Got a server from work, what should I do with it?

[Howlingwolf101]

Hey guys, it's been awhile since i've visited the forums but I recently got a Dell Poweredge R610 from my work as they were being decommissioned. It's got two Xeon E560 CPUs and 32GB of RAM. It's only got 900GB right now running off 3 300GB SAS drives ( I plan on upgrading storage later when I have the money). I just sort of took it because it was free and now I'm wondering what I should do with it. I don't need a media server, I've got a USB for that. I can't think of any use for it right now. Anybody have any suggestions as to what I can do with it? I would Fold on it but I still live with my parents right now so overall uptime is going to be limited.

 

Thanks in advance!

[dave909904]

3 minutes ago, Howlingwolf101 said:

Hey guys, it's been awhile since i've visited the forums but I recently got a Dell Poweredge R610 from my work as they were being decommissioned. It's got two Xeon E560 CPUs and 32GB of RAM. It's only got 900GB right now running off 3 300GB SAS drives ( I plan on upgrading storage later when I have the money). I just sort of took it because it was free and now I'm wondering what I should do with it. I don't need a media server, I've got a USB for that. I can't think of any use for it right now. Anybody have any suggestions as to what I can do with it? I would Fold on it but I still live with my parents right now so overall uptime is going to be limited.

 

Thanks in advance!

I'll take it!

 

You should probably sell it if you have no use.

[Scheer]

IMO, Throw it on eBay and get ~$150 for it after shipping and eBay fees.

 

Its old, loud, and draws a lot of power, not much use for it which is why they gave it away.

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can make a file server, but id get a synology if you really need that.

 

You can run vms and use it for compute.

[Lurick]

9 hours ago, Scheer said:

IMO, Throw it on eBay and get ~$150 for it after shipping and eBay fees.

 

Its old, loud, and draws a lot of power, not much use for it which is why they gave it away.

You've never worked with an R610 before I take it.

It's not old, nor loud in the least, and barely draws power from the wall.

 

I have two R610s and at full load I can't hear them at all and together they draw maybe 350 to 400 watts from the wall.

 

As for ideas as to what can be done with the server:

Game server for hosting a couple servers for you and friends

Put ESXi on there and run VMs off of it

File server or backup storage

Folding is another possibility

Sell it on ebay for a couple hundred bucks if you really don't want it

Or send it to me

[Scheer]

2 hours ago, Lurick said:

You've never worked with an R610 before I take it.

It's not old, nor loud in the least, and barely draws power from the wall.

To each their own, the way I see it:

 

Its around 5 years "young", personally I find that old for the computer world.

 

Perhaps we have different tolerable levels of noise. While its not bad compared to other servers of that age, its louder than any desktop I've ever heard by a good margin, and I would not be in the same room as it.

 

The power isn't actually as bad as I expected, its still a lot worse than a modern desktop though...

[samiscool51]

ok, for future reference, before you take anything, ask yourself, do i need this?/do i have a use for this?
 

anyways, the server seems powerful,

maybe throw your GPU in their and see how those Xeons handle the games you play.

if it's better then your current setup, maybe use the server as your daily driver,

my main system at work is a 22-core Xeon, the server that handles many things, mainly mail, we have many people emailing each-other and receiving emails 24/7

 

[leadeater]

13 hours ago, Scheer said:

To each their own, the way I see it:

 

Its around 5 years "young", personally I find that old for the computer world.

 

Perhaps we have different tolerable levels of noise. While its not bad compared to other servers of that age, its louder than any desktop I've ever heard by a good margin, and I would not be in the same room as it.

 

The power isn't actually as bad as I expected, its still a lot worse than a modern desktop though...

5 years isn't that old for a server. Most servers stay in production for that length of time before being decommissioned, usually for warranty reasons alone. The shortest period I've seen is 3 year replacement cycle but that is much less common.

 

One of the other factors of this is that Intel has an agreement with server hardware manufacturers to not replace their high-end chipsets for a minimum of 3 years, which is why the enthusiast desktop chipset lags behind the consumer so much as it uses the same.

 

A 6 year old server can be as little as one generation old, a 6 year old desktop can be as much as 4+ generations old.