Homelab quiet server in Europe: DIY or production model? Need your advice.

[plidosir]

I’m currently running my old gaming PC as the server. It’s an i5-4670 with 16GB RAM and 2x8TB zfs mirror + 1x1TB + 1x128GB SSD for the OS. Idles around 50–60W and is sitting in our home office. It's very quiet (like a desktop really)

The problem is that the board is a mini ITX so it can only take 2x8GB of RAM max which is not enough for proxmox + zfs. CPU is fine (although I could use more cores of course).

People seem to like Dell servers but they’re not as popular in Europe. It’s a lot of used HPE here but I’m not a fan of how they lock the machines down and annoy you into only using parts with HPE stickers on them or they’ll run the fans full speed. Or how firmware updates are a pain to get without a warranty.

I think my noise (and power) requirements limit me to a tower form factor since the rackable units are just too noisy to work next to.

So I’m looking for advice: what should I upgrade to? Should I:

- Build my own server out of used parts?
- Which parts would be good then?
- If so, can I get remote KVM on non-Xeon boards?
- Buy a used production server? What brand?
- Was also thinking to buy a full size case, find a used DDR3 board so I can reuse the CPU but add more RAM. But then what board should I use? It's difficult to find what was good 5-10 years ago.

Budget is about 300 EUR and I already own 4x32GB DDR4 2400 ECC (that I bought for a server deal that fell through) so no need for RAM or HDDs in that budget.

Advice much appreciated

 

[CyklonDX]

300 euro is not much to work with.

extremely cheap used servers would be huawei - no1 wants to use them (cause of reasons), but otherwise they deliver.
You can swap fans to quiet ones, only issue would be psu fans - but you could figure it out.

otherwise workstation (DDR3):
Dell T7610 or HP Z840 (dell is much better here, Z840 psu's often fail or so i've heard)
(they tend to be quiet)

// DDR4 options with v3/v4 xeons will be more expensive over 300 euro.

 

[plidosir]

300 euro is not much to work with.

extremely cheap used servers would be huawei - no1 wants to use them (cause of reasons), but otherwise they deliver.
You can swap fans to quiet ones, only issue would be psu fans - but you could figure it out.

otherwise workstation (DDR3):
Dell T7610 or HP Z840 (dell is much better here, Z840 psu's often fail or so i've heard)
(they tend to be quiet)

// DDR4 options with v3/v4 xeons will be more expensive over 300 euro.

i don’t know, I got a ML110 Gen9 (thatdidn’t work out) for 300$ with drives in it.

 

[CyklonDX]

idk where do you look up stuff in EU or what you really want to do with it;
but ML110 Gen9 is more of a desktop class than workstation.

T7610, and Z840 can both be dual cpu systems, with up to 512GB of ram, and 4-6 pci-e x8 3.0 ~> they are almost servers. (almost) | Great for KVM hosts, you can put decent amount of storage, and gpu's inside.

t7610

Dell Precision T7610 8-Core 2.60GHz E5-2650 v2 4x Trays 64GB RAM 2tb SSD WIN 10 | eBay

Dell Precision T7610 Workstation Tower. 2TB 2.5 SSD.

www.ebay.com

z820

HP Z820 Workstation 2.50GHz E5-2640 32GB ram 500GB PNY SSD | eBay

HP Z820 Workstation. 500GB PNY SSD. I built this workstation using the case and extra parts I have. Works and boots fast and has been working for a few years I have owned it. 32GB RAM (8x4gb). AMD/ATI V3900 PCIe 1GB ram GPU.

www.ebay.com

ibm m3 (but this is a noisy one)

IBM X3500 M3 Server 2x E5620 8-Core CPU 128GB RAM M5015 RAID 4TB 8TB 16TB HDD | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for IBM X3500 M3 Server 2x E5620 8-Core CPU 128GB RAM M5015 RAID 4TB 8TB 16TB HDD at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Huawei is literally a server. (your ddr4 would fit in this one, and all you would need would be hdd's)

RH2288H V3 HUAWEI 2U SERVER 8SFF 1x 10C E5-2630V4 2.2GHz SAS2308 RAIL NO RAM HDD | eBay

Server Type HUAWEI 2288HV3 2U SERVER. Drive Bays NO HDD, BACKPLANE 8x 2.5 BAY. Rail Kit INCLUDED. Processor(S) 1x XEON TEN CORE E5-2630V4 2.2GHz. Optical Drive NOT INCLUDED.

www.ebay.com

If you are fine with desktop platform
You should just lookup cpu model + "desktop" (ex. "i5-2500k desktop")
stuff like these come up:

Budget PC (32GB Ram, Intel i5-2500k, GTX780) 300 Dollar value! | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Budget PC (32GB Ram, Intel i5-2500k, GTX780) 300 Dollar value! at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[plidosir]

idk where do you look up stuff in EU or what you really want to do with it;
but ML110 Gen9 is more of a desktop class than workstation.

