I bought a server, what now?

[Sklo]

Lets say I got this beauty for a 100 bucks:

2x Intel Xeon E5240 2,5GHz Quad-Core, 12MB L2 Cache, 1.333MHz FSB
DVD-ROM/CD-RW  8x-24x
ServeRAID 8k-l SAS RAID-Controller with 32MB Cache
2x 146.8GB 15K 3.5“ SAS
48GB DDR2 ECC Memory(12x 4GB)
2x Hotswap PSU 835W

...

 

What could I do with this, given the fact that my upload is like 50kbyte/s. Would appreciate your suggestions.

[OriginalPromise]

Resell it...

Make your own private cloud

Make your own private VPN

[Levent]

folding@home.

[mooseducks86]

the main things that come to my mind:

open source firewall

mail server

ftp server

file server/nas

 lots of things! just depends on your needs. If you like web design, you could turn it into an internal little web server instead of using localhost to test things out.

[Sklo]

[UnknownEngineer]

As far as I am aware you might be able to get more from it by selling the pars separately, not sure though.

 

You could use it as a in-home file server as well.

Can't think of anything else for now.

[Sklo]

maybe if I slap a 24-rack switch ontop, I might have a nice lan party server. 

[Samfisher]

maybe if I slap a 24-rack switch ontop, I might have a nice lan party server. 

 

You could do that I guess, since your upload is pretty terrible  Anything you want to do with it has to be local cos of your connection.

[Wingfan]

Theres more than $100 in parts there, i would get it just for that.

But would probably use it. I say buy it.

[elecxonica]

Place a copy of Plex Media Server on it. Backup to it. Run game servers on it perhaps?

[Sklo]

Place a copy of Plex Media Server on it. Backup to it. Run game servers on it perhaps?

I guess, since there is enough space for several virtual machines.

[Me1z]

folding@home.

 

Normally I would suggest this as well, but its a dinosaur of a 2p server. He'd be lucky to even reach 6k ppd, that is if he doesn't overheat and thermal throttle instantly. Those passive coolers and compact 2U case won't be doing him any favors. He would need to leave the case cover off and add a couple 120mm fans to prevent the CPUs from frying.

[FuzzyYellow]

i would set up a NAS.

[iain]

Lets say I got this beauty for a 100 bucks:

2x Intel Xeon E5240 2,5GHz Quad-Core, 12MB L2 Cache, 1.333MHz FSB

DVD-ROM/CD-RW  8x-24x

ServeRAID 8k-l SAS RAID-Controller with 32MB Cache

2x 146.8GB 15K 3.5“ SAS

48GB DDR2 ECC Memory(12x 4GB)

2x Hotswap PSU 835W

...

 

What could I do with this, given the fact that my upload is like 50kbyte/s. Would appreciate your suggestions.

Domain controller for you house so all the logins for all your pcs are the same and sink all you files and settings using roaming profiles. 

[Syntaxvgm]

Normally I would suggest this as well, but its a dinosaur of a 2p server. He'd be lucky to even reach 6k ppd, that is if he doesn't overheat and thermal throttle instantly. Those passive coolers and compact 2U case won't be doing him any favors. He would need to leave the case cover off and add a couple 120mm fans to prevent the CPUs from frying.

That would make it hotter likely....they are not passively cooled...that's not how these servers work...

Those crazy likely delta fans blow wind tunnel speed air through there and it's forced through the heatsinks. 

[Me1z]

That would make it hotter likely....they are not passively cooled...that's not how these servers work...

Those crazy likely delta fans blow wind tunnel speed air through there and it's forced through the heatsinks. 

 

Unless the fan is directly attached to the heatsink, its considered passive. I know how server cases work and I know what their thermals can be like if you are not careful. Those tiny aluminum blocks and delta fans might be just enough for normal workloads, but F@H puts much more stress on the CPUs and dramatically increases their heat output. Dual CPUs running F@H in a closed 2U case is simply ASKING for fried equipment. In my experience I've found that these cases have sub-par rear ventilation and can't exhaust the hot air well enough to cool one CPU while running F@H, let alone two. He would NEED to open the case cover and add some fans.

[Syntaxvgm]

Unless the fan is directly attached to the heatsink, its considered passive. I know how server cases work and I know what their thermals can be like if you are not careful. Those tiny aluminum blocks and delta fans might be just enough for normal workloads, but F@H puts much more stress on the CPUs and dramatically increases their heat output. Dual CPUs running F@H in a closed 2U case is simply ASKING for fried equipment. In my experience I've found that these cases have sub-par rear ventilation and can't exhaust the hot air well enough to cool one CPU while running F@H, let alone two. He would NEED to open the case cover and add some fans.

I won't argue, that's technically passive, you are right there, but it gets a LOT of airflow. I thought you were calling it passive as in it doesn't have a dedicated fan,. which it does. They are designed to run at 100% 24-7. If it's heating up, something is wrong. Those fans likely move in excess of 100 CFM, likely above 120, and still have a VERY high static pressure. 

Now this server in particular will probably be ok to run without the cover, but a lot, especially 1u units, are designed to run closed. Even with plastic shrouds, they typically run hotter without the cover. 

See? That's a random old dual board quad xeon 1366 1u unit, supermicro I think, but that's typical for 1u servers' cooling. Now some brands, like dell notably, make really good shrouds so you can run without the cover, mainly to hot swap parts or diagnose things. 

This fan pushes about twice the air and 150% the staic pressure of 80mm delta ones since it's a 120mm model, but you get the idea about these fans 

 

That's on a rough surface! I've gotten these 120mm fans to blow my smaller tool box off of the table if it's smooth. 

