To buy, or not to buy... (servers)

M

MadHatter

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
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Hey everyone. So today I got an offer from a friend who oversees a datacenter near my area. The data center is retiring a few servers and I'm looking at 2 of them with the same specs:

IBM x3850-[88632RU]-

The specific systems have 16gb RAM installed, 2x 72gb SAS's each, and 4x Xeon 3.66gHz procs each.

He's asking me for only $1000 for each machine!! :eek: (sorry had the amount wrong)

Now, being a college student it makes it hard to purchase two of these, but they could completely replace my network of ~8 linux machines. What do you guys think? Too good of a deal to pass up? Right now I'm finding it hard to resist my inner geek and envisioning the sexy 3U servers in my possession.
 
Too good of a deal to pass up --- so good of a deal in-fact that I'd question whether or not your friend's offer is entirely legit. :) But hey, those would make a heck of a lab - load VMware ESXi or Citrix XenServer (since it's free now as well) and go to town.
 
Heh yes believe me... it's legit. I was a little shocked at the pricing.. but there are some lower end machines that he just said he was wanting $1000 for as well, so I'm guessing he just didnt want to waste the time to price them out individually. And yes, I was planning on loading vmware on both (and just 1 if the 2nd fails, because at $1000, I would buy the other one to use just for parts versus buying manufacturer replacements).
 
Great buy, don't forget shipping them will add substantially to the overall price.(unless he included shipping in the 4 hundge)

Great servers, we have a bunch of IBM eServers in our cabinet at the office, and I even have an older x335 at home next to me.

They're thirsty juice wise, and you'll hear it running..something to consider when at home or in your dorm.
 
I'd probably just head to the datacenter to pick it up.. Only about an hour away from it, so that'd be quite a waste to ship. I am fairly worried about that noise in a dorm though :-/ That's a good point.
 
Man, speaking of noise in a dorm room... This one fellow student used his dressing cabinet for a server rack (4ft wide x6ft tall). Thankfully they were all pII/pIII and decently quiet. Crazy fellow. No idea what he was running. (I was happy with a Dual pIII 1gig with 1tb of storage (wahoo 120gig ide x10))
 
They would be loud as hell in a dorm room.

If you can, go and take a listen before you purchase. Seriously, the noise from some rack mount servers is like nothing else :p
 
Take one of them. Good deal. You could probably disable some of the higher rpm fans and quiet it down.
 
I don't think I'll be able to listen to them before getting them.. but yes, I will definitely have to look at quieting some of the fans, or maybe looking at if there's possibly any that can be dissabled. I've assembled quite a few intel chassis builds and I wouldn't be able to live with one of those in the room. For the amount they are asking though, I think if I don't tough it out, I'll be kicking myself for years that I didn't take the deal.


BTW, those of you interested.. I told my friend there were some interested if they had any other machines to get rid of He should be getting me the details shortly on some other servers they are getting rid of (asking $1000 each, around 30 of them to sell).. I'll post it in the trade/sale forum though.. Just a heads up. Thanks for all of the advice.
 
wait first it was 400 and now it's 1000?
 
Friend deals usually mean immediate friends only... Think about it.

The real question is are they Quad Single cores (4 cores) or Quad Dual Cores. (8 cores) :D
Edit- damn just read the 3.66's are single. I would rather run a Q6600, 16gigs, and 2 640gig Black edition drives in raid 0. Cheaper, quieter, and just as fast in the end.
 
unless you need rackmount and redundant reliability of one of these servers than it's a waste of money.

4 old single cores < 1 current gen Xeon.

you could build a Nahelem-based quad-core Xeon system with 8 threads for like $700 minus HDDs and RAM.

you could also build a Harpertown Xeon system with DDR2 for about 1/2 that.
 
wait first it was 400 and now it's 1000?
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Ya they are 1000/server. I guess I had heard him wrong in our conversation.. :( Sorry for the confusion. He said he's wanting to get rid of them for 1k a piece, which seems more realistic. Still would make a great vmware host for me :)

unless you need rackmount and redundant reliability of one of these servers than it's a waste of money.
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But what about the price of the nicely constructed chassis? Or looking at the 2x redundant PSU's, or the hot swap bays up front. That's also something I'm examining in whether or not to go ahead with it.
 
Not only are those amazingly loud, but they put out a shit ton of heat. We had 10 3850's in one pod and the heat they put out was unreal. If you were ever cold in the datacenter just stand behind these racks.
 
Not only are those amazingly loud, but they put out a shit ton of heat. We had 10 3850's in one pod and the heat they put out was unreal. If you were ever cold in the datacenter just stand behind these racks.
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Oh no :eek: My AC barely cools the room right now on it's highest power (with all of my other machines in the room).
 
So is this server still worth it for $1000? I'm finding the value of this thing is still severely over what the sell price is. Heh I could look at replacing the singles with newer xeons as well, but compatibility with those is something I'd still have to look into. Yes, this would produce a lot of heat, take energy, and would be loud.. but by virtualizing I would be able to remove 8 or 9 systems currently running, and consolidate those boxes into this one machine.

Forgot to add.. just looking at one of them now considering the prices. Two would be nice but it WOULD be overkill for my network.
 
I am going with the 1) Too much for what you get. 2) Way to loud for your dorm. 3)Build your own cheap quad core VM box.
 
MadHatter said:
So is this server still worth it for $1000? I'm finding the value of this thing is still severely over what the sell price is. Heh I could look at replacing the singles with newer xeons as well, but compatibility with those is something I'd still have to look into. Yes, this would produce a lot of heat, take energy, and would be loud.. but by virtualizing I would be able to remove 8 or 9 systems currently running, and consolidate those boxes into this one machine.

Forgot to add.. just looking at one of them now considering the prices. Two would be nice but it WOULD be overkill for my network.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I'd pick them up for future use. Just giving you a heads up about the little nuances.
 
Hey everyone.. As I said a few days ago, my friend got me the info for all of the rest of the machines, and asked if I would pass it along. Here is the URL to the FS thread I posted today for them: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1399387

Thanks for all the input with these. I think I'll most likely live with the noise of the running server for the few months I'm here, and don't see it being as big of an issue in the apartment I'll be living in soon.. Just too good of a deal for me to pass up (I think I have a soft spot for anything rackmount :)
 
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