Server to Workstation conversion

[soyellalo]

So, let's say I have an "Hp Proliant Dl-360 G-5" laying around and I wanted to convert it into a workstation for live visual and make a beautiful carry bag and that stuff... the server chassis in this case, accept a discrete gpu, even if the pci ports wont work al full 16x, its still better than my integrated graphics on my macbook pro, and the raid capabilities, will sure help a lot. The idea would be to try first to install windows 7, if it doesnt work because of the drivers, then go and install windows server so I could run "Resolume Arena" or other Vj program.

 

So, is this possible, even with other servers? So just take them, install a gpu, some fancy hdd, ssd, pci capture cards and stuff and give them a new life? I mean, dude, there are some pretty server hardware thats way too much cheaper than buying a laptop capable of runing a tons of visual in realtime and with extra juice to make even a live streaming machine.

 

EDIT: if someone else answer this, take in consideration this... im not looking forward to use this setup for gaming, just for serious work, so I wont be loading a kick ass super dupper card with 7 slots heatsinks and stuff like that... just some normal card, not too basic not too powerfull(since I know, servers PSU wont give me that extra juice for the powerfulls gpu's that are out there. And I only need some card that can render the GUI and 1, just 1 damn video output, maybe 2.)

The carry thing, its not a deal... since I dont give a shit... the thing its, if its do the job, its ok to me, sh*t if its weight more than the whole LTT crew.

Im open to new ideas for this setup, but please, dont tell me to buy this XXX case, because in Chile, the case market its like... looking for a japanese guy in the center of Japan... yeah, they are all the same and we dont have the market that US have,  and if I wanted to import things, it will cost me like an eye of the face.

[S1lent_5am]

sure you could turn a server in to a workstation but it would be a pain to carry around like a laptop since it's suppose to be mounted in a rack. As to what new hardware you can add to it that will come down to compatibility but I don't see why you couldn't turn it in to a stream box with a little work. 

[soyellalo]

Just now, S1lent_5am said:

sure you could turn a server in to a workstation but it would be a pain to carry around like a laptop since it's suppose to be mounted in a rack. As to what new hardware you can add to it that will come down to compatibility but I don't see why you couldn't turn it in to a stream box with a little work. 

Thanks fot the reply, I dont care if its a pain to carry it around since I always travel in the artist bus and it pick me up in front of my house, so i dont really have to carry it around a lot, and the server its just 1U o 2U  so its not that big(and exist some portable rack backpacks used in the audio world por processors and stuff), now I have to add the screen, mouse, keyboard, midi accesories and cables weight to the equation and TADDA!!! a super live visuals machine for god sakes !!! 

[brwainer]

I have an HP Proliant DL380 G5 sitting next to me, and for about 4 months I used it as my daily driver computer for After Effects, gaming, etc. Here's my 2c on using this as a workstation:

1. This machine is LOUD. Even in a club with loud music, you could probably hear the fans at idle, let alone full speed. I had the server in a closet 20 feet away from me, with the door closed, and could make out it's noise through passive noise reducing (20dB) headphones.
2. My server has dual quad core xeons, 2.6GHz, with 16GB ECC RAM. Even once everything booted up and I had tweaked it as much as possible, it wasn't as snappy in daily use as my Core i3-370m (2 cores, hyperthreading, 2.4GHz) 4GB laptop. The IPC improvements made from 2006 to 2010 were quite impressive.
3. The server weighs easily 45 pounds, before adding expansion cards and hard drives. It is also 27" deep, and I'm pretty sure most audio equipment racks and rackmount carrying bags I've seen are not that deep/long. Also, with this type of hardware, I would only want to move it around in a heavy duty travel box, will with foam or other appropriate padding. Those quickly become expensive, probably more than what you can get a DL380g5 for.
4. You'll want to grab the HP SPP (Service Pack for Proliant) software disk version 2014-02 - this was the last version of the SPP that supported the G5 servers, and includes the software for managing the server, such as the RAID card, iLO, etc, as well as firmware updates for the hardware (you first boot from the disc to update firmware, them load the disk again from within your OS to install the management software)
5. I only used the hardware with Server 2012R2 as a daily driver. I also have used it with Server 2012 in test setups. I plan on using it to test Server 2016 TP5 when that is released. While WIndows 7 should work on the hardware, I can't really recommend even trying it out.

