Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 5U Tower Server, Intel Xeon E3, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD

lifanus

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Aug 26, 2008
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Deal Link (eBay) Deal is expired for now. Forgot price in title, it's only $285 shipped.

Update: deal is DEAD! Also update... got this setup for mum, it's a good looking machine. Love the plenty USB 3.0 ports. Only drawback is doesn't have DVI output, only VGA or HDMI, so keep that in mind when setting up monitor. Win 10 install is quick and system in general feels very snappy. Great bang for the buck!

Also bought a $10 PCI wireless n card to fully take advantage of that empty PCI slot :p

---

Ordered one to replace my parent's really old Celeron desktop...

500 GB HDD included, way cheaper than many other auctions selling for $400 and no HDD.

Server
Gigabit LAN
No OS
Monitor : none.
Tower
5U
1 x Xeon E3-1225V3 / 3.2 GHz
RAM 4 GB
HDD 1 x 500 GB
DVD
HD Graphics P4600
 
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Great deal! I have some Hps with the E5-1220v2 wish it was a 1225 v3 :D
 
I really need to get off of my butt and order one of these for my plex server. These are awesome for the price.
 
do you think this would be a decent game server/file server/transcoder (I would queue a large batch and walk away. I am meaning in energy efficiency as in being good since its haswell and not necessarily fast)

Its haswell and 22nm so its an effcient CPU. Not sure about the PSU of course. I would through in some extra/better ECC ram of course and a small SSD for OS.

it seems like a good deal for what i need right? I plan on putting this in a DMZ so its away from the NAS and my home network just in case someone tries to mess with it remotely.
 
I have this server but with the i3 4130, excellent for plex encoding. The Xeon is even better.

The box is very very quiet also.
 
The TS140 & Dell T20 with Xeons are the best cheap servers I've seen. My only complaint is proprietary PSU wiring, which applies to both. But that's niggling when they regularly go on sale below $300.
 
Well this is tempting. I've never actually had a true server machine. I didn't realize there were this many competent, quad core Xeon machines sitting around on Ebay for dirt cheap. Maybe I should point budget buyers towards these things from now on. I had a look through the Xeon section.

For a bit more, I found this thing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precis...500GB-M1547-/181736146197?hash=item2a50518515
It has more RAM and has Windows 7 already installed (which means you can freely upgrade to 10). Granted you'd probably want to run some variant of Linux on a server anyhow. No USB 3.0 though from the looks of it. Any thoughts on how it compares?

Or maybe this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precis...ore-4GB-1TB-/121682967507?hash=item1c54debbd3
 
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Ive deployed I think at least 20 of these TS140's. I think they are about the most bang you can get for your buck in a new workstation (when they are on sale)

In fact this exact model is my main work setup, Im typing this reply on it right now.

Stock they are dead silent.

If you can find the i3-4130 flavor for around $200, Id say in general thats a better value, but this one is still great too. The E3-1225V3 is a beast. Its faster than many i5's and even some i7's. More than capable for pretty much any game.

Note that typically the i3 version comes with normal DDR3 and the xeon comes with ECC.

If this system came with a beefier PSU gamers would be on it like flys on sh!t. But even still if throwing away the PSU this is a great starting foundation for a gaming system. The main MB power connector is 14 pin vs 24. ("TFX" form factor?) but there are now adapters on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e=as2&tag=mostfofr-20&linkId=DJ5AFXEMXST3LW5R

Just pick one of those up for $8, buy PSU and GPU of choice, upgrade ram / add SSD if desired and game to your hearts content.
 
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For a bit more, I found this thing: <Dell Precision T1600> It has more RAM and has Windows 7 already installed (which means you can freely upgrade to 10).
I bought an off-lease HP Z210 with similar specs 18 months ago. It's been a solid server, but these new systems earn the extra few bucks. Original E3 was Sandy Bridge in 2011, so going E3v3 (Haswell) buys you a bit of performance & lower wattage. And you already noted USB3, etc.

That said, either approach buys a LOT of server if most of your budget needs to cover storage, networking or whatever. Makes NAS appliances look silly.
 
I bought one of these with a 4130 as my home server. The box is freakishly quiet. Good deal.
 
I bought an off-lease HP Z210 with similar specs 18 months ago. It's been a solid server, but these new systems earn the extra few bucks. Original E3 was Sandy Bridge in 2011, so going E3v3 (Haswell) buys you a bit of performance & lower wattage. And you already noted USB3, etc.

That said, either approach buys a LOT of server if most of your budget needs to cover storage, networking or whatever. Makes NAS appliances look silly.

What I'm planning to do with this is just shove a bunch of HDD's in there and essentially run an NAS. I think Linux has distros which basically function as an NAS, right? I plan to also maybe include some scripted routines into the crontab that will carefully catalogue what I have, where it is, etc etc. Probably mix in some Neo4J in there. Make a few web frontends to manage certain things. Etc etc.

