HP Proliant DL360 G5

[F1rzty]

Does anyone have experience with the  HP Proliant DL360 G5 ? 

What are the best uses for this one? Im looking for a server that could act as a NAS/gameserver

im considering getting one, as it is listed on our local norwegian"ebay" Finn.no for about approx $150 / 1500NOK

2 x Quad Core Intel Xeon 2.5GHz 12MB L2 Cache
42 GB Memory
2 * 146GB 10K SAS disks

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Firstyminator said:

Does anyone have experience with the  HP Proliant DL360 G5 ? 

What are the best uses for this one? Im looking for a server that could act as a NAS/gameserver

im considering getting one, as it is listed on our local norwegian"ebay" Finn.no for about approx $150 / 1500NOK

2 x Quad Core Intel Xeon 2.5GHz 12MB L2 Cache
42 GB Memory
2 * 146GB 10K SAS disks

That model of server with that kind of spec makes excellent virtualization hosts for something like ESXi, Hyper-V etc. Those servers also only take 2.5" disks and getting large capacity disks is rather difficult, most common and within price reason are 1TB but you can get 2TB which costs tons. There is a huge price premium on 2.5" disks compared to 3.5".

 

Pretty much you won't be able to store a great deal on that type of server without an external disk enclosure but at least it is very powerful.

 

Try looking for a tower model or a slightly newer rackmount that has 3.5" support. Would likely need to buy the correct parts to convert it to 3.5" since most people buy them in the 2.5" configuration.

[brwainer]

I have this model, although only 16GB of RAM. I think I have different CPUs too. My two notes:
-at boot it is LOUD - uncomfortable to be within a few feet of. once BIOS starts up it is still loud enough to hear it through a closed door, and audible enough to annoy some people (if Linus had this in his closet rack, he wouldn't get his sought after silence - video is on Vessel, you'll see it soon if you don't know what I'm talking about).

-idle power usage is ~160W on 120V, should be a little more efficient on 240V. each PSU (mine are 800W rated units) uses 20W on it's own - here's some data I recorded using the (fairly accurate) usage report on my UPS:
1 PSU inserted and powered on, server turned off: 30W
2 PSUs inserted and 1 powered on (no power cord plugged into other), server turned off: 40W
2 PSUs inserted and powered on, server turned off: 50W

Server booting up, max load: 430W

Server idle, no disk activity, CPU at 2-5%: 160W

 

This was with 4x 146GB 10k SAS drives and 2x 5400RPM laptop drives, and 8x 2GB RDIMMs. - no addon cards except the default RAID controller

 

My complaints with this server are the noise, power usage, and lack of 3.5" drives. I use this server to test OS's like ESXi and Windows Server 2016, things that I want dedicated hardware for but don't want to take my main servers offline. For a game server, it would function, probably very well. For a NAS I would highly suggest you look elsewhere. Even if you went FreeNAS with the internal USB header for boot drive, and 8x 1TB WD Reds, you'd only have 8TB of capacity... before any sort of redundancy kicks in. Also, the RAID controller in my model cannot be changed to IT / HBA mode, it's stuck with HP's firmware, and does not support the type of passthrough that a NAS OS really wants. You can use the RAID card's own hardware RAID functions, but if you want to take advantage of the battery backup for the RAID card's cache, good luck - all the batteries I've tried were manufactured in 2007 and have died of sitting on the shelf unused, and I haven't found any manufactured more recently.

 

My conclusion - this is a great piece of hardware, very well engineered. But it is hampered by it's CPU generation not supporting Intel SpeedStep. The DL380 Gen6 resolves that issue I believe, which means it should have much better power and volume ratings.

[F1rzty]

On 11.2.2016 at 3:58 AM, brwainer said:

I have this model, although only 16GB of RAM. I think I have different CPUs too. My two notes:
-at boot it is LOUD - uncomfortable to be within a few feet of. once BIOS starts up it is still loud enough to hear it through a closed door, and audible enough to annoy some people (if Linus had this in his closet rack, he wouldn't get his sought after silence - video is on Vessel, you'll see it soon if you don't know what I'm talking about).