If you have any other questions about my experience using it as a daily driver go ahead and ask.

 

EDIT: I was curious so I looked up some audio equipment rack bags. most have an interior depth of 14-18 inches, and I couldn't see any that were longer.

 

EDIT2: If you really want to get a used server to convert to a workstation, I recommend looking for "short depth" servers - most of these will be around 19" deep - still deeper than any carrying bag I could find, but maybe you can find a 20" bag. The tradeoff is that most short depth servers will only have 1 expansion slot, as they will be mITX or proprietary motherboard form factors.

[Guest]

Servers are not designed as workstations and vice versa. I've listed the big differences between the two below.

 

• OS Qualification
  • Pretty much no server board is qualified for an environment like Windows 7 Pro/8 Pro/10 Pro.
• GPU & Expansion qualification
  • Server boards are not designed to take anything beyonds specific NIC's and controller cards for RAID. They don't normally work with GPU's and other things like that.
• Size and noise
  • Servers are designed to sit in a rack, measuring usually at 19" wide, 2-12" tall and 600-800mm deep. Not small or portable at all

Servers will also usually have remote management packages (iDRAC, iLO, IPMI) with them.

[soyellalo]

6 minutes ago, brwainer said:

I have an HP Proliant DL380 G5 sitting next to me, and for about 4 months I used it as my daily driver computer for After Effects, gaming, etc. Here's my 2c on using this as a workstation:

1. This machine is LOUD. Even in a club with loud music, you could probably hear the fans at idle, let alone full speed. I had the server in a closet 20 feet away from me, with the door closed, and could make out it's noise through passive noise reducing (20dB) headphones.
2. My server has dual quad core xeons, 2.6GHz, with 16GB ECC RAM. Even once everything booted up and I had tweaked it as much as possible, it wasn't as snappy in daily use as my Core i3-370m (2 cores, hyperthreading, 2.4GHz) 4GB laptop. The IPC improvements made from 2006 to 2010 were quite impressive.
3. The server weighs easily 45 pounds, before adding expansion cards and hard drives. It is also 27" deep, and I'm pretty sure most audio equipment racks and rackmount carrying bags I've seen are not that deep/long. Also, with this type of hardware, I would only want to move it around in a heavy duty travel box, will with foam or other appropriate padding. Those quickly become expensive, probably more than what you can get a DL380g5 for.
4. You'll want to grab the HP SPP (Service Pack for Proliant) software disk version 2014-02 - this was the last version of the SPP that supported the G5 servers, and includes the software for managing the server, such as the RAID card, iLO, etc, as well as firmware updates for the hardware (you first boot from the disc to update firmware, them load the disk again from within your OS to install the management software)
5. I only used the hardware with Server 2012R2 as a daily driver. I also have used it with Server 2012 in test setups. I plan on using it to test Server 2016 TP5 when that is released. While WIndows 7 should work on the hardware, I can't really recommend even trying it out.

If you have any other questions about my experience using it as a daily driver go ahead and ask.

Thank brwainer!!! thats really helpfull, but then, what server grade, rack mount hardware do you recommend for this dutties?? Here in Chile, used servers are, well not soooo cheap as in US, but are cheaper than buying a core i7 laptop with some nice gpu(aaaaand, this laptop cannot get the hdd changed or add some more space to it for storage porpuise, unlike the server that i can add some more hdd's, ssd's, pci cards, maybe tweak the fans or changed into some less noisy, who knows.) I also see the option to buy normal grade components for this, but they are really expensive and wont give me the fidelity that gives a server grade stuff.

[soyellalo]

Just now, Windspeed36 said:

Servers are not designed as workstations and vice versa. I've listed the big differences between the two below.

 

• OS Qualification
  • Pretty much no server board is qualified for an environment like Windows 7 Pro/8 Pro/10 Pro.
• GPU & Expansion qualification
  • Server boards are not designed to take anything beyonds specific NIC's and controller cards for RAID. They don't normally work with GPU's and other things like that.
• Size and noise
  • Servers are designed to sit in a rack, measuring usually at 19" wide, 2-12" tall and 600-800mm deep. Not small or portable at all

Servers will also usually have remote management packages (iDRAC, iLO, IPMI) with them.

