Razor Blade

Are you high? What does that even mean? And why are you taking this topic so personally? Did an R710 violate you in the closet or something?
 
You sound like a disgruntled Dell employee.

Gee you think??? No I did not research before I bought it. It took you this long to figure that out? While I respect that you have an opinion, I do not appreciate you trying to dump all over me with it.
 
The fans are actually not that loud.  I have tried to find a source for your claim of motherboard quality issues but came up empty. iDrac on this is more than adequate for my purpose. I find it hilarious you complain about the drive mounts when your R910 has the same caddy design. Actually you're wrong, you can have up to 24GB of 1 or 2 GB sticks of UDIMM but I don't know why someone would want to run UDIMM RAM in server this old anyway. Not like you'll see that much of a performance boost to justify it. It's actually harder to find those early power supplies than you think. Maybe they've all died. I've found a whole 1 topic on the internet mentioning a fan sensor problem. It's obvious you can't read because I've admitted that I did not know going into the project what I was doing. I also said I would not have bothered if I had a do over. Since you have nothing of value to add to this thread, if you'd be so kind as to kick rocks it would be much appreciated.
 
 

In life there are those that learn best from mistakes others make. Then there are those that make mistakes even though they're trying to learn from other people's mistakes. Well I hope others can learn from my mistakes. I got caught up in one of those "no turning back now" sort of deals. I knew what I wanted but apparently didn't have a clue. Here are just a few things that tripped me up while buying a Dell R710. Feel free to chime in on other fun facts or tid-bits of information that would make it easier for people to put together their own Dell R710 server.
 
Fun fact #1: Types of chassis
There are 2 types of chassis you'll find for the Dell R710.
 
The 6 bay chassis can house up to six 3.5" and looks like this...

 
The 8 bay SFF chassis can house up to eight 2.5" and looks like this...

It has been my experience that the 6 bay chassis is generally more expensive. Also it has been in my experience that most Ebay listings won't have all of the drive caddys. This is either because they simply don't include them with intent to sell them separate (typically more likely if you don't get any drive caddys or blank covers) or possibly because the server was not configured that way when the reseller got it (typically more likely if you get 1 or 2 caddys and the rest of the bays have blanks. Either way you can easily find these caddys on ebay for under $20 each for OEM or in most cases about $40 for an entire set of non branded units.
 
Fun fact #2: There are TWO generation of motherboard!
Generation 1 motherboards only support up to a 95 watt CPU. You can NOT run a 130 watt CPU in the board. If you install a 130 watt CPU it will give you a system halt message of "this cpu power rating is not supported" and you will not be able to progress further. The part number is found on a small white sticker under the fan tray.  Gen 1 boards CAN run up to a 95 watt X5600 series processor as long as you update the bios (link http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-r710_user's guide6_en-us.pdf). Part numbers for the Gen 1 board include YDJK3, N047H, 7THW3, VWN1R and 0W9X3 Generation 2 motherboards will support the 130 watt CPU. Part numbers for the Gen 2 board include XDX06, 0NH4P and YMXG9. The trick is finding out which motherboard a server has BEFORE you buy it... It isn't always as simple as having the little roman numeral II on the front of the chassis due to the ease at which a motherboard can be swapped...especially if you buy a server from one of the refurbishing businesses on ebay. So if it matters to you, ASK for the part number and make sure they say it is a gen II board especially if you're planning on running a 130 watt CPU. Check their feedback and return policy also.
 
Fun fact #3: There are TWO versions of PSU
There is the 570 watt PSU and an 870 watt PSU. The PSU have firmware and the server is intelligent enough to tell which ones are installed. The server will also be able to determine if the hardware you are running will exceed the rating of the power supply units installed. 870 watt PSUs are still cheap (around $20 each) so if you are planning on filling the HDD bays, running all the ram DIMMs, and high watt CPUs then it isn't a bad idea to pick the 870 watt model.
 
