Need help building ALL-IN-ONE server

[Jobber]

I've been thinking of this solution for so long, and right now, user's computer are using G41 motherboard with a Celeron E3400 CPU. It's too old and finally I got the chance to upgrade it.

I've been watching LTT for long times and remember linus got some cool stuff taht may fit me, here's the link to it(many similar project was list in the comments): Linus Gaming Room Setup

 

Since my users just barely use it to edit some excel/word file, or use the printer, I think I just go for some server cpu like E7 or E5 with DDR3 memory.

Here's my requirement:

1. Only one server to support all the monitor and usb devices(I can access it through a monitor or VNC or similar to setting all things up, so that 's no a problem)
2. Every room has 10~50 meters away from the Server Room(No direct distance, included cable management wasted length)
3. Every user's monitor doesn't have a usb uplink port so I need to find a way to transfer VIDEO+AUDIO+USB (Video and Audio are both needed)
4. I need at max 1920*1080@60HZ video quality

And here's my question:

1. Is there any chance that I can transfer hdmi+usb through one cable? fiber is accepted
2. Should I use VMware Workstation or similar to manage/create vm for each user? If so, how can I assign the right monitor and usb device to each vm after I connect them? And how to achieve power on/power off/restart like a pyhsical machine?
3. How could I connect all the monitor and usb device to the server? Should I need a external gpu to support that much monitor?

 

My discover:

I just found some kind of these stuff on google: https://www.cdw.com/product/startech.com-4k-hdmi-usb-kvm-extender-over-fiber-tx-rx-kit-w-sfps-incl/6673239

seems it can combine hdmi signal and usb data together and transfer through a fiber cable, It include a receiver and a transmitter. I think this could use to solve question#1?

 

 

This is my office structure:

[TukangUsapEmenq]

1 hour ago, Jobber said:

Since my users just barely use it to edit some excel/word file

This is the problem. An old school Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge-era i3 processor, with enough RAM (8 GB perhaps), and a SSD, could do the same job fine enough for all of the users. Heck, my office are still using Sandy Bridge-era components and I do a lot of engineering drafting job while opening loads of Chrome tabs, it simply still works decently. Assume if you even could go for the latest generation of hardware, Intel 12th gen Celeron would do the job really fine.

 

Problem is with such setup that you thought about with only 1 server to 3 users, when that one server went down, all three people couldn't work, and in some critical times, it could potentially dangerous for business when some urgent things happens on one of the user.

 

 

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I've been watching LTT for long times and remember linus got some cool stuff taht may fit me, here's the link to it(many similar project was list in the comments): Linus Gaming Room Setup

Yes, this is cool, but it doesn't offer the reliability that enterprise users actually prioritize. Not to meant to cut off your idea, but this kind of setup, if I thought, really unsuitable for office use, as the same of above I explained is the reason. 

 

Hence why, LMG staffs are using one PC per-person still.

 

I'm an avid Linus viewer too, and every single one of those multi-user server PC he made, unfortunately, is basically only for gaming use.

 

Quote

I just found some kind of these stuff on google: https://www.cdw.com/product/startech.com-4k-hdmi-usb-kvm-extender-over-fiber-tx-rx-kit-w-sfps-incl/6673239

This won't be even cost effective at all. You could get two PCs for two staff for that price of that one extender.

[Zando_]

Just get normal office PCs with an i3 10100 or similar, 8GB RAM, and a basic SSD, those are like $350-450 a pop. 3 of them will probably cost less than fandangled setup. K.I.S.S.

[manikyath]

you'll spend more money doing this, than just giving each user a 'base tier but acceptable' system.

 

running USB and displays long distance is costly business, ideally you need to give each VM a separate USB controller, you're stuck slappig multiple GPU's in wether you like to or not, ... at that point you're out the cost of a pretty decent desktop for each user.

 

if you want to cheapskate, do yourself and your users a favor, and buy some refurb HP/dell office critters that are haswell or newer, slap an SSD in there if it doesnt have one already, and call it a day.

[LIGISTX]

As everyone else said… don’t go this route. It’s cool as a home project or a YouTube video idea, but it’s a bad idea (for many reasons) to actually do it. 

[Kilrah]

As others mentioned extenders cost more than a whole PC and the VM setup is both expensive as some hardware needs to be dedicated per VM and impractical/unreliable, Linus has done many such things but also said it was cool for entertainment but a total nightmare to get and keep going and he'd never actually use that.

 

I'd go for 3 used laptops, and maybe reuse the existing machine as a server to store files/manage backups. 

[mariushm]

Yeah, agree with everyone. By the time you spend money on usb over fiber , extending displayport, dealing with VM issues ... you're spending more money than needed.

 

Another option for user machines is to go the thin pc route ... look for example at Lenovo M600 or M700 series, maybe even Dell 5070 

For example $100 gets you a Lenovo M700 with i5-6500T, 8 GB ram : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175474568082?hash=item28db196b92:g:LpUAAOSwz9ljYpOg

Add a 120 GB SSD and a Windows license and you're good to go. Maybe use Linux and OpenOffice / Office 365 if there's no need for something Windows specific.

Perfectly fine for a typing/office machine.

[Needfuldoer]

You're really overthinking this, just buy a few basic office desktops like these:

 

https://www.dellrefurbished.com/item/dell-optiplex-3070-sff-5f85eb0c/dell-optiplex-3070-sff/1.html?child=dell-optiplex-3070-sff-000007&p=1

 

Are they the fastest things in the world? Of course not. But, they're far and away faster than the geriatric machines your users have now, and much faster than any Ivy Bridge server you could cobble together.

