Inherited a Dell PowerEdge 2800 from work today, no clue what I'm doing

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football76

Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
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I'm not sure if it even has much value to me, but it's brand new so I took it (I didn't steal it, it was "scraped" after we updated our systems). It has redhat linux on it, can I install XP (I have a copy) or do I need server 2003/08?

Some Specs:
2x Xeon 3.4GHz processors
4x 1GB Ram
8x 146BG SCSI 10k drives
2x 36GB SCSI 15k drives

I would prefer to use it for storage of my music files, but maybe it's too much for that purpose? Should I try selling it? How much could I get for this? I am really out on a limb here- any input is appreciated! :)
 
It's worth about $2,000, possibly more depending on other little things. I would think you can probably see up to $2,500 for it.

On helluva score there man.


As for selling it, I would. No question about it. Your power company will love you if you decided to keep it and whoever lives with you will hate you for the noise the thing produces. I would sell it and buy something thats more efficient for your line of use and then save the rest of the cash.
 
Those harddrives are pretty overkill for music. Those are the old P4 based xeons with HT, so processor wise it's nothing too spectacular.

But for harddrive performance? Oh man, you could have some awesome Raid 10 setup with that or something.

You're looking at $2000-2500 for the harddrives alone if you could sell them top dollar. That whole system for $2000-2500 would be very cool (The rest is only worth a couple hundred really anyway).

Hmm, do what you want with it. For music, I'd pick quieter, less power consuming, larger harddrives. The Dell 2800 here is something you'd want for SQL server or something I'd imagine :eek:
 
football76 said:
I'm not sure if it even has much value to me, but it's brand new so I took it (I didn't steal it, it was "scraped" after we updated our systems). It has redhat linux on it, can I install XP (I have a copy) or do I need server 2003/08?

Some Specs:
2x Xeon 3.4GHz processors
4x 1GB Ram
8x 146BG SCSI 10k drives
2x 36GB SCSI 15k drives

I would prefer to use it for storage of my music files, but maybe it's too much for that purpose? Should I try selling it? How much could I get for this? I am really out on a limb here- any input is appreciated! :)
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wow.....

$$$
 
well make sure that its cool with the company if u sell it, if you sell it and then some joe, decided to call up dell with the service tag for repairs or what not, it would be registered to your company, they might have a issue with that.

If you dont want to tell ur company that you are selling it, sell it in pieces and scrap the case.

i would just buy a cheap system of newegg, 50$ mobo, a low end C2D, 2 GB of ram and load up Win XP, if all you want is music storage and slap a few 500gb drives in there or two 1 TB drives and set em up as mirroring. thatll be fast,quiet and power efficient.
 
football76 said:
I'm not sure if it even has much value to me, but it's brand new so I took it (I didn't steal it, it was "scraped" after we updated our systems). It has redhat linux on it, can I install XP (I have a copy) or do I need server 2003/08?

Some Specs:
2x Xeon 3.4GHz processors
4x 1GB Ram
8x 146BG SCSI 10k drives
2x 36GB SCSI 15k drives

I would prefer to use it for storage of my music files, but maybe it's too much for that purpose? Should I try selling it? How much could I get for this? I am really out on a limb here- any input is appreciated! :)
Click to expand...
I take donations:D
 
Our server here at work runs a similar, but lesser, setup:

2x Xeon 3.0GHz processors
4x 1GB Ram
2x 146BG SCSI 10k drives

It's still useful hardware for someone and has value in a business environment. I'd say sell it and build yourself a lower powered system for your music, maybe with WHS.
 
chronic9 said:
well make sure that its cool with the company if u sell it, if you sell it and then some joe, decided to call up dell with the service tag for repairs or what not, it would be registered to your company, they might have a issue with that.

If you dont want to tell ur company that you are selling it, sell it in pieces and scrap the case.

i would just buy a cheap system of newegg, 50$ mobo, a low end C2D, 2 GB of ram and load up Win XP, if all you want is music storage and slap a few 500gb drives in there or two 1 TB drives and set em up as mirroring. thatll be fast,quiet and power efficient.
Click to expand...

Or a better idea, I'll take it off your hands and I wont register it :D
 
Yeah, sell it and you can build a power efficient server that will have all the storage and power you need for well under $1000 (depending on how much storage you want) and have a good chunk of change left over for whatever else you feel like.

$175 or so will get you a good mATX board with onboard video and 6 SATA (Asus P5E-VM), a Celeron 430 (more than enough power for any home server use), 1GB RAM, then throw in a case and PSU of your choice (say $125 or so combined) and you're looking at $300 + tax and shipping for a system, then throw in whatever drives you like (you can cut costs even more if you want to go with an AMD system - their mobos tend to be cheaper, but IMO the feature mix is better with Intel).

I'd suggest 1TB WD Greenpower drives, to keep the power bills down. Get 3 and you can have a 2TB RAID5 array with redundancy, and plenty of room to expand.

For the OS, I recommend Linux. Don't worry if you don't know it, there are tons of good guides online for exactly this type of setup, and with a small amount of time invested, you can get one set up no problem. It has the benefit of very powerful RAID support in software (including expanding arrays).
Other options are FreeNAS (free and easy to setup, but not quite as flexible as a Linux install, still a good choice), or Windows Home Server (costs $, but very straightforward interface; be aware that it's less flexible and there have also been data corruption bugs reported - not sure of their status at the moment however).