Fun fact #4: There are TWO versions of CPU heatsinks
The one you'll find in just about ever R710 is the humble part number TY129. It is an aluminum heatsink that even according to Dell will work on just about all processors.

 
But there is a unicorn of heatsinks too! Legend has it that this heatsink was used on the mysterious Xeon X5698...a processor you won't find on arc.intel.com sounds like a fairy tail or something but apparently a 4.4GHz Westemere CPU actually exists! Here is a photo of the strange copper beauty that covers the beast.

 
If you have a 130 watt CPU do you need that heatsink? Not according to Dell (Link 4th "note" down only says R610 and M710 not the R710 http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-r710_user's guide6_en-us.pdf).
 
Fun fact #5: Dell still has information and drivers on their website.
Link http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-r710/research
I highly suggest you spend some time getting to know your server... it is a great tool to help you with getting the drivers you need, help you with an upgrade path, or any other general information about it.
 
Fun fact #6: Dell RAID controller capacity gotcha
The Dell Perc 6 and Perc 6i RAID controllers do not support disks greater than 2TB! Also mentioned controllers will not take advantage of 6Gb SATA and (though I haven't confirmed this) won't work with SSDs. 
According to what I've read, the H700 card will support up to 3TB disks, 6Gb SATA and will work with SSDs. But for the price of some of these things on Ebay you can get yourself an LSI controller with better features and more universal support... So if you want to run large disks on your new to you Dell...you will need to get a different RAID card...and if you have the Perc cards you'll need some new SAS cables too...
 
Fun fact #7: A lot of re-sellers of Dell R710,610,410,etc specify it includes iDrac but won't have the dedicated iDrac port.
For some reason Dell decided the iDrac remote management needed 2 daughter cards. One activates the option, the other is literally a daughter board with the RJ45 dedicated port you find on most youtube tutorials. If you do not have that port you end up using one of the four onboard NIC ports instead. Though that little card can be found on Ebay for about 7 dollars US if you want it...just don't count on those listings including the vFlash card.
 
 
I hope some of this will help even one person to save them the headache I went through. Do not assume ANYTHING is compatible. I didn't discover fun fact 2 until I had X5680 CPUs in the R710 I bought and I'm staring at the "this cpu power rating is not supported" message blinking away on my screen. I screwed myself because I did not research if an X5680 would work with any old R710...I assumed. So off to Ebay I went again to find a Gen 2 board. Which is often easier said than done. Even when you do find a listing, they want as much for a stripped mobo as a-whole-nother server! Another server...another...about that...remember how I said it's hard to tell what generation board an Ebay listing will have? Yeah I bought another entire server that listed as a Gen 2 compatible with X5600 CPUs but was sent another Gen 1 board instead...hence the other part of fun fact 2. Luckily the seller took the server back and I was able to get my gen 2 server but the SFF model...After checking the listing again the "Gen 2" disappeared from the title and description...go figure.
 
Had I to do this all over again I would not have bothered with the X5680's and gone with a lower watt 6 core Xeon with the gen 1 board and updated the bios to support it... Actually if I had to do it over again I wouldn't have bothered at all... it was because I bought a server with the intent to upgrade it and sunk $160 in X5680 CPUs that I continued and pushed ahead. I justified the purchase of the second server instead of just the board because it gave me another 24GB RAM and an arse load of spare parts...but in reality I now I have exactly the R710 I wanted when I started...and another server I kinda don't want....and an IBM boat anchor from the flintstone era I paid way too much for and don't know what to do with. But that's another story...I need a drink now...

Currently you can use plugins for that. A few I just checked called "couch potato" and "Transmission"...

Forget data recovery services. In most cases, they will cost you well north of $1k with no guarantee of success. Depending on data recovery as a backup is like playing Russian Roulette with half the chambers loaded. A solid backup scheme is far safer and much less expensive.
Not if you have a proper backup scheme in place. I have more than one backup so, if a drive fails, I can be up and running in however long it takes to pull the dead drive and replace it with one of the backup drives, then let my computer take its own sweet time repopulating a new backup drive (and I'll still have more backups in case the worst happens).
Thsi is one reason why I do not recommend RAID, etc. for most people. All a RAID, etc. provides is redundancy. All redundancy does is protect from drive failure (up to the fault tolerance) and allow a computer to keep chugging along when one or more drives (depending, again, on the fault tolerance) dies.
 