-idle power usage is ~160W on 120V, should be a little more efficient on 240V. each PSU (mine are 800W rated units) uses 20W on it's own - here's some data I recorded using the (fairly accurate) usage report on my UPS:
1 PSU inserted and powered on, server turned off: 30W
2 PSUs inserted and 1 powered on (no power cord plugged into other), server turned off: 40W
2 PSUs inserted and powered on, server turned off: 50W

Server booting up, max load: 430W

Server idle, no disk activity, CPU at 2-5%: 160W

 

This was with 4x 146GB 10k SAS drives and 2x 5400RPM laptop drives, and 8x 2GB RDIMMs. - no addon cards except the default RAID controller

 

My complaints with this server are the noise, power usage, and lack of 3.5" drives. I use this server to test OS's like ESXi and Windows Server 2016, things that I want dedicated hardware for but don't want to take my main servers offline. For a game server, it would function, probably very well. For a NAS I would highly suggest you look elsewhere. Even if you went FreeNAS with the internal USB header for boot drive, and 8x 1TB WD Reds, you'd only have 8TB of capacity... before any sort of redundancy kicks in. Also, the RAID controller in my model cannot be changed to IT / HBA mode, it's stuck with HP's firmware, and does not support the type of passthrough that a NAS OS really wants. You can use the RAID card's own hardware RAID functions, but if you want to take advantage of the battery backup for the RAID card's cache, good luck - all the batteries I've tried were manufactured in 2007 and have died of sitting on the shelf unused, and I haven't found any manufactured more recently.

 

My conclusion - this is a great piece of hardware, very well engineered. But it is hampered by it's CPU generation not supporting Intel SpeedStep. The DL380 Gen6 resolves that issue I believe, which means it should have much better power and volume ratings.

Thank you for that filling info!  Yeah i put the DL idea back on the shelf as i figured i could get more for less.  Still getting some older server hardware though.  Looking into a Dell C6005 3 node instead! 

[F4S4K4N]

It's also worth mentioning that if you ever need BIOS / firmware / drivers from HP you will need a support contract, which just adds even more to the cost.

[F1rzty]

Yeah also one of the reasons i put that idea to the ground.  But still if i go for the dell option.  No spare parts can be obtained where i live.  So every part has to be ebayed. No worries,  unless things break though. 

[Sunshine1868]

I have one of these! hahaha

 

Loud but robust. 

 

[Sunshine1868]

On February 11, 2016 at 9:58 PM, brwainer said:

-idle power usage is ~160W on 120V, should be a little more efficient on 240V. each PSU (mine are 800W rated units) uses 20W on it's own -

NO. Power is power.

Power= Current x Voltage. if you double the voltage, you halve the current required to create the same amount of power. 

The unit will ALWAYS draw ~160 watts at idle

[79wjd]

15 minutes ago, Sunshine1868 said:

NO. Power is power.

Power= Current x Voltage. if you double the voltage, you halve the current required to create the same amount of power. 

The unit will ALWAYS draw ~160 watts at idle

You're right in saying that the system will always need the same 160w, however the amount it draws from the wall to get that 160w is different depending on if the power is 240v or 120v where 240v is actually more efficient. So a system which uses 160w would pull lets say 200w from the wall @ 120v whereas it might only pull 195w @ 240v. 

[Sunshine1868]

4 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

You're right in saying that the system will always need the same 160w, however the amount it draws from the wall to get that 160w is different depending on if the power is 240v or 120v where 240v is actually more efficient. So a system which uses 160w would pull lets say 200w from the wall @ 120v whereas it might only pull 190w @ 240v. 

I have had different experiences than this.

[brwainer]

Actually almost all PSUs run more efficiently at 240V than at 120V - yes the internal wattage supplied will be the same, but the same PSU that has an 80% efficiency on 120V may run 84% on 240V. Look up the efficiency charts of any PSU, it will have two different curves on it, one for 120V and one for 240V. So the actual power drawb from the wall will be measuably less, with the same load, on 240V than 120V.

