What can I do with a IBM System X 3650 M3 server?

[SilverStacker]

I ended up with 4 of these things that are all full of 8GB Samung / Hynix memory (144GB each I believe) and I have ZERO clue what to do with these servers. I was thinking about maybe making a Minecraft game server or something with one of them and not sure if even that can be done.. What does everyone else do with these older servers and what OS do you prefer to use (I assume it will not install Server 2016 or Windows 10 PRO..)? Is my 144GB of memory enough to do most things? I have built a ton of gaming rigs, NLE's and RAID 0, 1, 5 systems, etc.., but I'm a complete 'NEWB' when it comes to servers and any help would be appreciated.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, SilverStacker said:

I ended up with 4 of these things that are all full of 8GB Samung / Hynix memory (144GB each I believe) and I have ZERO clue what to do with these servers. I was thinking about maybe making a Minecraft game server or something with one of them and not sure if even that can be done.. What does everyone else do with these older servers and what OS do you prefer to use (I assume it will not install Server 2016 or Windows 10 PRO..)? Is my 144GB of memory enough to do most things? I have built a ton of gaming rigs, NLE's and RAID 0, 1, 5 systems, etc.., but I'm a complete 'NEWB' when it comes to servers and any help would be appreciated.

The problem I see is all that sas with no SATA. Gonna be expensive to put storage in them, and that’s throwing good money after bad.  Their ghz isn’t terrible, but their ipc is dog slow. Minecraft servers are supposed to like single thread.  A lot. So much memory though….  Print server for photographers that do wall sized art?

[IntelJoe]

I have an old C2100 I picked up from my job a few years ago.

 

For a long time I used it as a Security Camera system and some minimal back-up running Windows 10. When I no longer need the security camera aspect, I reformatted all the drives an install VMWare (https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor.html) and I set up VM's to do various things. For example a TrueNAS server so I can backup Windows and Apple machines. With VMWare you can have a different VM for many different things, the only factor is that you will need to use at least one CPU for each VM which is your limiting factor.

 

I would also check the cards and see if they are SAS only. Some of them, at least the one in my C2100, accepts SAS and SATA.

[the gamer that is bad]

what prosessors do they have because these are probably hundreds of times better than mine for a mc server you want higher clockspeeds

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The problem I see is all that sas with no SATA. Gonna be expensive to put storage in them, and that’s throwing good money after bad.  Their ghz isn’t terrible, but their ipc is dog slow. Minecraft servers are supposed to like single thread.  A lot. So much memory though….  Print server for photographers that do wall sized art?

SAS is cross compatible with SATA, you can put either type in to a SAS system.

 

@SilverStackerThose servers a very old now, while nice they are going to be noisy power hogs and you'll probably only utilize them for something that a nice cheap low power PC could do, and potentially better anyway.

 

Unless you are looking to run a large amount of VMs for quite a few different things even one of these is going to be greatly more than you'll need. Probably the best thing you can do is sell them and get a nice bit of money for them. The configuration you have they are worth around $350-$500 USD each.

[Bombastinator]

14 minutes ago, leadeater said:

SAS is cross compatible with SATA, you can put either type in to a SAS system.

 

@SilverStackerThose servers a very old now, while nice they are going to be noisy power hogs and you'll probably only utilize them for something that a nice cheap low power PC could do, and potentially better anyway.

 

Unless you are looking to run a large amount of VMs for quite a few different things even one of these is going to be greatly more than you'll need. Probably the best thing you can do is sell them and get a nice bit of money for them. The configuration you have they are worth around $350-$500 USD each.

I thought it needed an adaptor, so money.

[leadeater]

14 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I thought it needed an adaptor, so money.

Nope, the servers were originally sold with SATA HDD options as well anyway. The SAS internal connector is physically identical to SATA, the difference is there are extra pins where there would normally be a cutout between the SATA data and SATA power which SAS does not have (pins run along the top of that bit).

 

You cannot go the other way, SAS device on SATA controller/port.

 

 

 

A SATA device simply just doesn't connect to the extra data channel that is provided by the notch section.

 

SAS to SATA cable converters are only required when you aren't using a SAS backplane like this which servers have.

 

 

[Ubuntu is love]

You could install a container platform on it, like a dockerswarm or any Kubernetes cluster (something like okd). Because with that it's easy to run a lot of gameservers (and to automatie if you want in the feature). It's also easy to setup because you can mostply pull the container images and deploy it. With that i would do RAID 1 for the more read performance or raid 10 if you can. 

[wseaton]

Using Google those servers use Xeon e5620s.

 

If this is correct they arent worth plugging in..I can get a refurbished desktop for $100 with drastically more horse power.

[SilverStacker]

What a shame, I thought I could use these for 'something' without too much of a headache, but I think maybe selling these boxes (or even just the memory) and putting that towards a newer rig (desktop server) might be the answer, especially since my lack of experience may make it that much more difficult to get me where I want to go...(game server for my kids or something similar).

Either way I appreciate everyone's input and it has certainly been informative.

[ryan29]

I have one of those.  Like others have said, they’re not very useful since they’re loud, power hungry, and limited in storage options.

 

The RAM is worth pulling.  If you want to play around and can find a cheap X9 SuperMicro motherboard the RAM would be reusable.  Something like this:

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DR7-LN4F.cfm

 

However they’re expensive even for used ones ATM and you need a monster case (E-ATX - but look at the dimensions).

 

Your best bet is selling the RAM.  Keep in mind that 8GB DIMMS are more valuable than 4GB DIMMS.  Ex: I’d want more for 8x8GB than for 16x4GB.  If I were you I’d memtest (using those servers) it and sell the sets of 18 for around the price of the 16x8GB=128GB sets on eBay.  With older RAM like that it’s nice to have a couple spares.  I have a bag full from that era and the Samsung stuff seems to be dropping faster than the SK Hynix stuff.

 

Depending where you live you might be able to sell it locally.  Anyone like me is probably trying to limp their home lab servers along until the used market returns to something half sane.