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Slahit

New Member
Apr 21, 2018
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If your looking at used stuff - I've used www.bargainhardware.co.uk, quite cheap for enterprise stuff, for example you can get:

Chenbro RM13704 1U E5-2600 (LGA 2011) Cloud Server (Configure-To-Order)
Processor #1: 2.00 GHz Quad (four)-Core Xeon (E5-2609) 10MB
Processor #2: 2.00 GHz Quad (four)-Core Xeon (E5-2609) 10MB
Memory: 32GB - (8 x 4GB) - DDR3 ECC Reg - 1333Mhz + £76.80
RAID: OnBoard SATA RAID+ £0.00
Hard Drive #1: Hard Drive Caddy Installed + £7.00
Hard Drive #2: Hard Drive Caddy Installed + £7.00
Hard Drive #3: Hard Drive Caddy Installed + £7.00
Hard Drive #4: Hard Drive Caddy Installed + £7.00

for £238
I'll definitly give a look! There's a lot of choice there!
 

Joel

Active Member
Jan 30, 2015
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You are right! I double checked and the specs says that ECC mode is disabled only with some CPUs (for sure the ones that doesn't have support for it).
In my country G6600 and G4560 are pretty cheap sometimes (both between 50 and 60€) so your build seems pretty cheap considering this is all new hardware.
The only thing that holds me back is the limited number of cores (I really would like to have a couple VMs) and the pretty high cost of ram (100€ for 8GB on a single stick and 110€ for 2x4GB).
Anyway I'm really considering this build. Thanks a lot @TomUK for giving me peace of mind about this MB and about the 8GB for FreeNas, they were two unsolved concerns for me!

For now I think is still better for me to get business grade hardware (used) to get the opportunity to play with multiple network ports (with dedicated network management if possible) and to have a modest number of cores to play with VMs. Also I don't have a PSU and even the case that I have is for sure not the best for ventilation on a 24/7 machine so buying a bundle with a good case (or possibly rack) is definitely a bonus.
The main trouble with buying new gear is that you'll be forced into expensive DDR4. DDR3 is significantly cheaper, especially if you get an E5 system which can take RDIMMs (UDIMMs aren't quite as cheap). Only trouble with E5 based systems is the idle consumption is usually closer to 90-100W before drives as opposed to the E3s which idle in the 30-40w range (yes, even E3 v1).

If you are able to swallow the higher power use of an E5 system, an HP Z420 or Lenovo S30 are good options; I'd give preference to the Lenovo because all of its components have standard connectors.
 

TomUK

Member
Aug 30, 2017
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@Joel - those Lenovo S30 mobos have a non standard 10 pin power connector just to warn you if your thinking about getting one
 

Slahit

New Member
Apr 21, 2018
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The main trouble with buying new gear is that you'll be forced into expensive DDR4. DDR3 is significantly cheaper, especially if you get an E5 system which can take RDIMMs (UDIMMs aren't quite as cheap). Only trouble with E5 based systems is the idle consumption is usually closer to 90-100W before drives as opposed to the E3s which idle in the 30-40w range (yes, even E3 v1).

If you are able to swallow the higher power use of an E5 system, an HP Z420 or Lenovo S30 are good options; I'd give preference to the Lenovo because all of its components have standard connectors.
I can't have an idle consumption so high, sadly here power is not cheap and having a system that consumes 60W less means that in a year I could probably recover the extra price of a more efficient one.

I'm trying to find E3 systems but they seems to be pretty rare for now.
 

Slahit

New Member
Apr 21, 2018
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I've recently found this offer:
Fujitsu TX140 S2
E3-1220 v3
8GB 1600MHz ECC DDR3
PSU 2 x 450W redundant
2 x Intel LAN/Ethernet
1 x dedicated IPMI ethernet port
4 x 3.5-inch SAS/SATA

This for something near 200€/250€

what do you guys think?
 

mmo

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2016
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i think this is pretty good deal since it comes with E3 v3.
 

Slahit

New Member
Apr 21, 2018
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@TomUK Sadly I lost this opportunity too!

Now I'm looking at
HP ProLiant DL360e Gen8 G8, Intel Xeon Six 6-Core P420 16GB RAM 1U Rack Server
  • > Intel Xeon Hex Core (6) E5-2430L 2.00GHz - 15MB SmartCache - 2.50GHz Turbo Boost
  • > 16GB RAM
  • > 8 x 2.5" SAS/SATA Hard Drive Bays (No Additional Caddies Included)
  • > 1 x Redundant 750W Hot-Plug PSU
  • > HP Smart Array P420 1GB FBWC
It seems a pretty beasty setup. Not particularly good single core performance thoug and power consumption shoud be a little higher too.
I'm a bit worried about the possibility to use 3.5 drives too
The price is between 200€/250€
 
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Slahit

New Member
Apr 21, 2018
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I want to thank you all for the recommendations because I finally bought my server:

Operating System/ Storage Platform: TBD (probably Proxmox and in the future unraid)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1230-v2 (4 cores / 8 threads)
Motherboard: MSI MS-S0121 (should be C204 with 2 x SATA 3 + 4 x SATA 2)
Chassis: STS Tecom 1U 250B (Black)
Drives: 2x2TB (to be expanded in the near future)
RAM: 16GB DDR3 ECC
Power Supply: 1U 260W ABLECOM (should be 90+)

The total cost was 235€ and I'm waiting it to arrive next week.
Thanks again for all your time and support!
 

poutnik

Member
Apr 3, 2013
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@Slahit , I know that setup from a certain German seller, I have one (with 1TB drives). It's a great machine, relatively quiet (for 1U machine), with very good power consumption - if I remember well, it was about 20W idle in Ubuntu and well bellow 60W at heavy load... Great one to start with.

Jiri
 

Slahit

New Member
Apr 21, 2018
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@Slahit , I know that setup from a certain German seller, I have one (with 1TB drives). It's a great machine, relatively quiet (for 1U machine), with very good power consumption - if I remember well, it was about 20W idle in Ubuntu and well bellow 60W at heavy load... Great one to start with.

Jiri
Nice to know that the seller is good and the power consumption on idle is that low! That's what I was aiming for.
Did you change the thermal paste when you received yours?
 

poutnik

Member
Apr 3, 2013
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Yes, I did, but not intentionally. I temporarily moved the board to a different case and had to use a different cooler - the airflow in normal tower case is insufficient to cool a server grade 1U passive cooler. Therefore I changed the thermal paste while using a different cooler. But as I said, it was not intentional.

Jiri