Server Rebuild/upgrades

[Takumidesh]

Budget (including currency): USD$600-1000

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

UNRAID, Plex w/GPU, multiple VMs, Nextcloud, VPN, various Dockers, software dev

Other details:

Rack Mount Only.

part reuse is ok, if it makes sense.

 

I am currently running a server using an old Lenovo thinkstation that I picked up for $60 from a work IT auction.

Specs for that system:

I think some of the ram may be bad, hence only 15gb usable size.

 

Needless to say, while $60 was basically a mega bargain for this setup, I am now running into a few critical issues,

1. Drive space and sata space. - Im full up on drives with a total of 5, 1 parity, 3 data, and 1 cache

2. CPU - dog... slow... I watch a lot of plex, and while my main plex use case is with an nvidia shield, I often will watch on my iPad, and other TVs resulting in transcoding. I ideally would like to be able to do 2 4k + 1 1080p stream simultaneously.

3. noise - I can loud fan noise, however, the CPU cooler on this thing is ancient, and has a loud whiny fan. the same volume as it currently is would be totally acceptable with some quality fans instead.

4. ram - I run VMs often, so I am constantly low on ram.

 

Some other notes:

- I have a spare gtx 970 that I can use for plex video transcoding.

- Size isn't really an issue, pictured is the rack its installed on, the picture is older, there are a few more things, but the second lenovo is powered off, and is only used as spare parts, so it can go.

- I am not opposed to a SAN or something for drive space.

- I know $600-1000 is not the greatest for this. but, I am hoping that being able to utilize the 970 as well as space out some purchases may help.

- I don't necessarily need enterprise or server hardware per say, for example, I am ok without ECC memory and the like.

- Dual processor stuff is interesting to me, but I am unfamiliar with those types of setups and don't know the hurdles they come with.

- I don't need cutting edge stuff, as long as it's not so old that it will cause headaches (no scuzzies plz)

 

Any help is appreciated, and if i didn't provide enough info I apologize.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

How about a newer used server? Something like a dell r530/r730 or simmilar. 12hdd bays in a 2u box, supports lots of ram and cores.

 

Ive used a lot of 12 bay 2u servers, and there pretty good for nas use, and running vms.

[Takumidesh]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How about a newer used server? Something like a dell r530/r730 or simmilar. 12hdd bays in a 2u box, supports lots of ram and cores.

 

Ive used a lot of 12 bay 2u servers, and there pretty good for nas use, and running vms.

I am totally open to that as evidenced I have no problem using used hardware.

The part where I get lost though is wading through the used enterprise market, I don't know what I am looking at half the time.

I will check out both the r530 and the r730.

 

Is there a recommended place to get used server hardware like that? or is the standards like ebay the goto.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

I am totally open to that as evidenced I have no problem using used hardware.

The part where I get lost though is wading through the used enterprise market, I don't know what I am looking at half the time.

I will check out both the r530 and the r730.

 

Is there a recommended place to get used server hardware like that? or is the standards like ebay the goto.

Searching ebay is how I get most of my stuff. You might get lucky on something like craigslist if your look for it. But local options seem to be dying fairly quickly for servers and IT stuff.(we have lost the 3 IT/computer surplus stores in the bay area in the last 5 ish years).

 

The servers come with lots of configs, so Id try to get something close to what you want. So get the modesl with the 3.5in bays instead of the 2.5in bays here. Getting a system that comes with 2 cpus is easier than trying to get the second cpu + heatsink later on. 

 

One other option would be something like this case from supermicro. Then add a board you want. https://www.ebay.com/itm/373906198005?hash=item570e8bcdf5:g:gFYAAOSwBrxh80Ft&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4O1iI%2BDuPbApAGIDxgEpTGnQS8NxuxpnIXH2AnOJRBmAlMUy3PP%2F2xfCwUS1ZgXqUX6WDsPBpfISl4Nz1FaAWoKAmoA28Rdl74ILBGjthOV0cqOLAee4%2B5u4QHPZcxPoiNt4OTaSs8nBA%2BiUNxkfsyLG54LPAQwPuDGu%2FirESCr%2FGd1x4B%2FmnInAQKu4rTJSb8rMqqWytvEWxqDv6y20cMdgOqGY8U6YvxnFgm6mXrhYma%2FLWTjxT74bYcsOtwqSJtGio9a1uJncotIYuDIZq%2B2%2BuXxw3apeG8NRM%2Fi4%2B6ya|tkp%3ABFBMnPWl6Mhg

[Takumidesh]

11 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

One other option would be something like this case from supermicro. Then add a board you want. https://www.ebay.com/itm/373906198005?hash=item570e8bcdf5:g:gFYAAOSwBrxh80Ft&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4O1iI%2BDuPbApAGIDxgEpTGnQS8NxuxpnIXH2AnOJRBmAlMUy3PP%2F2xfCwUS1ZgXqUX6WDsPBpfISl4Nz1FaAWoKAmoA28Rdl74ILBGjthOV0cqOLAee4%2B5u4QHPZcxPoiNt4OTaSs8nBA%2BiUNxkfsyLG54LPAQwPuDGu%2FirESCr%2FGd1x4B%2FmnInAQKu4rTJSb8rMqqWytvEWxqDv6y20cMdgOqGY8U6YvxnFgm6mXrhYma%2FLWTjxT74bYcsOtwqSJtGio9a1uJncotIYuDIZq%2B2%2BuXxw3apeG8NRM%2Fi4%2B6ya|tkp%3ABFBMnPWl6Mhg

This is appealing. For a unit like this it seems like the power supply/ies are built in / proprietary form factor , is is that an accurate assumption? I worry about being able to obtain a spare or change available connections.

 

Also, with these backplane style drive bays, do they have HBAs or something included? or is it still a matter of one SATA cable per drive?
Otherwise this seems like a good way to go.

[Electronics Wizardy]

56 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

This is appealing. For a unit like this it seems like the power supply/ies are built in / proprietary form factor , is is that an accurate assumption? I worry about being able to obtain a spare or change available connections.

 

Also, with these backplane style drive bays, do they have HBAs or something included? or is it still a matter of one SATA cable per drive?
Otherwise this seems like a good way to go.

The psus are propietary, but there are a lot of these systems out there, so you can probably always get a psu easily. There are also redundant psus, so if one fails you can keep using it. It seems like I can get a psu for these for about 30 bucks((1200w, 80+ gold).

 

Yea not great options for getting different psu connectors, but adapters will work here.

 

There are different backplanes for those cases, that one seems like it has a sas expander built in. So you need a sas hba/raid card to use the drives, and the backplane splits the sff 8087 connector into the 12 drives.

 

[Takumidesh]

Thanks!

 

I will definitely read more about these setups, the appeal for me is being able to potentially use consumer hardware inside the rackmount formfactor.