Most people do not absolutely need for a computer to keep running after one or more drives fail. It's a bit inconvenient but not the end of the world as long as one has a solid backup.
 
Redundancy will prevent data loss from drive failure (up to a point) but will not protect from other causes of data loss, such as user error (such as accidental deletion or formatting), PSU failure frying everyting in the computer, power surges that blow through any surge protection you may have, theft, fire, flood, wind damage (like a little ol' tornado or hurricane), viruses and other malware, etc. Only backups can protect you from that.
 
For data to be reasonably safe, it must exist in three places. For most people, this will be on the computer, on an onsite backup drive, and on an offsite backup drive. For a backup drive to be a true backup, it must be kept powered down and disconnected from the computer and stored away from the computer at all times except while updating the backup.

Perfect for a parity drive, cuz there's no way I can afford more than 1. 

I just tried 22x200 4.4GHz on my X5670 and I got a pretty good (I think) score on Cinebench R20. Cinebench R15 score (1011cb) was identical to what I got with 24x185 4.44GHz.
 

All I can say is be very careful with old server boards... There can be countless pitfalls trying to adapt them to run with consumer gear. Proprietary front panel connections, onboard PDUs, proprietary CPU coolers, only certain supported CPUs, and restrictive proprietary firmware to name a few things. Please know what you're buying and all the restrictions that might come with it... Nothing worse than dropping money on a piece of hardware you can't use.

All I can say is be very careful with old server boards... There can be countless pitfalls trying to adapt them to run with consumer gear. Proprietary front panel connections, onboard PDUs, proprietary CPU coolers, only certain supported CPUs, and restrictive proprietary firmware to name a few things. Please know what you're buying and all the restrictions that might come with it... Nothing worse than dropping money on a piece of hardware you can't use.

30£ for a working X58 board? Asking for a Christmas miracle in May is a bit early isn't it? ?

30£ for a working X58 board? Asking for a Christmas miracle in May is a bit early isn't it? ?

5400RPM drives are good for storage, good for power consumption, and good for longevity... not great for performance.
 
If you want to store game files on a drive, consider a standard desktop class 7200RPM drive.

That board is for a rackmount server and will likely not fit in a consumer case.

As stated above, it's difficult to find X58 boards in your price range. You could go with a chinesium branded board at the 38-40 GBP mark off of Ebay... but searching for a used board might be your best bet at this point.

30£ for a working X58 board? Asking for a Christmas miracle in May is a bit early isn't it? ?

really unraid seems to be the best options here. Give it a trial.

Incorrect, WiFi is a way of connecting to "a network" without wires.  If that network happens to include Internet connectivity is irrelevant.

Usually I recommend Ubuntu MATE, it's nice to look at, it has a pretty good welcome screen and it's Ubuntu so there are plenty of online resources to look at if you have problems. There may be slightly better options but beyond a certain point it barely matters so I'd rather go for something that I know is consistent.
 
Also no, I wouldn't recommend actually using LFS to anyone. It's not intended to be used as a normal distribution.

oh man that guy was great

Lightning deal on Amazon

I just like the G and B...can I buy it without the R? Because R seems to always indicates a problem for me...

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabyte-aorus-rgb-nvme-ssd,6079.html
 

Apparently the RGB craze hasn't died yet. Looks like its time for Linus to upgrade his ultimate rgb build from 2017
 

Same... when I ran my R7000 as a primary router, I used a laptop cooler as well (though plugged into the wall). I now use mine as an AP for my PFsense router and there is almost no detectable heat.

ltt actually did a video on this

IMO the tech that researches and asks how to do something he doesn't know how to do is way better than a tech who's pride greatly exceeds his competence.