PowerEdge server question

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steakman1971

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I'm in the process of recovering from a failed DroboFS. I have a hodge-podge of computers that I was either going to turn into FreeNAS or maybe unRAID.
I was on Ebay looking at servers and parts. I found a used "Dell Poweredge 2950 III 2x Xeon E5430 2.66ghz Quad Core 16gb 250gb Perc6i 2PS" for $127. There is a SuperMicro 1U server for $119 that looks similar.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-...856614?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item35e147f726

I was very close to clicking on the buy button but thought I should reality check.

I have a rack in my basement, so mounting it would not be an issue.

I've read people saying ECC ram is recommended for FreeNAS. This comes with 16gb. It has a lot more processing power than my recycled computers I was going to use. (Which I realize I don't need this much fire power right now...)

I'm not suggesting these particular servers are what I would need, but should I be checking these out? At a quick glance, it looks like a lot of hardware for a decent price.

I'd love to find out that can house 3.5" drives. Any recommendations on what I might look for? Is this going down the wrong road? I'm a programmer and am pretty comfortable using UNIX systems and Windows. However, I'm not the guy who sets up servers or manages them.
 
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Steakman,
The poweredges are loud. I have 4 of these. If you can stash them in your basement, I guess it's ok, but you don't want them in the room where you watch your movies.

Power consumption wise, it all depends. If you want the machine on 24/7 or not. If you don't mind waiting for it to boot when you need it, check if it has IPMI. That way you can switch it on remotely when needed. Be advised, they do take 2-3 minutes to boot.

I found these poweredges hard to beat in power consumption when they are switched off for 16-24 hours per day, nothing that runs 24/7 comes even close.

You can switch em back off via SSH.

Just my 2 cents...
 
Thanks for the feedback. I'm still looking at these - this is a beast of the system for the price.
I'd have mine on my rack in the basement. Noise should not be an issue. I'm still digging in - I saw one system that had 15 SATA bays, RAID, and dual quad-core for 350 on Ebay.
I'm currently fighting a Core2Duo that can house 8 drives in my current case. It works but makes no sense to spend any money on this system.
Maybe in a few months :)
 
What about something like this:
SuperMicro Superchassis 933T 15 Bay SATA Storage NAS Server
16GB RAM Installed (8x 2GB Dimms)
2x E5160 Dual Core 3.0Ghz Processors
Motherboard: Intel S5000SL(A)
Hard Drives Removed, Trays Included
Backplane: SAS933EL1
3x Power Supplies PN: SP382-TS
Just add sata drives and a raid controller!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-...408353?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item4adee940e1

What RAID controller would be recommended for something like this? Really, I'd be thinking ZFS and maybe a software RAID if I went down this road. If I'm way off the mark, would like to know :)

(I'm not in a hurry to do this - thinking maybe a summer project)
 
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I know this is an older thread but curious what you decided. I was building new servers to replace my old ones and was going the low power route with AMD AM1 chips in Norco chassis. The chassis issue is a whole other story in itself and I finally got fed up and went the poweredge route. Picked up refurbished 2950's for an average price of $75 with free shipping from SaveMyServer and a 1 year full warranty to boot. Like others have mentioned, they are power hogs if you plan to run them 24/7. I do not. I only run them when they are needed and never need to run all of them. I also found you can't beat these for the cost/durability if your not planning to run them 24/7. Mine draw an average of about 180 watts each at idle. So alot more than the 50 watts I was drawing with the AM1 set up. Mine are also not loud at all other than at first boot when fans run at 100% speed.

A lot of people will tell you to stay away from the PE because of the power hogs they are and how loud they are. Just keep in mind 95% of those people don't have a PE and are just regurgitating what they read somewhere else. I guess the bottom line is I am happy with my choice of buying a tried and true platform that runs perfectly fine when I need them to. I use the 2950's as media storage (I have 50TB of data and another 50TB of 100% back ups). For my HTPC's, I use the PE 1950's. Again, I wasn't concerned about the power usage of running an older PE with two quad core xeon's since I don't run them all the time.

As silly as it sounds, I did the math between buying these PE units and rebuilding them white box and the power difference will take longer to pay back than any of us will be running our servers. So for me, the refurbished PE's were the obvious chose. I also found the ram to be dirt cheap on ebay from large reputable sellers.
 
I had a couple of PowerEdge 2970's (more or less the AMD Socket F version of the 2950 III), and they were great machines that added entirely too much to the power bill.

If you don't need a ridiculous number of drive bays but still want an older dual Xeon box, there are plenty of great deals out there on older workstations, like a Dell Precision T5400 or T5500. They'll be much quieter and more efficient, and will actually hold as many HDDs as the PowerEdge 2950 if you take the optical drive out.
 
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