T7610, and Z840 can both be dual cpu systems, with up to 512GB of ram, and 4-6 pci-e x8 3.0 ~> they are almost servers. (almost) | Great for KVM hosts, you can put decent amount of storage, and gpu's inside.

t7610

Dell Precision T7610 8-Core 2.60GHz E5-2650 v2 4x Trays 64GB RAM 2tb SSD WIN 10 | eBay

Dell Precision T7610 Workstation Tower. 2TB 2.5 SSD.

www.ebay.com

z820

HP Z820 Workstation 2.50GHz E5-2640 32GB ram 500GB PNY SSD | eBay

HP Z820 Workstation. 500GB PNY SSD. I built this workstation using the case and extra parts I have. Works and boots fast and has been working for a few years I have owned it. 32GB RAM (8x4gb). AMD/ATI V3900 PCIe 1GB ram GPU.

www.ebay.com

ibm m3 (but this is a noisy one)

IBM X3500 M3 Server 2x E5620 8-Core CPU 128GB RAM M5015 RAID 4TB 8TB 16TB HDD | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for IBM X3500 M3 Server 2x E5620 8-Core CPU 128GB RAM M5015 RAID 4TB 8TB 16TB HDD at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Huawei is literally a server. (your ddr4 would fit in this one, and all you would need would be hdd's)

RH2288H V3 HUAWEI 2U SERVER 8SFF 1x 10C E5-2630V4 2.2GHz SAS2308 RAIL NO RAM HDD | eBay

Server Type HUAWEI 2288HV3 2U SERVER. Drive Bays NO HDD, BACKPLANE 8x 2.5 BAY. Rail Kit INCLUDED. Processor(S) 1x XEON TEN CORE E5-2630V4 2.2GHz. Optical Drive NOT INCLUDED.

www.ebay.com

If you are fine with desktop platform
You should just lookup cpu model + "desktop" (ex. "i5-2500k desktop")
stuff like these come up:

Budget PC (32GB Ram, Intel i5-2500k, GTX780) 300 Dollar value! | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Budget PC (32GB Ram, Intel i5-2500k, GTX780) 300 Dollar value! at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Curious about the workstations: can they fit more than 3-4 drives? Most links for the manuals on HP's website are dead (nice) and all I can find on YouTube is how to turn these workstations into gaming PCs.

I use 4 drives now which already won't do for the Z440 for instance (looks like it takes 3 max).

Rack servers are too noisy and power-hungry, they're unfortunately not an option. Too bad because they're easier to find than towers.

 

[CyklonDX]

T7610 houses up to 8 hot-swap disks in front of the case; 4x 3.5", and 4x 2.5" (not all models)
Z820 has 4 disk bays in internal shelves, but 3 x 5.25" can be used by icy dock -> greatly expanding your capacity (at least in 2.5" dept, i think up to 6 per single 5.25" but it can get expensive , and you would need one with sas backplane, and sas card)

(There is also dell T420 or T320 it comes with backplane 8 x 3.5")

Dell PowerEdge T320 Server Tower XEON E5-2403 v2 4C 1.8GHz 40GB 3TB PERC H310 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell PowerEdge T320 Server Tower XEON E5-2403 v2 4C 1.8GHz 40GB 3TB PERC H310 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Not sure on noise on those, it may be noiser.


In terms of rack servers,
They can be quiet too, not all of them - but its not hard as long as they are not pushed for full load.
You can do all kinds of resistor/noctua mods as well software to control fan speed through ipmi - making them quiet.

In terms of power utilization they do not use that much more wattage as people think they may.
1U SC
2x e5-2690v4
192GB DDR4
2x SAS HDD
2x SSD
1x Tesla P100
8x 40mm 25k rpm fans (i'd say they use most of the power.)
*(1200W rated psu's)

On full load for 7 days it never went over 800W

 

[RTM]

If the only problem is that you want more RAM, you could probably just swap the motherboard with one that supports more DIMMs
Like Supermicro's X10SLH or X10SLM:

Supermicro X10SLM+-LN4F, LGA1150, DDR3, PCIe 3.0 mATX Motherboard | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Supermicro X10SLM+-LN4F, LGA1150, DDR3, PCIe 3.0 mATX Motherboard at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Supermicro X10SLM-F Mainboard, Xeon, i3, LGA1150, µATX, 2xGLAN, DDR3 672042133772 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Supermicro X10SLM-F Mainboard, Xeon, i3, LGA1150, µATX, 2xGLAN, DDR3 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Else perhaps Fujitsu's tx 1320 m3 might be an option (though if your RAM is registered as I suspect, it can not use them), look here for more information:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fujitsu-tx1320-m3-cheap-low-power-server-barebone.37804/

 

[Hussie]

Take a look at Supermicro or Asrock boards but they are very rare in the EU.

 

[andrea87]

There are several ddr4 / xeon builds around for decent prices. Look for HP Z440 or Z640, lenovo P500 / P510, dell T5810 / T7910.

You'll be able to find spare parts off these machines quite easily (motherboards are often 40-80€, like the hp 761514 from the z440). I would advise some caution before buying blindly. There is a lot of custom stuff on these machines, from the power supplies to the connectors on the board to the front panel I/O. A couple years ago I built my current home server off a Dell T3600 motherboard and it has been a bit of a nightmare. Custom Psu, fans and io pins, plus the MB supports only e5 v1 chips.

Also, if you buy one of those workstations planning on a refurbished cpu upgrade, make sure you check the compatibility list.