buying old servers

[Yatys 93]

I have had a pc part picker list for a while now for a storage server, main reason I want to go full server over a multi bay NAS, is the extra features, media encoding, game servers, options of upgrades, 10gb networking that kinda stuff, my server list is around £1400 without the drives, nothing hard core server gear, normal PSU, ASUS WS board and a xeon.

 

however ebay is full of stuff like this 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-ProLiant-DL180-G6-14x-LFF-3-5-HDD-2x-E5520-32GB-P410-512MB-2x-750W-Server/283650931710?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D22926af9950d4d18a25bedfe8715f84b%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dlo%26sd%3D283650931710%26itm%3D283650931710%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa958fde4-117c-11ea-812d-74dbd180e3a4|parentrq%3Aaf946c7d16e0a9cd2139550fffdd9506|iid%3A1

 

now I know that the performance for stuff like the encoding or game servers will be less, but other than that and the risk of used hardware being almost dead when you buy it, are there downsides to getting these old units?

 

anyone else done this before? I know one friend who bid once to see what happened and got it and that server ran great for him so?

[Streetguru]

3 minutes ago, Yatys 93 said:

I have had a pc part picker list for a while now for a storage server, main reason I want to go full server over a multi bay NAS, is the extra features, media encoding, game servers, options of upgrades, 10gb networking that kinda stuff, my server list is around £1400 without the drives, nothing hard core server gear, normal PSU, ASUS WS

Better off asking at the level 1 forums most likely.
 

 

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Yatys 93 said:

I have had a pc part picker list for a while now for a storage server, main reason I want to go full server over a multi bay NAS, is the extra features, media encoding, game servers, options of upgrades, 10gb networking that kinda stuff, my server list is around £1400 without the drives, nothing hard core server gear, normal PSU, ASUS WS board and a xeon.

 

however ebay is full of stuff like this 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-ProLiant-DL180-G6-14x-LFF-3-5-HDD-2x-E5520-32GB-P410-512MB-2x-750W-Server/283650931710?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D22926af9950d4d18a25bedfe8715f84b%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dlo%26sd%3D283650931710%26itm%3D283650931710%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa958fde4-117c-11ea-812d-74dbd180e3a4|parentrq%3Aaf946c7d16e0a9cd2139550fffdd9506|iid%3A1

 

now I know that the performance for stuff like the encoding or game servers will be less, but other than that and the risk of used hardware being almost dead when you buy it, are there downsides to getting these old units?

 

anyone else done this before? I know one friend who bid once to see what happened and got it and that server ran great for him so?

How do you feel about large dead insects or dust?  They also tend to be unbelievably loud.  That may have gotten better.  It can’t have gotten worse.

[Hugh54321]

I bought a 10 year old server, 10 years ago. It was cool. When I bought it, it had hardly been used and was kept in storage for most of it's life. It had a birds nest in it coz it was stored in a barn on a rural property. It had two dual core Pentium 4 era CPUs. It was very noisy. When I moved house I gave it to a friend. A few weeks later a PSU died and took out the motherboard. We re-used the 6000rpm fans in our gaming rigs. Strapping a server fan to my blower-style GPU gave me epic temps and made my computer sound like an airplane.

[Yatys 93]

6 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

How do you feel about large dead insects or dust?  They also tend to be unbelievably loud.  That may have gotten better.  It can’t have gotten worse.

that one at least doesn't come with the drives so they'll be new and not an issue, did not thing about the noise though

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Yatys 93 said:

that one at least doesn't come with the drives so they'll be new and not an issue, did not thing about the noise though

There’s a reason server rooms are server rooms and theyre generally soundproofed.  And air conditioned. They can also produce a lot of heat.  Almost every watt you put into a computer comes out as heat.  It’s effectively a gigantic electric heater.