Advice on max bid for Dell R310's - local surplus auction

I was unable to edit (spamlike contents) so wanted to add the following:

The plan is to use one as a pfsense box and, if I were to get both, the second as a FreeNAS option. Maybe this is dumb? This is my first attempt to dive into the homelab category. Any opinions on this also appreciated!

Thanks again.
 
Hard to say as they are only LGA771 based systems and there are no specs on what else is in them (dual CPU, amount of RAM, etc). The $39-41 they went for is probably all they are worth.
 
I can vouch for ebay r710 ($150 shipped er so) as a great bang for buck. As a NAS, for descent performance have to upgrade to h700, which costs another $150 with cables. Be sure to do your own research. I paid a bit extra to make sure I got dual higher wattage psu, enterprise idrac and case that takes 8 2.5 drives as I slated cheap non raid ssds to be used in my box (game server).
 
I would step up to an R410 at the minimum, and go for 56xx series CPUs. Westmere is pretty much as early as you can go without wasting your time/electricity.

R510 and R710 make quite capable NAS boxes. R410 or R610 will be pretty heavy overkill for a pfsense box.
 
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The boxes will be hundreds of dollars of pain to put back into use. These should be freebies.
 
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