Dell PowerEdge T20 Barebone server $149 Shipped

Col_Hogan

Col_Hogan

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 13, 2001
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Deal is back for the T20 Barebone Mini tower Server.

great deal at 149 shipped..I have 1 of these for a file server.

Dell PowerEdge T20

code for this awesome deal is: 149T20
 
Good deal. Notes: 4 SATA ports. Four 3.5" bays and two 2.5" bays. Two PCIe 16x slots, One PCIe 1x, one PCI slot. Single gigabit port. Supports ECC but not clear whether the included RAM is ECC or not.
 
It does support it though. I purchased one recently as well and put 4 x 8gb Hynix ECC memory and it works great. Do that and throw a Xeon in there and you have an awesome little dev sandbox or Plex server.
 
The G3220 is a good CPU. I ran Plex with a Celeron G1820 (and now a Pentium G3250) for a long time without any problems, even with transcoding.
 
Strange it not shipping with ECC RAM, most similar entry-level servers come with unbuffered ECC RAM.
 
kumquat said:
Lynnfield vs Haswell? Definitely not.
Click to expand...

For server work, transcoding and such, I'll take the quad core Lynnfield all day. The G3220 is fine if all you're doing is serving files.

X3430 also supports virtualization, the G3220 does not.

For multi-core performance the Xeon will smoke that Pentium.
 
For those who bought this server already, how many 3.5" drive carriers came in it? Enough to install 4 drives?
 
yes..it comes with 2 3.5 drive carriers and 1 2.5 drive carriers.. total of 6 drives can be physically put in it..but there are only 4 SATA ports.I just use a sata card so That I can use all of the bays.
 
So I can install 3 3.5" hard drives without having to buy any additional drive carrier/sleds/rails? Nice. Will have to look at one of these. I think the promo code is good until the 11th.
 
Riccochet said:
For server work, transcoding and such, I'll take the quad core Lynnfield all day. The G3220 is fine if all you're doing is serving files.

X3430 also supports virtualization, the G3220 does not.

For multi-core performance the Xeon will smoke that Pentium.
Click to expand...

4x2.4 GHz Lynnfield vs 2x3 GHz Haswell probably isn't much of a difference, really. Passmark 3186 vs 3379.

You're spending $50 more for a much older system with roughly the same multicore performance and basically zero upgradeability. If you end up needing more performance, you can drop in a 4 core Haswell for under $150 on the T20 later on, which would have over twice the performance of that ancient Lynnfield Xeon.
 
Riccochet said:
For server work, transcoding and such, I'll take the quad core Lynnfield all day. The G3220 is fine if all you're doing is serving files.

X3430 also supports virtualization, the G3220 does not.

For multi-core performance the Xeon will smoke that Pentium.
Click to expand...

The G3220 does support VT-x, but not VT-d. The processor will keeps pace with an x3440, but the power savings is much, much better with the G3220.
 
For me, for the money, the X3430 will transcode H.265 1080P content while the G3220 while choke miserably. If you run Plex, and plan on streaming high bitrate 1080P or 4K content, the G3220 will not cut it.

That's all I'm saying. Otherwise, sure, the G3220 is fine for low bitrate H.264 1080P content and serving files / NAS purposes.
 
Riccochet said:
For me, for the money, the X3430 will transcode H.265 1080P content while the G3220 while choke miserably. If you run Plex, and plan on streaming high bitrate 1080P or 4K content, the G3220 will not cut it.

That's all I'm saying. Otherwise, sure, the G3220 is fine for low bitrate H.264 1080P content and serving files / NAS purposes.
Click to expand...

What are you basing this claim on? I have a huge library of 1080p content that my Celeron G1820 had no problem transcoding with Plex. On what data do you conclude that the X3430 will smoke a G3220 on transcoding? Do you have a link to some benchmarks or something?
 
Riccochet said:
For me, for the money, the X3430 will transcode H.265 1080P content while the G3220 while choke miserably. If you run Plex, and plan on streaming high bitrate 1080P or 4K content, the G3220 will not cut it.
Click to expand...
Those Passmark numbers that kumquat posted? Those are multi-core. The G3220 is twice as fast per thread. So, what causes this choking you mention?
 
Riccochet said:
For H.265 transcoding, yes, the X3430 will be about 40% faster.

x265 HD Benchmark | x265

Multi-core passmark has the X3430 scoring higher, and with 4x the cache there's your reason why.
Click to expand...

What are you equating the X3430 on that list to?

And I haven't seen anything in x265. Not a very common format. Plex doesn't seem to transcode x265, and even if it did, basically no CPU would be able to do so in realtime according to that chart anyway.

Buy what you want, but I'd rather buy a modern system that has a slightly slower CPU (with markedly better single-core performance) that could be easily and cheaply upgraded rather than a rather old system for $50 more with an old CPU and chipset that can't be significantly upgraded at all.
 
The last server deal I got in on was that Lenovo TS140 5U. I think it was like $280. I felt it was a good deal. ECC ram, excellent build quality, 500 gig HDD, and a Xeon 4 core Haswell processor. This one... I'm kind iffy on. It's 150$ for a Pentium. I mean I guess it's okay if you need a cheapo media server. Maybe a real cheap gaming machine if you swap out the PSU and such later. I'm pretty happy with the Lenovo for the price though.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
The last server deal I got in on was that Lenovo TS140 5U. I think it was like $280. I felt it was a good deal. ECC ram, excellent build quality, 500 gig HDD, and a Xeon 4 core Haswell processor. This one... I'm kind iffy on. It's 150$ for a Pentium. I mean I guess it's okay if you need a cheapo media server. Maybe a real cheap gaming machine if you swap out the PSU and such later. I'm pretty happy with the Lenovo for the price though.
Click to expand...