I actually wasn't going to buy one of these, but I decided to do it in the end because the current secondary computer I have (i5 750 in a Fractal Design R4) is huge and makes a lot of noise because of its PSU. Hopefully this isn't that big.
 
$285 (base system) + $464 Other parts (600w PSU, 16GB RAM, Compact GTX 970) + $8

= $757. Add SSD if desired. Play any game you like with nice frame rates.

(note, Im biased towards NVIDIA, based on 15+ years of exp of flipping from Ati/amd and nvidia. R9 390 can be had for the same price)
 
$285 (base system) + $464 Other parts (600w PSU, 16GB RAM, Compact GTX 970) + $8

= $757. Add SSD if desired. Play any game you like with nice frame rates.

(note, Im biased towards NVIDIA, based on 15+ years of exp of flipping from Ati/amd and nvidia. R9 390 can be had for the same price)

I'd almost drop the 16gb of ram, add another 4gb stick to get to 8gb, plus small OS SSD for the same price.

I don't know if an R9 290/390(x) would fit in that case either, the compact 970's are really nice.

You could even, on the super cheap, get a 750ti, add 4gb of RAM for ~$150 = $435 total cost.
 
I'd almost drop the 16gb of ram, add another 4gb stick to get to 8gb, plus small OS SSD for the same price.

I don't know if an R9 290/390(x) would fit in that case either, the compact 970's are really nice.

You could even, on the super cheap, get a 750ti, add 4gb of RAM for ~$150 = $435 total cost.
Yup Yup. I was just making an example of how much of a system you could easily make with this as a base. The compact 970 would be perfect.

Yeah you could do a few different things with the ram. I did 16GB of cheap ram for $80 because @ $5 per gig what the hey. Unfortunately the ECC is a bit expensive, lowest I see for a 4gb ecc stick is $32ish, $8 per gig. Over $40 for most of them. $40 for 8gb of new unbuffered and replace the ecc or the same price to upgrade to 8gb ecc, kind of a wash.

Id never run a personal system again without an SSD as a primary drive, but if you had to stay with the spinner, it is an option.

The current PSU should be fine for any of the 750ti's. Ive done it with 3 of them.
 
What I'm planning to do with this is just shove a bunch of HDD's in there and essentially run an NAS. I think Linux has distros which basically function as an NAS, right? I plan to also maybe include some scripted routines into the crontab that will carefully catalogue what I have, where it is, etc etc. Probably mix in some Neo4J in there. Make a few web frontends to manage certain things. Etc etc.

I actually wasn't going to buy one of these, but I decided to do it in the end because the current secondary computer I have (i5 750 in a Fractal Design R4) is huge and makes a lot of noise because of its PSU. Hopefully this isn't that big.

you will need an HBA card. It appears to have only 4 or 6 SATAs at max (From the photos i have found. See tiger directs website and others.)
 
It has 5 of them:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RSZ199...&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=541966&store=pc

One of them is probably for the DVD drive, but you can just disconnect that thing. It probably doesn't really have space for more than about 5 HDD's in there anyway though, and that's if you take the DVD drive out. I didn't plan on putting any more than 5 or so drives in there anyway though. If I need more, I guess I would scoot it over to my Fractal Design R4 case and get an HBA card. That thing has HDD bays out the wazoo. Though then the case becomes kinda pointless...
 
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It has 5 of them:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RSZ199...&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=541966&store=pc

One of them is probably for the DVD drive, but you can just disconnect that thing. It probably doesn't really have space for more than about 5 HDD's in there anyway though, and that's if you take the DVD drive out. I didn't plan on putting any more than 5 or so drives in there anyway though. If I need more, I guess I would scoot it over to my Fractal Design R4 case and get an HBA card. That thing has HDD bays out the wazoo. Though then the case becomes kinda pointless...

i plan on temporarily using it to test out win server/Snapraid in my norco 4224 case i just ordered. Then I'll be putting it back in as a file server/hosting server. I don't know what i want to do yet for CPU and motherboard for main NAS so this will let me test stuff :)
 
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Thanks. Got in for one. I've been looking for a decent setup to do plex transcoding for the house, I want to get all my media out of my main pc.
 
I received mine earlier today. I practically got one day shipping since I live practically right beside where they shipped these from (and thus I had to pay tax. Grr). I looked them up in the map and they're 6 minutes away from me. So I know who to come after with an ax if things are messed up. It was kind of funny because the originating and destination UPS offices were the same... technically they literally could have gotten it to me right after I ordered it but UPS decided to sit on the thing over the weekend. =_=;

Well that's UPS for you...

Maybe these guys actually had a Craigslist ad that I didn't see... would have been able to save more.

