Opinions on Dell/Lenovo Servers?

[asajinx]

So i'm still in the process of specing and building my freenas box; however, recently i came upon a deal on Amazon for a Lenovo T120 going for ~350 which is in my opinion a great option for server grade parts. I was wondering if you guys had any opinions/insight on possible downsides to using a vendor built machine? And if you think its a good idea, please don't hesitate to recommend brands/models.

 

[c32767a]

Your title says Dell / Lenovo. I don't have any experience with Lenovo, but I have several Dell T410 and T420s that run FreeNAS just fine.
You'll want to avoid the PERC H700/800 RAID cards and use the H300 or onboard SATA ports for your drive connections, but otherwise they work just fine.

 

[asajinx]

Your title says Dell / Lenovo. I don't have any experience with Lenovo, but I have several Dell T410 and T420s that run FreeNAS just fine.
You'll want to avoid the PERC H700/800 RAID cards and use the H300 or onboard SATA ports for your drive connections, but otherwise they work just fine.

Hi, yes i am open to Dell/lenovo/HP, any reliable vendor really. I just want something small and quiet. Do you have any particular dells you recommend for this purpose?

 

[c32767a]

I haven't bought one in a while, but I was getting the T410 from the Dell outlet for a good price. They're relatively large Tower servers, but they support 6 drives, either hot swap or fixed config and are basically silent. You can also add a 3 bay ICY-DOCK type enclosure into the 2 5.25" bays to get a total of 9 drives in the system if you need that many. I have 5 in office environments and they stay cool and run with 9 drives just fine. I use the LSI 9211-8i cards inside for drive connections.

The T420 is the next generation and is still shipping new. It also looks like the T110 supports 4 drives and is/was on sale with a coupon for around $250. I would have to confirm, but it looks like with the 5.25" dock you could probably get 7 drives in there..

Just be aware that Dell has different chassis under the same model number and not all support the full compliment of drives. You can select the chassis you want if you buy new, but when you use the outlet, you have to look at the configuration details to verify the chassis type.

 

[joelmusicman]

Maybe you're talking about the Lenovo TS140? You should be able to find them for ~$250 without any hard drives. Has only 5 SATA ports, and a pretty small mATX chassis. Airflow might be a challenge if you want to run 5 drives though.

 

[c32767a]

Nope, Dell has "T" series machines as well.
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-tower-servers

Though, I get the feeling that both companies are targeting the same form factors.. :)

 

[joelmusicman]

Sorry, I was asking the OP because he mentioned "Lenovo T120," which I'm not finding any info on...

 

[alexg]

I have TS140 with 4 WD Red drives and they all running 28-32 degrees. Airflow is fine and machine is quiet. Just wish had more room for future growth, but can't beat this price/performance as a starting system for home use.