If you were starting from scratch, a mobo and CPU that even support ECC will be much more than $120, and that's before you get a case and PSU. This is a solid place to start assuming you don't need multiple CPUs and boatloads of RAM.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
It's 150$ for a Pentium.
Click to expand...

The Pentium G3220 is half that by itself, depending on where you look. So for $75 you're getting a compact case, power supply, and server motherboard w/ full ECC support. That motherboard is really what's great about this deal, because motherboards with actual ECC support are often north of $150 by themselves.
 
King of Heroes said:
The Pentium G3220 is half that by itself, depending on where you look. So for $75 you're getting a compact case, power supply, and server motherboard w/ full ECC support. That motherboard is really what's great about this deal, because motherboards with actual ECC support are often north of $150 by themselves.
Click to expand...

That's really the way to view this deal. Buy an ECC capable motherboard for $150 and get some free parts with it. If you intend to use it for something like FreeNAS then the Pentium is more than sufficient, you'd just add drives and some memory. I have a rack in the basement so would be shopping for a different form factor, but if I were looking to replace my file server with something I could tuck into a corner or behind a desk, this would be very tempting.
 
stinger608 said:
It is NOT ECC ram. I purchased one of these when they were on sale before and it is a single 4 gig non-ECC ram.
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I respectfully disagree, I bought one of these last time also and the included memory IS ECC. It's not the normal registered type used in higher end servers, it's unregistered ECC. Mine came with a HYNIX HMT451U7BFR8A 4GB low voltage module.
 
Riccochet said:
X3430 also supports virtualization, the G3220 does not.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true: Intel® Pentium® Processor G3220 (3M Cache, 3.00 GHz) Specifications

It supports VT-x (virtualization) but not VT-d (passing though direct hardware access to the VMs)

So it should run Hyper-V or VMware just fine, but no dedicated hardware can be passed on to the VMs with the chipset's help. (though I wouldn't be surprised to find windows/linux etc will emulate the passthrough for you)
 
Riccochet said:
This may be a better deal. HP ML110 G6, Xeon X3430, 8GB RAM ($20 more for 16GB). $170

HP ML110 G6 TOWER SERVER | The Server Store
Click to expand...

I bought one of these off Ebay a while back with 16GB ram, and an included optical drive for $150.00 (plus $30.00 shipping). I ended up buying a X3440 to throw in for $20.00 (has hyperthreading where the X3430 does not). I run Server 2012, my VMs and also Plex. I have no issues with it. But I don't claim it is faster/better than the newer stuff, just that it serves my needs.
 
doublejack said:
That's really the way to view this deal. Buy an ECC capable motherboard for $150 and get some free parts with it. If you intend to use it for something like FreeNAS then the Pentium is more than sufficient, you'd just add drives and some memory.
Click to expand...
It's a solid client-PC deal, too. Recently set one up with SSD, +8GB & Win10. Total was under $400, & Windows was a BIG part of that.
 
bwbob said:
I respectfully disagree, I bought one of these last time also and the included memory IS ECC. It's not the normal registered type used in higher end servers, it's unregistered ECC.
Click to expand...
+1. I've worked with 2-3 of these, and they've all come with ECC.
 
I got one back in Dec and it came with ECC also. Nice little machine.
The power supply is proprietary, but others besides Dell are doing this lately too. If you want to change the power supply out for something more powerful you can use an adapter: Dell OptiPlex T1700 PSU Main Power 24-Pin to 8-Pin Adapter Cable (30cm)
The longest video card you can stuff in one would be a bit shorter than 10.5 inches by my rough measurements.
Of course with a video card heat and airflow might be an issue.
I haven't gone down this path myself yet, but I know how we all think.....

Other resources:
Dell T20 Server

[Sammelthread] Dell PowerEdge T20
 
What are your thoughts comparing this to a t3500 for a plex server?

They are going for really cheap on ebay, and processors are crazy cheap to get a quad core 1366 xeon, this was the route I was thinking but I'm open to suggestions.
I don't plan for more than 2 1080p streams to be going on at once
 
Is it possible to replace the power supply with a SeaSonic 400W Platinum Fanless or other fanless power supply?
 
I picked up one of these and threw a spare HDD in it. Are any of you guys having issues getting the windows installer to see the drive? I've tried all the drivers listed on Dell's site and tried multiple AHCI/RAID/ATA options. The Bios sees the drive as well as a fedora live cd, but not win10, server 2012r2, or server 2008 r2.
 
@dmin said:
I picked up one of these and threw a spare HDD in it. Are any of you guys having issues getting the windows installer to see the drive? I've tried all the drivers listed on Dell's site and tried multiple AHCI/RAID/ATA options. The Bios sees the drive as well as a fedora live cd, but not win10, server 2012r2, or server 2008 r2.
Click to expand...

Try the steps on this page. That should solve your problem.
 
So I got mine and I'm going to be ordering the hard drives and RAM for it soon. What OS are people throwing on this for NAS duty? I know FreeNAS is common but I hear its a pain in the ass to deal with if anything goes wrong. Would napp-it/OmniOS perhaps be any better?
 
ir0nw0lf said:
So I can install 3 3.5" hard drives without having to buy any additional drive carrier/sleds/rails? Nice. Will have to look at one of these. I think the promo code is good until the 11th.
Click to expand...
No, not three, four. It holds four 3.5" hard drives with no additional hardware needed.

You can expand it to hold an additional two 2.5" drives (like a couple SSDs) by purchasing a sata power splitter and dual-sata PCIe card.
 
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