[geeks] Dual Xeons - the Saga continues

[Lionel Peterson]

I am putting together a Windows training lab and found the Dell T30 single
Xeon servers to be quite inexpensive and quite feature-full.

At a $329 price (mfg. refurb from Dell outlet) I get a tower system w/E3-1225
v5 4c/4t Xeon, 8 Gig ECC DDR4 RAM (exp. to 64 Gig), 1 TB SATA HD, and a DVD-
R/W drive in a quiet (silent) tower chassis that can hold 4x 3.5" HDs and a
slim optical drive  OR 4x 3.5" HDs and 2x 2.5" HDs AND supports Intel AMT
11.0, which gives me BIOS-level remote IP KVM control of the server, much like
an ilom or drac board. Now the performance is limited, but that's a
combination of features - with a full one year warranty from Dell, since
purchased at their outlet - that is hard to replicate at the price of $329
(incl. free shipping) with no included OS.

Of course it runs Linux, and, oddly for a server, it has basic audio in/out,
but it will not fully support addition of any high-performance video GPUs (290
Watt PS, no 6 pin power connection, PCI-E 3.0 slots limited to 4x channels).

For my purpose, the low-cost, low power usage, low-noise and bios-level remote
IP KVM made this a bargain, and the warranty sealed the deal over random used
hardware of an older vintage.

(What would a remote IP KVM product cost, one that allows full bios-level
access? As an outboard device it could easily cost over $200/server based on
my recollections when I last looked into this.)

Of course the RAM upgrades are a bit 'spendy' compared with older kit, but
even that's not too bad, at around $10/Gig for 8 and 16 Gig DDR4 ECC UDIMMs.

Just thought I'd share,

Lionel

> On Feb 8, 2018, at 2:53 AM, Michael-John Turner <mj at mjturner.net> wrote:
>
> :) Dell Rx10 systems are probably the most bang-for-buck at the moment (the
Tx10 are a bit pricier due to their tower form factor). For rackmount systems
they're very quiet (even the 1U systems are near silent under regular load).