9 hours ago, Sunshine1868 said:

NO. Power is power.

Power= Current x Voltage. if you double the voltage, you halve the current required to create the same amount of power. 

The unit will ALWAYS draw ~160 watts at idle

In the post you quoted, I was specifically referring to the usage as reported by a UPS, so my wattage numbers were "from the wall" after the efficiency of the PSU would come into play.

[Sunshine1868]

16 hours ago, brwainer said:

Actually almost all PSUs run more efficiently at 240V than at 120V - yes the internal wattage supplied will be the same, but the same PSU that has an 80% efficiency on 120V may run 84% on 240V. Look up the efficiency charts of any PSU, it will have two different curves on it, one for 120V and one for 240V. So the actual power drawb from the wall will be measuably less, with the same load, on 240V than 120V.

In the post you quoted, I was specifically referring to the usage as reported by a UPS, so my wattage numbers were "from the wall" after the efficiency of the PSU would come into play.

I see what you're saying, and like I said, I have had different experiences with this. 

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Sunshine1868 said:

I see what you're saying, and like I said, I have had different experiences with this. 

In one of the newer videos put up Linus had a new Supermicro server and this was explained, also the particular PSU's in the video could only run at 1000W @120V and 1600W @240V.

 

Most non North American countries power grids run at 240V not 120V for this exact reason. Power loss over cables at distance is far less with higher voltages, which is why there are high voltage transition lines (100KV, 30KV etc). If voltage had no factor in power efficiency and power loss then all power lines would be at the residential output voltage throughout the entire power grid.

 

This is a fundamental principal of electricity/science, high voltage is more power efficient. The flip side to this is it is also more dangerous. There are only two types of electricians, safe electricians or dead electricians. 

[79wjd]

9 hours ago, leadeater said:

 

The flip side to this is it is also more dangerous. There are only two types of electricians, safe electricians or dead electricians. 

Isn't 240v technically safer? 240v is enough to force you away whereas 120v is just enough to contract your muscles and lock you in place. Or is that just some bullshit myth?

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, djdwosk97 said:

Isn't 240v technically safer? 240v is enough to force you away whereas 120v is just enough to contract your muscles and lock you in place. Or is that just some bullshit myth?

Higher voltage arcs easier so you are more likely to actually get a shock. If you grab or suck on a power cable then I'd have to say the chances of electrocution is the same . While it is the current that kills you there needs to be enough energy (voltage) to overcome the impedance of your body to allow the current to flow. 

 

Any AC shock can cause muscles to spasm or contract, how and where you get shocked impacts this a lot. Lower frequency AC is also more dangerous. One thing you should never do is be touching unknown/unidentified power circuits with both hands, if shocked like this current passes directly through the heart and is the most likely to kill you.

 

When is was very young (8-10) I got a full 240V shock through both hands doing something very stupid with a slot car set and a radio power cord, hurt like hell. It also melted all the cars on to the track and everything was ruined, was more annoyed about that.

[scottyseng]

15 minutes ago, leadeater said:

-snip-

I've been shocked by 277v (One leg of 480v three phase in the US). Never again. I can handle 120v, but 240 and up really gets you hard. haha.

 

We also had a electrician friend accidently touch the 277v leg...he fell down 20 feet off of the stepladder and completely shattered his heel.

 

Test all power sources, and trust nothing. My dad's gotten me shocked numerous times because he put a switch upside by accident. haha. I've lost count of how many times I've gotten shocked already.

 

The really nervewracking bits is having to tie into live main voltage, before the meter to the main incoming power. There is no breaker to save your life. Mess up there and you're dead.

[potoooooooo]

Don't bother, anything older than G6 isn't worth buying due to power and noise.

 

You should be able to get a G6/ R710 for that price. I don't know what the second hand market is like in norway, tho