Quiet Lab Server for Home

[gibbsy81]

Anyone know of a quiet server i can run at home that will run relatively cool and quiet yeah I know servers generally aren't designed to do this just want something that can run some VM's for Labs and Testing.

[Master Disaster]

6 minutes ago, gibbsy81 said:

Anyone know of a quiet server i can run at home that will run relatively cool and quiet yeah I know servers generally aren't designed to do this just want something that can run some VM's for Labs and Testing.

You can build anything and run it as a server.

[emosun]

well any computer can be considered a server

the ones that are loud are rackmount units , the thinner the rackmount the louder they get , a 4U system sounds like 2 or 3 box fans running while a 1U sounds like a vacuum

If the machines only requirement be that it's quirt , then pretty much any quiet machine should do , are there any other requirements or?

[gibbsy81]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

You can build anything and run it as a server.

Yeah i know that just want something cheap quiet happy to go used.

[gibbsy81]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

well any computer can be considered a server

the ones that are loud are rackmount units , the thinner the rackmount the louder they get , a 4U system sounds like 2 or 3 box fans running while a 1U sounds like a vacuum

If the machines only requirement be that it's quirt , then pretty much any quiet machine should do , are there any other requirements or?

Quiet and about on par to a Dell PowerEdge 2950 suits my needs just need something that is quiet.

[emosun]

What's the budget. The power edge 2950 is pretty old now and should be able to be replicated with consumer desktop parts pretty easy.

[Sir Asvald]

3 minutes ago, gibbsy81 said:

Quiet and about on par to a Dell PowerEdge 2950 suits my needs just need something that is quiet.

Hi!  I'd recommend you look at Dell R710/720 servers. (2u) They'll like they sound like jet engines, you'd be surprised, they are quite for their size

[gibbsy81]

10 minutes ago, emosun said:

What's the budget. The power edge 2950 is pretty old now and should be able to be replicated with consumer desktop parts pretty easy.

As cheap as possible maybe $300 AUD don't have a lot of funds to throw at it, unfortunately.

[emosun]

In that case something like a used laptop should be able to do it seeing as from what i can find the power edge in it's maximum configuration is basically a sort of lower midrange pc or laptop today.

So I'd recommend something like a cheap or used prebuilt then just dump a bunch of ram into it.

 

maybe an old socket 1366 i7 system so you can buy ddr3 ram instead of ddr4

[Jay Deah]

for what youre asking for, i'd look at a second hand decent desktop. If you want something off the shelf then the HP Microserver is an excelent choice.

 

current model:

https://www.hpe.com/uk/en/product-catalog/servers/proliant-servers/pip.hpe-proliant-microserver-gen10.1009955118.html

 

they also did Gen7 and Gen8:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-MicroServer-GEN8-XEON-QUAD-CORE-8GB-RAM-E3-1265L-V2-No-HDD/263453765984?hash=item3d57117160:g:jvwAAOSwVA5aGwnE

 

all of them will happily run ESXi / HyperV etc. for a lab.

 

theyre cheap until you spec them up with "proper" hardware so stick with desktop SATA HDDs, Software RAID etc.

 

[KirbyTech]

Go for Dell R710/720's they are great servers and I can barely hear mine at my desk.

[Mikensan]

I'd second the micro servers, great little boxes if you can get them used or under $300. I'd look at also buying a Dell T series, like Dell T310, T710, T610 etc.. Since they're desktop format / 4U they use larger fans and should be quieter than a 1U or 2U server. They won't be as whisper quiet like a PC but definitely manageable imo.

 

You could also look for used desktops with 32gb of ram, even the oldest i7s work great as a lab server.

 

You'll discover over time, biggest limiting factor in a lab is RAM. I have 128gb in my lab, and I'm running out :'( .. I'm also running a VDI in my lab and trying to deploy NSX, so memory hogs galore.

[TanyaMadsen]

My husband and I were looking for a home based server  that could serve offer sufficient computing power and enough storage capacity. I'm a lecturer at one of College's here in Kansas where I teach graphical (animation) classes. Most of the time I have to render some of my projects at home and since my laptop couldn't handle that, we decided that we needed a server that could give us the functionalities we needed.

 

Since we needed a server for use a home, ideally we needed a quiet one, and so I asked one of my friends at work for recommendation. He recommended the DELL POWEREDGE T20 model, claiming he'd used it and it was super quiet.  Sadly, I couldn't find it online.

 

So I decided that it was time to do the research myself. Upon doing a couple of google searches, I came across  this website (https://andrewmat.com/quiet-server/).  

 

The guy has recommended 7 different servers for home and small businesses each with varying prices. So my husband and I decided to give one of his recommendation a try, so we chose

HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10

 

I know nothing much about servers but I can tell you that this was one of the most quiet server I've seen in my entire life. We set it up a few feet in our bedroom and it doesn't wake up my husband or kiddo when I'm rendering my projects late in the night. If you're looking for a quiet home server I would recommend the ProLiant Gen 10 or the PowerEdge t30 which is the new model for the t20.

 

I wish there was a way to attach videos to this post to show you how quiet this unit is. It's affordable and yet efficient.

[Slayerking92]

9 hours ago, TanyaMadsen said:

The guy has recommended 7 different servers for home and small businesses each with varying prices. So my husband and I decided to give one of his recommendation a try, so we chose

HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10

 

I wish there was a way to attach videos to this post to show you how quiet this unit is. It's affordable and yet efficient.

 

Yes.  I 've had one for about a year now.  They are very quiet,  The HD's make more noise then the fans.  I currently run my domain controller on it, with a plex vm and a pihole vm running on it.  I just ordered a second one this week to just use as a pure NAS.  Its cheaper and better specs then most other 4 bay NAS devices.

 

 

 

[jake9000]

You can throw a modern cooling solution into any used enterprise tower formfactor and expect it to be quiet. It's just the rackmount with their tiny fans that are the noise generators. 

Here I've got a couple Evo 212s on a supermicro board in an antec chassis. It's quieter than my gaming rig by far.