what to do with a server

[mpsparrow]

My friend is selling me there Dell server (dual 4 core xeons (8 cores, 16 threads) and 32GB memory) for $250 CAD. I have a few uses for it in mind as the moment.

 

1. Run it as a localhost server to help with my client website work and whatnot. It would allow me to take some workload off of my desktop computer if I ran it off of it.
2. Use it as a photo server. Probably have around 30k photos (1tb or more) of pictures. Perhaps if I loaded up my sorting software on the server and added a hard drive or two, I could store and sort all my photos on the server. Remote desktop into it on any computer in the house.
3. A backup for the main NAS. I could pickup some cheaper hard drives and use them to backup the main NAS. Just another layer of backing up.

So, what other things can I use this for. And no, don't say gaming or porn server as I am into none of that.

 

[kelvinhall05]

Give it to me

 

 

 

Or scrap it for parts

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id probably not get it. It will use a lot of power. You can fill it with drives and make a nas, but for your use id not do that.

 

FOr the photo server, lots of programs won't like that as you don't have a gpu and it will be sluggish.

[Ykno]

3 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Give it to me

 

 

 

Or scrap it for parts

lol if your in UK i have a old 1u for sale cheap lol

and to the OP ye if you dotn know what to dow ith it then you dont need it

[Schubaltz]

Run a fully sick, fleshed out local Minecraft server and become the household memelord.

[deleteduser1535945]

you can buy it that's the best use  

[manikyath]

first off, which dell? because that sounds one hell of a ripoff seeing the price you can get a similarly kitted HP proliant DL380 G5/G6 for

[rodrosenberg]

Its always nice to have a quick Mumble server or something to run Ubiquiti Unifi software on or make it a pf sense box 

[HelplmChoking]

52 minutes ago, mpsparrow said:

My friend is selling me there Dell server (dual 4 core xeons (8 cores, 16 threads) and 32GB memory) for $250 CAD. I have a few uses for it in mind as the moment.

 

1. Run it as a localhost server to help with my client website work and whatnot. It would allow me to take some workload off of my desktop computer if I ran it off of it.
2. Use it as a photo server. Probably have around 30k photos (1tb or more) of pictures. Perhaps if I loaded up my sorting software on the server and added a hard drive or two, I could store and sort all my photos on the server. Remote desktop into it on any computer in the house.
3. A backup for the main NAS. I could pickup some cheaper hard drives and use them to backup the main NAS. Just another layer of backing up.

So, what other things can I use this for. And no, don't say gaming or porn server as I am into none of that.

 

 

What do you do? Any photo/video/3d modelling work? Because it would work nice as a render server. A fileserver if you like, the photo storage would work nicely. 

That's quite a lot of money though, so I'm not sure it's worth it.

[mpsparrow]

54 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Give it to me

 

 

 

Or scrap it for parts

I would sooner not buy it then scrap it for parts. 

 

52 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id probably not get it. It will use a lot of power. You can fill it with drives and make a nas, but for your use id not do that.

 

FOr the photo server, lots of programs won't like that as you don't have a gpu and it will be sluggish.

First of all, who said I didn't have a GPU? I have a few lying around that I could throw in. Also my friend may even have put a GPU in it.

 

51 minutes ago, Ykno said:

lol if your in UK i have a old 1u for sale cheap lol

and to the OP ye if you dotn know what to dow ith it then you dont need it

I have many uses for it. I don't think not getting it is a good answer to my question. My question was asking what else should I do with this thing.

 

30 minutes ago, manikyath said:

first off, which dell? because that sounds one hell of a ripoff seeing the price you can get a similarly kitted HP proliant DL380 G5/G6 for

I have no idea what Dell model it is. Either way, I know for one that my friends wouldn' t rip me off, and also that he buys high end stuff so it is probably fairly top of the line. Also, what price is ? I live in the middle of nowhere in Canada. So shipping will be loads and buying from the USA means horrible exchange rates.

 

45 minutes ago, Schubaltz said:

Run a fully sick, fleshed out local Minecraft server and become the household memelord.

If I ever got into Minecraft...

 

33 minutes ago, rodrosenberg said:

Its always nice to have a quick Mumble server or something to run Ubiquiti Unifi software on or make it a pf sense box 

I shall look into those, thanks. 

 

7 minutes ago, Rangaman42 said:

What do you do? Any photo/video/3d modelling work? Because it would work nice as a render server. A fileserver if you like, the photo storage would work nicely. 

That's quite a lot of money though, so I'm not sure it's worth it.

I do a ton of website work. Always running local hosted websites, downloading files, ftp, etc.

 

250 CAD is a good price if you ask me.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, mpsparrow said:

I have no idea what Dell model it is. Either way, I know for one that my friends wouldn' t rip me off, and also that he buys high end stuff so it is probably fairly top of the line. Also, what price is ? I live in the middle of nowhere in Canada. So shipping will be loads and buying from the USA means horrible exchange rates.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-servers/mississauga-peel-region/hp-proliant-dl380-server-and-vertical-rack-new-price/1222459479?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

this, for example.