And this, of course, if part of the reason for the steep curve in server energy costs and why server water cooling is becoming common. These extreme fans consume  a lot of power, especially in 1u servers. Where space is a premium, a lot of power is consumed in cooling these hotter CPUs these days. 

[Me1z]

-Snip-

 

You are under the impression that there is one precise definition of "100%" when that is far from the truth. Different processes can result in different amounts of strain and in turn different amounts of heat output while still fully occupying a CPU. A CPU at 100% that is running multiple virtual file hosting or web hosting servers is COMPLETELY different from a CPU at 100% that is, for example, video encoding or running F@H. Not all processes are equal, and while yes these servers were designed to function properly with a normal "100% 24/7" work load, they were NOT designed to handle F@H. And as for "functioning properly at 100%" they are designed to run right up against the thermal throttling barrier as in core temperatures in excess of 70°C(185°F) with normal workloads. F@H at the same 100% will run temperatures even higher, force 24/7 thermal throttling, and after an extended period of time, shorten the lifespan of the hardware. It does not matter that the cases were designed to run closed, the designers did not factor in such a niche use of computers into the design. And even if the cooling in the case was sufficient, this still does not guarantee the hot air can dissipate effectively once outside the case. Like you said, much of server costs are put into cooling which includes the almost industry standard air-conditioned rooms, which I doubt Sklo has in their home. Homes are kept much warmer and have less air circulation. With these levels of workloads the server will increase ambient air temperature to around 80°F, significantly decreasing the servers cooling potential. On top of that, he/she will likely place the server in the corner of the room further decreasing ventilation and raising temperatures. The only way I could, in good conscience, recommend folding as a use for this server would be if Sklo happened to own a properly air-conditioned room with a constant ambient temperature of 60°F to house it. There are some situations where you CAN do things but really SHOULDN'T. You want to encourage this person to slowly kill their server, be my guest, but I am unchanged in my position and cannot endorse it.

[Syntaxvgm]

You are under the impression that there is one precise definition of "100%" when that is far from the truth. Different processes can result in different amounts of strain and in turn different amounts of heat output while still fully occupying a CPU. A CPU at 100% that is running multiple virtual file hosting or web hosting servers is COMPLETELY different from a CPU at 100% that is, for example, video encoding or running F@H. Not all processes are equal, and while yes these servers were designed to function properly with a normal "100% 24/7" work load, they were NOT designed to handle F@H. And as for "functioning properly at 100%" they are designed to run right up against the thermal throttling barrier as in core temperatures in excess of 70°C(185°F) with normal workloads. F@H at the same 100% will run temperatures even higher, force 24/7 thermal throttling, and after an extended period of time, shorten the lifespan of the hardware. It does not matter that the cases were designed to run closed, the designers did not factor in such a niche use of computers into the design. And even if the cooling in the case was sufficient, this still does not guarantee the hot air can dissipate effectively once outside the case. Like you said, much of server costs are put into cooling which includes the almost industry standard air-conditioned rooms, which I doubt Sklo has in their home. Homes are kept much warmer and have less air circulation. With these levels of workloads the server will increase ambient air temperature to around 80°F, significantly decreasing the servers cooling potential. On top of that, he/she will likely place the server in the corner of the room further decreasing ventilation and raising temperatures. The only way I could, in good conscience, recommend folding as a use for this server would be if Sklo happened to own a properly air-conditioned room with a constant ambient temperature of 60°F to house it. There are some situations where you CAN do things but really SHOULDN'T. You want to encourage this person to slowly kill their server, be my guest, but I am unchanged in my position and cannot endorse it.

Well, I think it's ok to run at 75 or even 80c for folding or other extreme loads as long as the power supplies are ok and wont hit thermal shutoff, but you are 100% right when you say people will tuck it in the corner, and the room ambient temperature would rise. Personally I ventilate mine, and I'm looking to get an AC unit, so I didn't really think of that. The hot air dissipates effectively outside the case through sheer force, but the server rooms are always set up to pull that hot air through some kind of AC or in the least separate the hot side from the cool side. I forget that a lot of people don't understand how that all works. To add to that, they likely wont properly configure the thermal throttling limits, and make appropriate fan adjustments.

I know servers can take 100% load, but are designed with full workload in mind, not burn-the-cpu-like-a-quasar in mind. But in some cases, like render farms (tasks like I typically used that equipment for), they are really at that 100% mark, and the cooling still works as long as the room's cooling is beefy enough.

The way I check a cooling setup is I run Prime 95 for a few hours on all units and make sure they can maintain a steady safe temperate with no creep, because if they can't with prime 95, then they can't probably with rendering either. 

 

Servers are designed with an ambient temperate in mind, and are designed to run with the air coming in to be at a constant tempature. A desktop is typically over-cooled, by that I mean it can deal with higher temps by ramping up otherwise quiet fans and have heatsinks/watercooling radiators that are overkill for the job, but servers are meant to run at 100% of their cooling capacity under load, meaning something else must treat the air and the ambient temperature on the cool side must be constant, and within safe temp specs define in the manual to even operate at all, throttling or not. So a typical user will cook a server pretty quickly, or will be frustrated by frequent throttling and/or shutoffs. 

[babbaj]

folding@home.

it's a lol folding with a cpu

[Jonathan Yonke]

Load ESXi free on it and do what everyone suggests! haha.

[Calavera]

Porn

[Pugs501]

Porn

Rule 34?

[Nuluvius]

Load ESXi free on it and do what everyone suggests! haha.

 

This^ it might well make for a nice little hypervisor.

[Sklo]

it's a lol folding with a cpu

*two CPUs