Noob Hardware Advice

[JonnyAlpha]

OK;

So many years ago I built a FreeNAS system using an old Pentium PC (low spec and minimum RAM). It only gets turned on now and again but it's still working

Anyway the time has now come to rebuild and finally have all of my media and data in one place accessible to all devices on my Network.

I don't have a lot of money to spend so I am looking at doing this on a low budget.

Bottom line (based on the info below) for around £200 would you guys and gals recommend a Dell Power Edge or something else. I am more than capable of building one myself.

Many thanks

Information

Some time ago I was looking at a Dell Power Edge (low end server) and have started to look again. I posted on here and I think the consensus was that 'it would be ok'. There is a used T110 II NR Xeon Quad on Amazon for £283. And lots of various Dell Power Edges T110's on eBay which seem to be a mix of the same Xeon Processor, Core i3 and others.

The T110's on eBay are around £100 - £200 varying specifications.

I have just spotted a Dell Poweredge T410 Tower Server (E5645 Hex 6 Core/16GB/No HDD/SBS 2011 COA) 15J for £119. This is about 9 years old.

As I am not particularly versed in CPU types I checked out this Wiki which lists all of the Dell Power Edges. The T110 and the T410 are both 11th Generation Power Edges with 2 types of T110 being manufactured. The T410 is older 2009, but has 2 x CPU whereas the T110 has only 1 x CPU the later model is fitted with either Intel Celeron G400 / G500, Intel Pentium G600 / G800, Xeon E3-1200, Xeon E3-1200 v2.

I only intend on fitting 3 - 4 HDD's so the T410 with 6 bays is a bit of overkill.

 

[danb35]

I think I'd favor the newer machine. Most of us have no problem using or even recommending hardware that's a couple of generations old, as you can save quite a bit by buying used enterprise kit. But nine years old is a bit of a stretch, and you'd be burning a lot of watts with that.

As far as which CPU, it's going to depend a lot on what you want to do with the box--if you're just serving files, the Pentium would be fine; if you want to run Plex, I'd suggest springing for the Xeon.

 

[KrisBee]

If Dell's your thing, then this looks good at £199.95: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-Pow...388371&hash=item4b45e767b1:g:xcAAAOSwjatbG7kk

E3-1220v2 with 8gb, server OK for up to 4 HDDS. Has a Dell Perc S300, does that work with FreeNAS? Could be useful if it does for running FreeNAS as a VM with esxi, and decent dual port intel nic. Can't see clearly, but looks like 2x4GB and with two memory slots free.

Never owned a Dell so can't say if this has IPMI or equivalent for headless operation. Personally, I wouldn't go for earlier than intel sandybridge and would want to be sure bios/firmware updates are readily available and not behind a paywall .


Edit: Dell perc s300 is sofware/fake RAID. Would have to be swapped out if drives can't be direct connected to m/board. But things like Dell Perc 310 are relatively cheap.

 

[Chris Moore]

If Dell's your thing, then this looks good at £199.95: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-Pow...388371&hash=item4b45e767b1:g:xcAAAOSwjatbG7kk

E3-1220v2 with 8gb, server OK for up to 4 HDDS. Has a Dell Perc S300, does that work with FreeNAS? Could be useful if it does for running FreeNAS as a VM with esxi, and decent dual port intel nic. Can't see clearly, but looks like 2x4GB and with two memory slots free.

On that specific listing, they are including two hard drives and an OS disk that they are probably charging more for having included. You could probably find a better deal if you can get one with no drives and just buy your own.

@JonnyAlpha
You might be able to get a better price by bidding on one like this, only about 18 hours to go:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Pow...Ghz-8GB-DDR3-Server-Media-Server/232867203533

 

[KrisBee]

Mine ref was just an example, leaving it to @JonnyAlpha to do his own shopping. But I'd agree that other dell t110 ii could be a better deal , no useless perc s300 & drives. It's just the one I found looked in such great condition.

 

[Alecmascot]

I run two Dell T110 IIs.
When you buy one make sure it comes with the drive caddies and an H200 HBA and cables.
I run 5 drives with the extra one in the spare 5.25 bay.
I have found these work great to host a small MSata SSD :
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-PCI...892964?hash=item23a0753be4:g:QnEAAOSw8RJa8mAc
Turn off all the onboard SATA ports.
Fit the SDD PCIe in the top PCIe slot with the H200 flashed to IT mode beneath it and it all boots fine.

I have two that have been running for almost a year now with no issues whatever.

 

[Chris Moore]

I have found these work great to host a small MSata SSD :
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-PCI...892964?hash=item23a0753be4:g:QnEAAOSw8RJa8mAc
Turn off all the onboard SATA ports.

You use that for the boot device?

 

[Alecmascot]

Yes. I have had two in use in my old Microserver G7s and now in the T110s. At least 2 years now.
Saves finding somewhere to mount a small SSD.