Getting workstation for free what do?

[spartan_chaz]

So,

 

I am getting a Dell precision T7610 workstation for free. E52603V2 1.8 Xeon CPU and 16GB 1866Mhz DDR3 ECC RDIMM Memory. Video card is not really worth mentioning and PSU is a 1300Watt.

 

What would be a good use for it?

 

It has the second CPU slot and a very large amount of memory slots. I want to find a good use for it rather than watch it get trashed or disposed of.
 

[Xreldo]

1 minute ago, spartan_chaz said:

So,

 

I am getting a Dell precision T7610 workstation for free. E52603V2 1.8 Xeon CPU and 16GB 1866Mhz DDR3 ECC RDIMM Memory. Video card is not really worth mentioning and PSU is a 1300Watt.

 

What would be a good use for it?

 

It has the second CPU slot and a very large amount of memory slots. I want to find a good use for it rather than watch it get trashed or disposed of.
 

Video editing idk? Maybe try to put a good gpu it and another CPU? idk?

[tlink]

game server, NAS, PFsense router, multi media streaming machine, 

[SLAYR]

It would be a good workstation, or a server.

 

That cpu is super weak though, You can use to render and such like a workstation, but you may want upgrade the cpu first, dual e5 2670s (8c/16t) can be had for cheap.

 

 

[spartan_chaz]

2 minutes ago, tlink said:

game server, NAS, PFsense router, multi media streaming machine, 

i thought about Game server just not sure how to set all that up. Maybe my own private WoW server?

 

When you say Multi media streaming machine, i am looking at getting into game streaming...how would i use it to do that?

[spartan_chaz]

1 minute ago, SLAYR said:

It would be a good workstation, or a server.

 

That cpu is super weak though, You can use to render and such like a workstation, but you may want upgrade the cpu first, dual e5 2670s (8c/16t) can be had for cheap.

 

 

yeah the first idea would be to upgrade the CPU. ill look into the 2670 and see their cost. 

[m0k]

whats the video card,

workstation cards have high resale value (usually)

[spartan_chaz]

Just now, mok said:

whats the video card,

workstation cards have high resale value (usually)

1 GB AMD FirePro V3900 (DP, DV I) (DP-DVI, DVI-VGA adapters) (ELGA15B)

[shadowbyte]

3 minutes ago, spartan_chaz said:

1 GB AMD FirePro V3900 (DP, DV I) (DP-DVI, DVI-VGA adapters) (ELGA15B)

so about 30 dollars on ebay

[tlink]

2 minutes ago, spartan_chaz said:

i thought about Game server just not sure how to set all that up. Maybe my own private WoW server?

 

When you say Multi media streaming machine, i am looking at getting into game streaming...how would i use it to do that?

you can run steam on it and stream it trough steam link, or get an nvidia gpu and a raspberry pi and use it to stream to the raspberry pi or any other linux machine (for example a virtualized one on a normal windows pc or on your android phone).
http://www.howtogeek.com/220969/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-steam-machine-with-moonlight/

its not all clear cut stuff tough so if you love tinkering thats a great project.

[spartan_chaz]

3 minutes ago, tlink said:

you can run steam on it and stream it trough steam link, or get an nvidia gpu and a raspberry pi and use it to stream to the raspberry pi or any other linux machine (for example a virtualized one on a normal windows pc or on your android phone).
http://www.howtogeek.com/220969/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-steam-machine-with-moonlight/

its not all clear cut stuff tough so if you love tinkering thats a great project.

 

yeah i do love tinkering with my crud...

 

Would setting it up as a gaming rig be worth my time on it? or would the be just letting the power go to waste?

[tlink]

10 minutes ago, spartan_chaz said:

 

yeah i do love tinkering with my crud...

 

Would setting it up as a gaming rig be worth my time on it? or would the be just letting the power go to waste?

the xeon isn't really that powerful and the ram isn't great either, 16 gb is a lot for gaming but for a server it isn't really that much. you can virtualize some stuff though, allocate 1 thread to a NAS with media playback and you can stream games and movies at the same time if your internal networking allows it. if you can populate the second cpu slot that would be amazing and allow for loads more, but that would require you to run either linux or windows server with posibly virtualized windows 10 but i know very little about dual cpu stuff.

[spartan_chaz]

2 minutes ago, tlink said:

the xeon isn't really that powerful and the ram isn't great either, 16 gb is a lot for gaming but for a server it isn't really that much. you can virtualize some stuff though, allocate 1 thread to a NAS with media playback and you can stream games and movies at the same time if your internal networking allows it. if you can populate the second cpu slot that would be amazing and allow for loads more, but that would require you to run either linux or windows server with posibly virtualized windows 10 but i know very little about dual cpu stuff.

 

I'm going to plan to get a second CPU or a pair of better ones for sure. A NAS would be a great idea for my household full of nerd. We could use a good storage place for all of our D&D documents, tons of movies and shows. So that may be a good investment while also letting it run something else.

[spartan_chaz]

it also has Dual Ethernet ports if that makes a difference

[tlink]

1 minute ago, spartan_chaz said:

 

I'm going to plan to get a second CPU or a pair of better ones for sure. A NAS would be a great idea for my household full of nerd. We could use a good storage place for all of our D&D documents, tons of movies and shows. So that may be a good investment while also letting it run something else.

i would aim at some better ones, preferably higher clocked  you don't really need higher clocks for a NAS but you would need it for gamestreaming since its pretty old and low clocked (depends on the games though). 

