Dumb Idea?

[SysAdminInTraining]

Alright, so I was browsing on Ebay and found a bunch of servers from what appears to be a reputable seller. I've always wanted a server to play around with. I have two Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition keys so I do plan on using Windows.

 

Specs of Server:

Spoiler

CPU: 2x Intel E5520 2.26GHz

RAM: 32GB

Form Factor: 2U

HDD: None - 8 Drive Bays

Video: Embedded Matrox G200

Ethernet: Broadcom BCM5709C 4 x iSCSI TOE NICs

PSU: Single 570W

RAC: Dell iDRAC6 Express Card

RAID Controller: Dell PERC 6i Hardware RAID  Controller + Battery Back-Up

The main reason I wanted this was it was cheap... $250 w/ shipping. What I originally wanted to do with it was install VMWare and have a bunch of things run on it. But have changed my mind and wanted to make it more of a media server. I have movies spread across several drives and all I have is a laptop w/ a 120GB Intel 530 Series SSD and a 1TB WD Black in an HDD Caddy taking the place of my optical drive. Which is full of random media. What I would want is to put PLEX on the server and have everything in one place accessible from any internet connected device in the house. I know it's super overkill for it's intended use, but I was not going to be able to build a reliable system for cheaper than that. I do have about 6 internal 2.5" drives and the caddies cost $8 on Amazon.

 

So my post, how dumb is this idea? If it gets too much hate I will look into virtualization on it. (Honestly don't even know how it will perform to other devices in the house.)

[flackjack4]

for the price you are getting it for, your idea is not actually that dumb. yes it is overkill, but still practical nonetheless

[SysAdminInTraining]

Just now, flackjack4 said:

for the price you are getting it for, your idea is not actually that dumb. yes it is overkill, but still practical nonetheless

I might also use it for family hosting games. (Minecraft and the works, not open to the public) Might as well utilize some of that RAM right?

[flackjack4]

very true. you can really use it for a variety of things. a home game server is always a nice thing to have. at the end of the day having your own server at that price is totally worth it. if linus could have a server to automatize feeding his cat i bet he would get one lol

[Xusu]

yolo

[leadeater]

The Intel S5520 (LGA1366) based systems are excellent and currently very cheap on ebay. I've had an S5520HC system for quite some time with dual E5520 Xeons and it performs amazingly well, I've also cooled it with two Corsair H55's to make it nice a quite. I also run ESXi on it and have Plex as a VM.

 

These systems are so good I just brought another 3 to make 4 total.

[SysAdminInTraining]

6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

The Intel S5520 (LGA1366) based systems are excellent and currently very cheap on ebay. I've had an S5520HC system for quite some time with dual E5520 Xeons and it performs amazingly well, I've also cooled it with two Corsair H55's to make it nice a quite. I also run ESXi on it and have Plex as a VM.

 

These systems are so good I just brought another 3 to make 4 total.

That's my end goal, a rack in my bedroom, listening to the lovely sound of server fans screaming.

[tt2468]

8 hours ago, SysAdminInTraining said:

That's my end goal, a rack in my bedroom, listening to the lovely sound of server fans screaming.

From the looks of it, you are looking at an r710. The r710s are incredibly quiet, an if you put them im a closet, you won't hear them at all.

[SysAdminInTraining]

2 hours ago, tt2468 said:

From the looks of it, you are looking at an r710. The r710s are incredibly quiet, an if you put them im a closet, you won't hear them at all.

Yep, she's an R710. Thats what I found out from reviews, but I'd want to expand out of that line if I had a rack.

 

Edit: Adding this to not double post. I've never had something like this before and have never seen it in production. (I usually buy my servers/vps setups through OVH). If I plug 1 ethernet cable into my router and into my server. Is that the same as plugging 4 ethernet cables into my router? Or would it be 4 separate 100 Mbps connections?

[tt2468]

2 hours ago, SysAdminInTraining said:

Yep, she's an R710. Thats what I found out from reviews, but I'd want to expand out of that line if I had a rack.

 

Edit: Adding this to not double post. I've never had something like this before and have never seen it in production. (I usually buy my servers/vps setups through OVH). If I plug 1 ethernet cable into my router and into my server. Is that the same as plugging 4 ethernet cables into my router? Or would it be 4 separate 100 Mbps connections?

What do you mean? The ports on the r710 are gigabit. One cable carries gigabit max. If you need more load balanced speed, you can use Link Aggregation. Keep in mind that a consumer grade gateway most likely will not support LAGG, and LAGG does not speed up single computer to single computer communication.

[SysAdminInTraining]

15 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

What do you mean? The ports on the r710 are gigabit. One cable carries gigabit max. If you need more load balanced speed, you can use Link Aggregation. Keep in mind that a consumer grade gateway most likely will not support LAGG, and LAGG does not speed up single computer to single computer communication.

Like, my router has 5 ethernet ports, the server comes with a 4 port ethernet cord. If I hooked up all 4 cables to the same router, would it be any type of increase as opposed to a single cable?

[leadeater]

37 minutes ago, SysAdminInTraining said:

Like, my router has 5 ethernet ports, the server comes with a 4 port ethernet cord. If I hooked up all 4 cables to the same router, would it be any type of increase as opposed to a single cable?

See @tt2468, basically no it won't. If the server was for a network of 100+ users then yes Link Aggregation would be effective enough for you to see a benefit but for home use you won't get any speed increase.

 

If the server is going to be used to host Windows network shares using Windows Server that supports SMB3 Multichannel and the client computer has SMB3 Multichannel support plus also has multiple network connections then with that setup you would see a speed increase in network transfers but only for networks shares, nothing else.  

[scottyseng]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 2:35 AM, SysAdminInTraining said:

That's my end goal, a rack in my bedroom, listening to the lovely sound of server fans screaming.

I'm actually thinking of moving my desktop PC to a server chassis to match my NAS. So far I have a 4U supermicro chassis (15 drives, 9 of which are WD Re enterprise drives) and a 2U UPS, and yeah, it is quite loud in my room, roughly 48dB constantly. You can definitely hear the NAS when it's under load (especially random IO).

[Mikensan]

I suggest doing exactly what @leadeater did and throw ESXI on it and create a VM for plex. Then you get the best of both worlds. 2 of my 3 servers use the L5520 it is a great chip. Don't let ESXI scare you, you will figure it out very quickly for basic use. Free license fits you perfectly. 

 

You could save yourself a datacenter license and just use Ubuntu or mint for plex. Lot of us here using ESXI so you have a lot of support.

 

also congrats on the R710, overall solid server.