HP proliant server. What do I do with this??

[fastcar123]

Hey everyone.

About a year ago I found an HP ProLiant ML350 G6 server in my neighborhood that someone was literally just giving away. $0 later I have it in my garage.

That was a year ago, back when I had extra space for it. But now I am in an apartment with much less space.

 

Currently it is my living room unplugged "serving" as an end table with a lamp on it -.-

 

The specs are:

intel xeon E5xxx (I don't actually remember the exact model)

16GB DDR3 ECC memory

windows 10pro x64

one 750Watt removable power supply

somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 TB of server grade HDDs that I spent money out of pocket for.

 

The machine does have a raid controller and 8 drive bay, but I don't think it works because it wont read any drives in it. I'm pretty sure this is why previous owner abandoned it.

 

I've tried making it into a NAS, but it went largely unused.

I've tried making it into a work computer but it was the least bit practical 

I haven't tried gaming on it, but I would need a secondary PSU just for the graphics card because the stock PSU doesn't have a 6 pin header. I would need to make an adapter cable that utilized the unused drive bay power for the graphics card.

I don't need a webserver, or a game streaming computer. I don't edit videos I don't deal with encrypted data and I have no need to serve more than just my 2 gaming rigs.

It weighs a whole lot so it would cost too much to ship it if I were to sell it on ebay.

 

Also it sounds like a jet engine and takes about 15 minutes for it to finally load windows.

 

So tell me. What should I do with this thing? It's a relatively strong platform, but with little upgrade room. It's practically spotless inside and out.

 

Let me know what you think. Does this thing have any use?

 

[The Sloth]

put a gpu on it and game 

[fastcar123]

would I not need a spare GPU for that?

[cj09beira]

i am plaing to buy a server in the future to use as: a NAS, host games, and be nerdy about hardware :-)

[fastcar123]

1 minute ago, cj09beira said:

and be nerdy about hardware :-)

lol that's why I picked this up.

[Mophead]

19 hours ago, fastcar123 said:

Hey everyone.

About a year ago I found an HP ProLiant ML350 G6 server in my neighborhood that someone was literally just giving away. $0 later I have it in my garage.

That was a year ago, back when I had extra space for it. But now I am in an apartment with much less space.

 

Currently it is my living room unplugged "serving" as an end table with a lamp on it -.-

 

The specs are:

intel xeon E5xxx (I don't actually remember the exact model)

16GB DDR3 ECC memory

windows 10pro x64

one 750Watt removable power supply

somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 TB of server grade HDDs that I spent money out of pocket for.

 

The machine does have a raid controller and 8 drive bay, but I don't think it works because it wont read any drives in it. I'm pretty sure this is why previous owner abandoned it.

 

I've tried making it into a NAS, but it went largely unused.

I've tried making it into a work computer but it was the least bit practical 

I haven't tried gaming on it, but I would need a secondary PSU just for the graphics card because the stock PSU doesn't have a 6 pin header. I would need to make an adapter cable that utilized the unused drive bay power for the graphics card.

I don't need a webserver, or a game streaming computer. I don't edit videos I don't deal with encrypted data and I have no need to serve more than just my 2 gaming rigs.

It weighs a whole lot so it would cost too much to ship it if I were to sell it on ebay.

 

Also it sounds like a jet engine and takes about 15 minutes for it to finally load windows.

 

So tell me. What should I do with this thing? It's a relatively strong platform, but with little upgrade room. It's practically spotless inside and out.

 

Let me know what you think. Does this thing have any use?

 

 

I've had a few HP servers, have you tried fault checking? Maintenance guide here. 

 

Get ESXi on it and use it for PLEX, FreeNAS, some Linux VMs, (I have a Windows VM on mine that's always running for remote desktop), or any other OS. 

 

I'd have it off you but getting it to the UK would be a bit pricey hahaha.

[Nachoi]

A server of that age isn't really worth the power consumption over what you get out of it, in my opinion.  Ebay/craigslist/recycle.

[Ziggatoo]

I work at a local computer shop and we have a DL370g6 (rack mount/extra features) with 2 Xeon x5650 CPUs, 32GB RAM, and 8 300GB SAS drives that we are going to try the whole 2 gamers 1 rig thing on with unRaid. I had issues with the raid array on ours as well. I finally got it working after downloading the HP Smart Start CD (iso that needs to be burned to a disc) and booting to that to configure the raid array. I found out that 2 drives where bad and after replacing them the array worked. Servers are VERY picky about hardware configurations so it takes some time and troubleshooting to get everything working smoothly.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Ziggatoo said:

Servers are VERY picky about hardware configurations so it takes some time and troubleshooting to get everything working smoothly

Old servers where you don't know the full life history of certainly are. Buying some random used PC also has similar issues but it far less common to do so since old servers still have some practical use value to them.

 

When your buying new none of this is a problem and it's even easier than building a gaming PC, you just use the CTO process and pick what you want from a list of options at are supported (nothing is listed that isn't).

 

That dual Xeon X5650 server is a very nice system btw, nice.

[fastcar123]

9 hours ago, Ziggatoo said:

I had issues with the raid array on ours as well. I finally got it working after downloading the HP Smart Start CD (iso that needs to be burned to a disc) and booting to that

. Servers are VERY picky about hardware configurations so it takes some time and troubleshooting to get everything working smoothly.

hmm i don't have the original cd or manual with the system. But I never would've considered it. Either I put in SATA drives, not SAS drives. But I've never really tried to load software on it. I figured if anything, If I found a use for the whole server is just sell the drive bay. I need to see if I can find that software.

 

8 hours ago, leadeater said:

That dual Xeon X5650 server is a very nice system btw, nice.

Thanks. I was pretty excited to get it too. Especially for free.