4 minutes ago, spartan_chaz said:

it also has Dual Ethernet ports if that makes a difference

i think that mainly depends on how the chipset can be set up, im not really sure if gamestreaming takes up a lot of bandwidth but it definitly isn't a bad feature . damn talking about this stuff makes me itch to build something like it myself. if there was a technology park close i would go dumpsterdiving for an semi old machine lol.

[spartan_chaz]

5 minutes ago, tlink said:

i would aim at some better ones, preferably higher clocked  you don't really need higher clocks for a NAS but you would need it for gamestreaming since its pretty old and low clocked (depends on the games though). 

i think that mainly depends on how the chipset can be set up, im not really sure if gamestreaming takes up a lot of bandwidth but it definitly isn't a bad feature . damn talking about this stuff makes me itch to build something like it myself. if there was a technology park close i would go dumpsterdiving for an semi old machine lol.

haha this was from work. they were about to trash it. NOPE

[tlink]

Just now, spartan_chaz said:

haha this was from work. they were about to trash it. NOPE

yea its such a waste, but dumpsterdiving was never so lucrative lol

[spartan_chaz]

1 minute ago, tlink said:

yea its such a waste, but dumpsterdiving was never so lucrative lol

thats very true lol

 

iv gotta get home and figure something out for this thing kinda excited honestly

[tlink]

2 minutes ago, spartan_chaz said:

thats very true lol

 

iv gotta get home and figure something out for this thing kinda excited honestly

good luck! i would be excited as shit!

[spartan_chaz]

here is the other question i have...

 

So, it has 2 LGA-2011 sockets. Does that mean any LGA-2011 Xeon CPU will work or only specific ones? i don't have much experience with this kind of setup honestly. only worked with the I7 setups over the years

[Velvet Revolver]

Upgrade your CPU!!!!!!!!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Xeon_chipsets#Dual_processor_Sandy_Bridge-based_Xeon_chipsets

http://ark.intel.com/products/63984/Intel-C602-Chipset

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge#Server_platform

 

LGA-2011

2603 - http://ark.intel.com/products/64592 4 Cores 4 Threads 10MB Cache

 

 

 

 

 

Look for these CPU's and find one for cheap.

 

[spartan_chaz]

1 hour ago, Velvet Revolver said:

Upgrade your CPU!!!!!!!!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Xeon_chipsets#Dual_processor_Sandy_Bridge-based_Xeon_chipsets

http://ark.intel.com/products/63984/Intel-C602-Chipset

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge#Server_platform

 

LGA-2011

2603 - http://ark.intel.com/products/64592 4 Cores 4 Threads 10MB Cache

 

 

 

 

 

Look for these CPU's and find one for cheap.

 

thanks for this!!!

 

I found 2 2667's for 125 eash. May order them next week. still unsure what I'm gunna use it for >.< I always loved the 2 gamers 1tower Linus did so part of me is leaning towards that lol

[Guest acdcman200]

Nice find! Here are some suggestions that would probably work without any upgrades.

File server (Linux or BSD. For the love of God don't use Windows for this stuff! Also you may want to invest in proper hard drives for this)

Game server. (Linux or BSD preferably, Windows if you can't get the server client on Linux or BSD. [Who the hell makes a server client only Windows?])

Light virtualization 

LXD containers testing env

PF sense router. (WAY more powerful than needed for this. It already has 2 LAN ports. (hopefully gigabit) on it so your all set there. All you need is a switch and you'll have a kick ass router that is way better than anything you can buy at a consumer grade level.)

 

Also if you can upgrade the cpus on it. The CPU recommendations in this thread are reasonable so nothing to add there.

 

 

[spartan_chaz]

5 minutes ago, acdcman200 said:

Nice find! Here are some suggestions that would probably work without any upgrades.

File server (Linux or BSD. For the love of God don't use Windows for this stuff! Also you may want to invest in proper hard drives for this)

Game server. (Linux or BSD preferably, Windows if you can't get the server client on Linux or BSD. [Who the hell makes a server client only Windows?])

Light virtualization 

LXD containers testing env

PF sense router. (WAY more powerful than needed for this. It already has 2 LAN ports. (hopefully gigabit) on it so your all set there. All you need is a switch and you'll have a kick ass router that is way better than anything you can buy at a consumer grade level.)

 

Also if you can upgrade the cpus on it. The CPU recommendations in this thread are reasonable so nothing to add there.

 

 

main thing I have a question about is the PF sense router

 

What is this exactly? And what are the benefits of it?

[Guest acdcman200]

5 minutes ago, spartan_chaz said:

main thing I have a question about is the PF sense router

 

What is this exactly? And what are the benefits of it?

PF sense is a router OS based off of Free BSD. There is a very good series of videos going over its advantages and a lot of info about it. It also covers basic knowledge of internet infrastructure. The videos can be found here. (Its a lot of watch time so grab some popcorn or something if your into networking.)

 

PF sense can be found here. I would advise messing around with it in Vbox first to get a feel for everything before you put it on a production machine. 

 

Good luck!