Advise on 2 hand hardware.

[zeusthabomb]

Hello everyone,

I know this topic is often very much discussed in here, but I would like some advice from the experts on how to make things right for my first build.

I have a simple server hosting my Proxmox, no fancy enterprise grade hardware, just some nice hardware I got my hands on for cheap coin, where I run my labs, gitlab, pfsense and some other tools. I want to assemble a Truenas, first for the fun of it and learning but also to backup my VM's, photos, music and maybe some media for a plexserver and whatever the future might bring.
I have decided to go with ECC ram for the simple fact it's a server that will backup my files and I don't want to run into data corruption cased by corrupted ram.

I was looking into some second hand supermicro motherboards and found this:
Supermicro X8DT3 motherboard + 2x Xeon E5506 CPU + 48 GB ECC RAM for 65€

Sounds like a pretty good deal, what do you think?

1. Is it overkill?
2. would does fits my needs?
3. what should be my concerns regarding second hand hardware

for reference I live in Germany.

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Problem is the power consumption- beside that: great deal and sufficient power

 

[jgreco]

Not sure why everyone thinks "fancy enterprise hardware" is Tony Stark hardware. Or even better yet, enterprise hardware is stuff like the ubiquitous HP and Dell desktops and laptops out there, they actually do have features targeted at the enterprise. What you're asking about is really server hardware.

If you're buying on eBay, please do see

Hardware Buying Guide - some tips for not getting ripped off

I've been giving this information out piecemeal for years, and should maybe have it summarized in one place. There's been a lot of people who are wary of secondary market sources for hardware, such as eBay, due to bad experiences with other...

www.truenas.com

Be aware that processors before Sandy Bridge, such as the Nehalem you propose, burn watts better than a space heater, and may cost you more in the long run.

 

[zeusthabomb]

Not sure why everyone thinks "fancy enterprise hardware" is Tony Stark hardware. Or even better yet, enterprise hardware is stuff like the ubiquitous HP and Dell desktops and laptops out there, they actually do have features targeted at the enterprise. What you're asking about is really server hardware.

If you're buying on eBay, please do see

Hardware Buying Guide - some tips for not getting ripped off

I've been giving this information out piecemeal for years, and should maybe have it summarized in one place. There's been a lot of people who are wary of secondary market sources for hardware, such as eBay, due to bad experiences with other...

www.truenas.com

Be aware that processors before Sandy Bridge, such as the Nehalem you propose, burn watts better than a space heater, and may cost you more in the long run.

Sorry, some forums are a bit judgmental on people having desktop hardware, for example reddit, don't get me wrong. Nothing against it and I would definitely use it if I could afford it.

But this is the kind of advise I was looking for, if it's worse than a space heater I might reconsider. I will have a look at the link provided.
Many thanks !

 

[ChrisRJ]

@zeusthabomb , IIRC the machine you are looking at has limitations when it comes to virtualization. If the latter is something you want to pursue, I would recommend some more research.

 

[Davvo]

Wise choice going ECC.
In case you missed It.

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

 

[zeusthabomb]

Wise choice going ECC.
In case you missed It.

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

I have indeed looked at the guide, very informative and that's how I started looking into 2nd hand hardware to try and save same coin, but apparently, either I found a gold mine or it's a recipe for disaster.

Guess I will have to research more and just endup buying new hardware and think about the long run or since I don't have that much free time at the moment, just pay for synology even tho that's not fun.