Thank for the reply and yes, I know about the OS things, thats why I first will try to install windows 7 and then, if I cannot get it to work right, I install windows server.

For the pci, since its an industry standar, they should work right out the box, maybe some bios or uefi configuration maybe required, but they should work normally

And last, since its going to be used in concerts or live events, I dont really care about the noise levels, sin the PA should sound like a 10000 times more than this. And maybe its not so portable at all, but who cares?? not me, seriously.

[brwainer]

7 minutes ago, soyellalo said:

Thank brwainer!!! thats really helpfull, but then, what server grade, rack mount hardware do you recommend for this dutties?? Here in Chile, used servers are, well not soooo cheap as in US, but are cheaper than buying a core i7 laptop with some nice gpu(aaaaand, this laptop cannot get the hdd changed or add some more space to it for storage porpuise, unlike the server that i can add some more hdd's, ssd's, pci cards, maybe tweak the fans or changed into some less noisy, who knows.) I also see the option to buy normal grade components for this, but they are really expensive and wont give me the fidelity that gives a server grade stuff.

While it is true that many server grade components are used in workstations, such as Xeon CPUs and ECC RAM, you really want a Workstation motherboard to use in a workstation. I don't follow the used hardware market very much, nor the workstation market. For a system you could rely on for Live VJ events, I would say get a used computer of decent specs, such as an i7-2xxx or i7-3xxx, 8GB+ of RAM, etc that is a mini-ATX size motherboard, and then get a short depth rackmount case such as the Norco RPC2304. Transplant the parts from the used system, or the used parts that you scavenged for, and put them in the rackmount case. Then as time goes on, you can start putting together a better system by buying a workstation motherboard, Xeon CPU, and ECC memory.

[soyellalo]

Just now, brwainer said:

While it is true that many server grade components are used in workstations, such as Xeon CPUs and ECC RAM, you really want a Workstation motherboard to use in a workstation. I don't follow the used hardware market very much, nor the workstation market. For a system you could rely on for Live VJ events, I would say get a used computer of decent specs, such as an i7-2xxx or i7-3xxx, 8GB+ of RAM, etc that is a mini-ATX size motherboard, and then get a short depth rackmount case such as the Norco RPC2304. Transplant the parts from the used system, or the used parts that you scavenged for, and put them in the rackmount case. Then as time goes on, you can start putting together a better system by buying a workstation motherboard, Xeon CPU, and ECC memory.

Ok, now thats a really usefull answer, I will study my options again. Thanks again!!!

[Kadah]

On 2/15/2016 at 8:38 PM, brwainer said:

I have an HP Proliant DL380 G5 sitting next to me, and for about 4 months I used it as my daily driver computer for After Effects, gaming, etc. Here's my 2c on using this as a workstation:

1. This machine is LOUD. Even in a club with loud music, you could probably hear the fans at idle, let alone full speed. I had the server in a closet 20 feet away from me, with the door closed, and could make out it's noise through passive noise reducing (20dB) headphones.
2.  
3.  
4. You'll want to grab the HP SPP (Service Pack for Proliant) software disk version 2014-02 - this was the last version of the SPP that supported the G5 servers, and includes the software for managing the server, such as the RAID card, iLO, etc, as well as firmware updates for the hardware (you first boot from the disc to update firmware, them load the disk again from within your OS to install the management software)
5. I only used the hardware with Server 2012R2 as a daily driver. I also have used it with Server 2012 in test setups. I plan on using it to test Server 2016 TP5 when that is released. While WIndows 7 should work on the hardware, I can't really recommend even trying it out.

I've got a couple of these sitting around doing nothing since I ended up with a surplus of G6's

(1) G6 is a bit better on noise

(4) Good luck finding a download for the SPP, HP no longer provides them without an active service agreement. You can still find them on the FTP servers, but locating them there is a challenge as folder names are not useful.

(5) Win7 might work, but the raid care likely won't. HP Smart Array never have drivers for the non-server OSes.

 

GPU power will be an issue on this. The G6 does have an option for this, but finding the part for it is rare.

 

The workstation equivalent to the G6 is the Z800. This is what I'm using right now. They're pretty easy to come by for cheap if you look long enough. I've ended up with 3 after a year.