to have if you have a NAS that supports their Ironwolf health utilities. Those NAS drives are also optimized for use in small compact enclosures. However if you're running in a server the doesn't support the extra features, the advantages aren't as great. Barracuda pro and Ironwolf pro offer the same 2 year data recovery service but as with any drive and drive array, keep backups anyway (it is just good data maintenance practice). If I were you, I would keep the disks you have. IMO in the future you could look into Ironwolf pro or EXOS drives when running in servers. But if you decide to get a NAS that supports Ironwolf health, definitely go for Ironwolf.

Hot black coffee is my favorite drink.... Without it, I would probably just become an alcoholic...

Likely manufacturer code and manufacturing date. Here is info on a recall by Belkin where they explain one of the "dials" indicate year of manufacture https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2009/belkin-international-inc-recalls-surgemaster-surge-protectors-due-to-shock-hazard

Under your profile, click this icon... You then have the option to upload an image file less than 2MB, use an image from a web address, or use no photo. After uploading or selecting your photo you will then be able to crop the photo to make your avatar.

I would have to agree with the above suggestions, waiting until funding is available for a replacement system would also be my suggestion. Your current setup has some nostalgic value so even more reason not to rip it all apart right? Also yes I would also suggest looking into a newer display device. At least something with an HDMI input. Newer systems may not even have VGA as an option which means you would have to get an adapter box...which (in my experience) will make the video lag and look grainy.

First of all I want to thank you for your military service! Putting the pieces together here, I would not suggest trying to upgrade the old system. The LGA775 (while there are things you could do) is incredibly outdated at this point. A few questions if you don't mind... Do you know what resolution you would play games at and what your TV could handle? Currently does your TV use HDMI input on your PC or is it using the VGA input? What was your budget and besides Everquest and World of Warcraft, what other titles might you want to play? Do you still plan to do other productivity tasks on the PC?

Disclaimer: I didn't read the article. Counting non-licensed PCs would get them to their 1 billion goal much faster though...I would imagine the only reason they have a quantitative goal in the first place is to sell more of their content delivery service that is baked into Windows. If that is the case, maybe they're going by the "IdentityProvider" value you see in the registry? Found here Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager I'm sure software companies would love for Microsoft to start installing trial software on every Windows PC through Windows update. Even though it ticks off enthusiasts, we're probably a small percent compared to the probably hundreds of millions of general users out there that doesn't even know how to uninstall the software that keeps bugging them to purchase a premium subscription and actually believe their computer is at risk if they don't...or are happy to try out the new game that just appeared pinned on their start menu...

You're probably not going to find off the shelf custom components for Dell workstations and servers as mentioned above, they tend to use proprietary or server type components. When you Google'd water cooling for your workstation model, did you see this? Might be worth a comment on the video or even an email to see if that person could offer advice?

Ah.. if the devices have no problems charging otherwise, I agree with what was said above (defective product). I would say to contact the seller on eBay (and you still could I guess..) But with the listing price that low, I'm surprised you actually got a product to be honest...

I've had good luck with Ubuntu server on older hardware https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server

It looks like a micro B connector You said it doesn't plug into your devices? Or it does but doesn't charge them?

Those 9th gen dell rack mount servers were very loud and very power hungry... If you do consider another rack mount server, the 11th generation R710 is much much much much much quieter (see video below) and you should be able to easily get one in your price range. When you say remote access do you mean using RDP or something like the DRAC 5 your 1950 may have? If you don't need something like IPMI, consider looking at workstation towers as many will take the same core components (server CPU and memory) but can typically be found cheaper.

Yes! It would be hilarious to see an army of delivery robots following something like this! ?

Best ransomware protections are inaccessible backups. Be them offline on a disk you physically plug in every time or through something you have to log in every time to access anything. Windows defender has a "ransomware protection" option but again... backups... it is difficult to know once your system is infected what is okay and what isn't or what damage it has done.