Have a look around the forums here, there are lots of people in similar situations (although most aren't lucky enough to get a free hardware windfall like yours), and ask if you have more questions.
 
Sweet jesus :eek: Here I thought I did good getting an Optiplex 745 and an old 20" flat panel monitor from work (as well as a few other things like Latitude C610 and D600 laptops). Hell, something like that would be a huge step up from some old Poweredge 4400s we are still running :rolleyes:

I would have to agree with the others though about selling it. Those things are noisy, put out a lot of heat, and use a lot of electricity. You could build another system for you use and pocket some extra cash...
 
The Hunter said:
For the OS, I recommend Linux. Don't worry if you don't know it, there are tons of good guides online for exactly this type of setup, and with a small amount of time invested, you can get one set up no problem. It has the benefit of very powerful RAID support in software (including expanding arrays).
Other options are FreeNAS (free and easy to setup, but not quite as flexible as a Linux install, still a good choice), or Windows Home Server (costs $, but very straightforward interface; be aware that it's less flexible and there have also been data corruption bugs reported - not sure of their status at the moment however).
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FreeNAS how is it not as flexible as linux...all it is is FreeBSD with a NAS interface you can do the same stuff you would do in linux or BSD

WHS data corruption only happens in very few specific instances like modifiy your outlook pst files when they are on the server and such....however PP1 fixes all of that ive been testing it for months now and I cannot recreate the problem.
 
Yep, I'm selling it. Too loud and too much power draw to leave on 24/7 as a music server. PM me with offers, it's going to the FS section later today and it's listed locally on Craigslist- still pondering an eBay listing...

I'd like to get rid of it quick since I have no need for it, I'm going to put up some pics and whatnot later hopefully in the ad.

The server was officailly "scraped" even though it never even saw daylight inside our building and it supposedly has 1 year left on the dell service warranty. Not sure how to work around that or if I should even mention it? Anyway, I'll just list it along w/ all the info I have and let her go to the highest bidder.

Thanks for all the input guys!
 
nitrobass24 said:
FreeNAS how is it not as flexible as linux...all it is is FreeBSD with a NAS interface you can do the same stuff you would do in linux or BSD

WHS data corruption only happens in very few specific instances like modifiy your outlook pst files when they are on the server and such....however PP1 fixes all of that ive been testing it for months now and I cannot recreate the problem.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, FreeNAS is great, but there are some limitations compared with a Linux system. The biggest one is that you can't expand a RAID5 array. Under Linux md, you can put a new disk in your system, and with one command expand the array online with no downtime. With FreeNAS, to move from a 3x500 to a 4x500 array (just for example), you would have to transfer the data to a 3rd location, rebuild the array from scratch, and transfer the data back. You also lose some flexibility in how you allocate your array (for example on Linux you can use LVM to dynamically reallocate your storage space between partitions).
However, for a straightforward setup that's not likely to be expanded, FreeNAS works very well.

As for WHS, it's good to know that they've fixed the data corruption, although I was under the impression that it could occur with more than just outlook files - running uTorrent for example. I suppose I'm just excessively nervous when it comes to data corruption issues in devices made exclusively for storing data.

The bottom line is that there are tons of good options out there in terms of software, whatever level of use is desired.
 
$1000-2000 and brand new? Eh I don't think so. No one sells 3.4Ghz single core Xeon systems anymore. We've got loads of servers with those specs in HP DL380 G4s which we bought in 2005. The 2800 series dells are about that same vintage. I would estimate you could sell that for around $1k. The drives are actually not worth that much if you look around on ebay not many people buy SCA hotswapp drives used as they are looking to put them in 24x7 servers and would rather buy them new.

I'd throw it up on ebay as used w/ no warranty guarantee for $1400ish if I were you and put together a system with consumer parts and large 750Gb+ drives if you are looking for bulk storage. Not sure if you've seen what a server does to your electric bill and nevermind the noise levels and inconvenience of trying to find a place to put a rackmount server without a rack. Nothing wrong with people hardcore enough to want a rack in their basement (curse me with the space for that) but I don't think this is the best deal for what you are looking for.
 
irrision said:
$1000-2000 and brand new? Eh I don't think so. No one sells 3.4Ghz single core Xeon systems anymore. We've got loads of servers with those specs in HP DL380 G4s which we bought in 2005. The 2800 series dells are about that same vintage. I would estimate you could sell that for around $1k. The drives are actually not worth that much if you look around on ebay not many people buy SCA hotswapp drives used as they are looking to put them in 24x7 servers and would rather buy them new.

I'd throw it up on ebay as used w/ no warranty guarantee for $1400ish if I were you and put together a system with consumer parts and large 750Gb+ drives if you are looking for bulk storage. Not sure if you've seen what a server does to your electric bill and nevermind the noise levels and inconvenience of trying to find a place to put a rackmount server without a rack. Nothing wrong with people hardcore enough to want a rack in their basement (curse me with the space for that) but I don't think this is the best deal for what you are looking for.
Click to expand...

2800's are very sought after. 380's are in an abundance, for example, we have dozens of them laying around.

Look on ebay, the exact same configuration is selling for $2,000-2,500.
 
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