 

It sounds like you're running in a commercial setting. All the proper licenses you'll need to run off a single server will cost more than just buying your users new PCs.

 

Even if you were to run all your users off a centralized server, you'd want to virtualize and have them connect with thin clients, not physically split up hardware and connect with KVM extenders. That's not scalable. What happens if you build a 3-user server, then add a fourth user? A fifth?

 

Those expensive, exotic Thunderbolt extenders Linus uses are expensive and exotic because it's not a practical solution except in very niche use cases. "I put my PC in another room and connected to it remotely!" sounds like a fun idea, but it's not the end-all be-all people seem to think it is. Just because Linus does something in a video, that doesn't necessarily make it the solution everyone needs.

[Jobber]

Thanks for all the reply! I don't know if this could methion everyone that commented, but here's I want to say: I know what you means, time&money&effiency or something, but the truth is, I think buying a barely use pc for everyone is more expensive than, for expamle, one 16-core E5 V3 and 64G DDR3 memory.

 

I'm living in China, so all the metrial that I need to deploy this setup would be very cheap (for example fiber cable and that receiver and transimitter pack for only $7 each, and a E5 V3 cpu with motherboard for only $50)

 

Maybe my expression is poor for you to understand, this means no realiable/stable uptime gurantee needed, for now, when my users use it, they just open up the machine, and if it's crash, they just reboot and redo the work.

Their work is not necessary for doing in a PC, they can do it on physical paper or a phone, using a PC just for convience. And crash/downtime isn't a problem since the excel/word work is the least usage between their daily jobs.

3 hours ago, Jobber said:

Since my users just barely use it to edit some excel/word file, or use the printer

 

I just want to upgrade it to open file faster, and drop the use of HDD. Even the reaiability doesn't improve(and has no problem no to improve it, If reliable is a MUST, I would spend more money buying a pre-build DELL PC rather than this kind of stuff), the performance is the most experiencable improvement for them.

[Jobber]

And of course, like @TukangUsapEmenq said, this kind of setup isn't stable hence they all been used for gaming. And fortunately, Gaming Requirement is way enough for my case.

 

Let me be more specify:

 

Users will deal with those excel/word files when they are free, and those file may have been there for weeks, they are not important or urgent, they are just needed. Their old PC has only 2G of RAM 60G HDD and that's enough. So for the server, I can say $500 in China can buy 128G DDR3 and two E5V3 cpus with dual cpu socket motherboard, along with a 1TB MX500 SATA SSD. and another $100~$200 for buying all the external device. That will still has some money left.

 

Even the lowest DELL PC cost me about $200 without the monitor, and I got 11 Users. If I go buy DELL PC, it will cost me about $2000, and the one server setup will cost much less than $1000.

 

Reliablity isn't the issue, Performance is. Of course how to get this setup is also the issue.

 

Thanks for all, you guys are thinking very detailed, and give me a lots of good advise, and I think with this explain, I could remove your concern and give me more adivse! 

 

[mariushm]

Sorry but no... not worth it. 

You basically want to convert the PCs of users in those rooms to thin clients and basically have them do the processing on the server.  It's not worth it. 

 

Right now, the documents are slow to open precisely because the systems have hard drives and only 2 GB of memory. Do a cheap and simple upgrade to some systems with 8 GB of memory and users will be happy.

 

Buy at least a couple SSDs and set up a RAID1 (one SSD mirrors the other, for redundancy) or maybe do a RAID6 with 4 SSDs, as that would allow up to 2 drives to fail before you lose data.  It's cheap to do these days .. get 4 x WD Blue 250/500 GB SSDs , it's like 30-40$ each, and a hardware raid controller - for example https://unixsurplus.com/lsi-megaraid-sas-9271-4i  - and you're good to go.  I'd still do weekly / monthly backups (zip the documents and dump them in a mechanical drive in another machine in the rack, or in another room - if something blows up / goes in fire and dumps 110v / 230v AC into the SSDs data gets lots no matter how much redundancy you have)

 

Set up a network share and now everyone can simply open the excel files from the network share. 

 

As for network, don't see why 100 mbps.. cat5e cable can do 1 gbps / 2.5 gbps up to 100 meters. Just put a 1 gbps switch in the rack.  Though 100 mbps network is plenty for opening excel files. 

 

It's ridiculous, you're thinking of paying $600+ for a KVM extender (and you'd need at least one in each room) when you could practically buy some refurbished laptops for under $200 and make everyone happy. 

 

[wseaton]

OP is basically doing VDI.

 

He could just remote into all those virtual sessions.

 

It would still be a lousy experience from the users perspective and its a pain to manage.

[Bersella AI]

It's possible, as I've seen such configuration in a library for searching literature before. However, it requires massive pro skills for setup & maintenance, as well as additional cost on head-less clients, and hence is not that practical.

I would pick up a couple of used old-class pre-built systems (like HP 400 G1 DM, which costs 200 CNY-ish in China), coupled with 4th gen Core i3/i5 (with S/T suffix), 8GB of memory (in SO-DIMM), and SSDs in 128/256GB. All of these would serve to suffice the budget around ~$100.

Also seek for monitors within 400 CNY -- even your AIO server requires multiple monitors for each user.