 

and i'm not saying he's purposely trying to rip you off, he may just not know how little value old servers are worth.

 

also found this G6 with storage all up and running, and even the advanced iLO license (which aint cheap...)

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-servers/oshawa-durham-region/hp-dl380-g6-dual-xeon-24gb-over-1tb-of-sas-storage/1237910835?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

[mpsparrow]

25 minutes ago, manikyath said:

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-servers/mississauga-peel-region/hp-proliant-dl380-server-and-vertical-rack-new-price/1222459479?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

this, for example.

 

and i'm not saying he's purposely trying to rip you off, he may just not know how little value old servers are worth.

 

also found this G6 with storage all up and running, and even the advanced iLO license (which aint cheap...)

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-servers/oshawa-durham-region/hp-dl380-g6-dual-xeon-24gb-over-1tb-of-sas-storage/1237910835?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

So I could save $50 bucks to drive an hour away and pickup a system from some stranger. I would much rather pay the $50 more to get one from my friend that I trust.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, mpsparrow said:

So I could save $50 bucks to drive an hour away and pickup a system from some stranger. I would much rather pay the $50 more to get one from my friend that I trust.

the question is which generation your friend's dell is from, because if it's older it's essentially a waste of money, and if it's newer that's one hell of a find

[mpsparrow]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

the question is which generation your friend's dell is from, because if it's older it's essentially a waste of money, and if it's newer that's one hell of a find

You have some weird problem with using that emoji....

 

I will find out in two weeks when I go and pick it up whether I got a good deal or not.

[MrDynamicMan]

6 hours ago, Schubaltz said:

Run a fully sick, fleshed out local Minecraft server and become the household memelord.

I agree with this guy: get a decent gpu and turn it into a game server 

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, MrDynamicMan said:

I agree with this guy: get a decent gpu and turn it into a game server 

i've yet to find anyone who can tell me where this idea comes from, and i've yet to find a game that needs a GPU for the server, it makes no sense what so ever...

(aside from civ V pitboss, which is literally just the client...)

[MrDynamicMan]

2 hours ago, manikyath said:

i've yet to find anyone who can tell me where this idea comes from, and i've yet to find a game that needs a GPU for the server, it makes no sense what so ever...

(aside from civ V pitboss, which is literally just the client...)

I thought you would've needed it for physics, no? 

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, MrDynamicMan said:

I thought you would've needed it for physics, no? 

from my experience, all game servers "coded by somewhat intelligent people" keep it as cpu bound as possible to make running them in bulk in datacenters easier/cheaper. imagine the cost of a gameserver if they need a GPU for each instance...

[Princess Luna]

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

from my experience, all game servers "coded by somewhat intelligent people" keep it as cpu bound as possible to make running them in bulk in datacenters easier/cheaper. imagine the cost of a gameserver if they need a GPU for each instance...

Once I ran a Terraria server for 15 people using my PC, it only shown usage from CPU side the GPU kept on the 10ish% usage.

[LAwLz]

If you throw up some VMs then you could have it do several of these tasks:

Game server

NAS

pfSense router (and all the different things that can do)

Rendering server

Website host

VPN server

Seedbox

Plex server

 

Those are the main things I can think of.

[Sir Asvald]

31 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

If you throw up some VMs then you could have it do several of these tasks:

Game server

NAS

pfSense router (and all the different things that can do)

Rendering server

Website host

VPN server

Seedbox

Plex server

 

Those are the main things I can think of.

Yeah. That is what I would do.   I've got a Dell R710 running my DC and other servers. 

[manikyath]

7 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

Once I ran a Terraria server for 15 people using my PC, it only shown usage from CPU side the GPU kept on the 10ish% usage.

a terraria server used GPU? are you sure about that? because terraria is one of the lighting examples of server sided simplicity, it's rare to find a windows application so simple it runs perfectly under mono on linux.

 

are you sure that 10% wasnt just the OS itself using GPU?

[Mikensan]

Depends on what you're interested in learning.

 

I would a hypervisor first, and separate out the roles to their own vms. So if you mess up a vm you don't end up having to rebuild the whole server.

(ESXi / KVM / Windows)

 

If you have a movie or music collection that you want easier access to: Plex

If you want to have multiple web-servers running on different machines you'll need a reverse proxy: pfSense

^Also is a firewall/IDS/IPS/Router/etc...

If you want a simple NAS, just put Windows on it and create some file shares.

Install cPanel if you want a very easy webserver experience.

Setup a Windows 7/8/10 machine, install Teamviewer or whatever, and now you have a computer you can remote in to from anywhere that's on 24/7. Blocked website at work? no problem...

 

[Princess Luna]

2 hours ago, manikyath said:

a terraria server used GPU? are you sure about that? because terraria is one of the lighting examples of server sided simplicity, it's rare to find a windows application so simple it runs perfectly under mono on linux.

 

are you sure that 10% wasnt just the OS itself using GPU?

That kinda was my point, only the CPU was being taxed as the GPU even on peak moments kept at 10ish percent