Anyway, I'll be doing diagnostics on this. Overall the machine definitely looks like it is in brand new condition. The OEM tape on the box does not seem to have been ripped, and there is a tampering seal on the bag the machine was in. When I opened that, it had a very... factorylike... smell. So these appear to either be brand new or very close to brand new (ie they went through a lot of trouble repacking this if they aren't new. So they probably are).
 
these are new and all does so does anyone know if they have a warranty? I couldn't find any documentation on that.
 
I'm not sure whether it requires some kind of purchase receipt, but you can look your warranty info up here by typing in the Serial Number that's on the box they'll send it in (it will quite clearly be labeled "Serial Number"):
http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/warrantylookup

Mine looked something like this:

Start Date:
2015-03-06
End Date:
2016-04-19
Warranty Type:
12B
Status:
Active
Serial Number:
<snipped out obviously>

Description:

This product has a one year limited warranty and is entitled to parts, labor and on-site repair service. Service is available Monday-Friday, except holidays, with a next business day response objective. Many parts can also be delivered to you using the Customer Replaceable Unit (CRU) method.


Looks like these might have been sitting around for a few months, so you'll have a little over half a year or so, if they were all the same batch. Again, not sure whether this requires some kind of original invoice... I looked through their warranty policies but couldn't find anything definitive.

All my tests checked out green though. Every SATA and USB slot worked, which is frankly all I care about. Installed some random Windows I had lying around without issue. Everything worked fine. The case kinda sucks for cable management, but it's rock solid; very sturdy. Ridiculously quiet, too. When I turned it on, I was wondering if I actually turned it on. And I have somewhat sensitive ears (though there is a lot of background noise thanks to that noisy fridge and thunderstorm). Considering these were 280, which is a little over the price of a new Xeon alone... it's not a bad deal at all. Too bad I had to pay sales tax. Grumble grumble.

The other HDD slots have very little ventilation though. I think there are some slots for very small fans, like the one the DVD slot (inexplicably...) has.
 
I'm not sure whether it requires some kind of purchase receipt, but you can look your warranty info up here by typing in the Serial Number that's on the box they'll send it in (it will quite clearly be labeled "Serial Number"):
http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/warrantylookup

Mine looked something like this:




Looks like these might have been sitting around for a few months, so you'll have a little over half a year or so, if they were all the same batch. Again, not sure whether this requires some kind of original invoice... I looked through their warranty policies but couldn't find anything definitive.

All my tests checked out green though. Every SATA and USB slot worked, which is frankly all I care about. Installed some random Windows I had lying around without issue. Everything worked fine. The case kinda sucks for cable management, but it's rock solid; very sturdy. Ridiculously quiet, too. When I turned it on, I was wondering if I actually turned it on. And I have somewhat sensitive ears (though there is a lot of background noise thanks to that noisy fridge and thunderstorm). Considering these were 280, which is a little over the price of a new Xeon alone... it's not a bad deal at all. Too bad I had to pay sales tax. Grumble grumble.

The other HDD slots have very little ventilation though. I think there are some slots for very small fans, like the one the DVD slot (inexplicably...) has.

thanks for the info! It is long enough to figure out if anything major is wrong so whatev.
 
I don't think you even need ECC ram. IIRC from what I read in the Amazon reviews it works fine with non-ECC. If you're not planning to use it as a production server it may be cheaper to just grab some regular ram and throw it in and then sell the ECC ram on Ebay as IIRC it sells for decent markups.
 
ECC is a mere 10-20% mark up so I rather just get ECC. It is really cheap compared to what I though it would be.

@PersonalJ I see like no non Registered ECC RAM. It is all Registered for sale so they must work otherwise I am stuck buying some weird ass color company RAM. I think your thinking of fully buffered back from DDR2.
 
ECC is a mere 10-20% mark up so I rather just get ECC. It is really cheap compared to what I though it would be.

@PersonalJ I see like no non Registered ECC RAM. It is all Registered for sale so they must work otherwise I am stuck buying some weird ass color company RAM. I think your thinking of fully buffered back from DDR2.

Well if you go to the Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-70A4001LUX-E3-1225-Processor/dp/B00FE29IWK

And look at the "frequently bought together" section... there are is mostly just one specific Crucial line. I'd guess that those will work... though I think 16GB for 124$ is a DDR4 price. That's a 59% markup from current normal non-ECC DDR3 prices.
 
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Well if you go to the Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-70A4001LUX-E3-1225-Processor/dp/B00FE29IWK

And look at the "frequently bought together" section... there are is mostly just one specific Crucial line. I'd guess that those will work... though I think 16GB for 124$ is a DDR4 price. That's a 59% markup from current normal non-ECC DDR3 prices.

current DDR3 prices is 100 per 16GB -_-

EDIT: nevermind...DDR3 just lowered in the last month or two. It was 100 per 16GB.
 
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I did. You didn't list any prices specifically nor any data sources. I did it as further clarification to my post and also to yours. Hence I never quoted you specifically within the post.

And either way you cannot assume your edits will always be read. before another person finishes typing replies. It's better to research what you post before you post, not after.
 
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