I have a whole rack of servers but zero idea what the hell to do with them.

Ensefalon · Jul 4, 2019

I've been rather limited on funds and not all of these servers have hard drives and I have been dependent on using USB sticks to boot OS's.

I have 2* HP DL 380 G5s, both with 8 Gigs of RAM and 2x E5430s
2x Dell poweredge 2950 iii with same specs
Dell M1000e blade center (No blades unfortunately but I could get blades later on if need be)
Dell powervault DP 600 1x E5405
HP DL 380 G7, 2x quad cores clocked at like 2.93 ghz or something
A old sun enterprise server with memory issues. 4x sparc II processors, and I think 512mb of RAM. (I really want to run some form of IRC or something off of it)

I have all of this beautiful hardware, but I have zero idea what I could do with it all. After years of amassing spare cash from birthday cards and xmases, I dont know what to do next.

There's all of this free software available such as openstack, free linux distros, pirated windows server releases, But I just wanted to do something useful with all of these units.

I have 10/100 networking managed by a HP 2650 switch(All of my network cabling is CAT 6A, Lucky goodwill find!)

I am limited in terms of storage as many of these machines do not have hard drives, However I do have in abundance USB drives that are all 16 GB or greater

Any help is much thanked upon

The third DL 380 is my computer xD

Deleted member 178884 · Jul 4, 2019

Ensefalon said:
There's all of this free software available such as openstack, free linux distros, pirated windows server releases, But I just wanted to do something useful with all of these units.

I would take a look at techpowerup's world community grid team and research into it, if trying to help solve cancer is your thing I'd take a look : )

phill · Jul 4, 2019

If you do crunching with it, be warey of the power consumption of the X58 kit.. It can take a lot of juice

Loading something on to Linux to use as a file server or cruncher would be a good thing.. Either that or using them for VM's and learning some different OS's

Lots of options

hat · Jul 4, 2019

Yeah, as others have mentioned, the easiest way to put it to good use would be to load up WCG on all of them... but running all that hardware is going to take a lot of power. Of course, it's also gonna generate a lot of heat and be noisy.

Ensefalon · Jul 4, 2019

Xx Tek Tip xX said:
I would take a look at techpowerup's world community grid team and research into it, if trying to help solve cancer is your thing I'd take a look : )

hat said:
Yeah, as others have mentioned, the easiest way to put it to good use would be to load up WCG on all of them... but running all that hardware is going to take a lot of power. Of course, it's also gonna generate a lot of heat and be noisy.

I'll definitely look into getting WCG running, In fact I hadn't even thought of that until you both mentioned it. In fact I am installing ubuntu server on 4 of my machines as of right now!

If there's anything useful that I could do specifically on my end to benefit myself, what could I do?

Frick · Jul 4, 2019

Radiators.

Ensefalon · Jul 4, 2019

Frick said:
Radiators.

I live in the heat of texas and electricity where I live 2 cents per kw/h. Good for the winters though haha

hat · Jul 4, 2019

Ensefalon said:
I'll definitely look into getting WCG running, In fact I hadn't even thought of that until you both mentioned it. In fact I am installing ubuntu server on 4 of my machines as of right now!

If there's anything useful that I could do specifically on my end to benefit myself, what could I do?

Benefit yourself in what way? If you have video cards you can stuff in there you can do some cryptocurrency mining...

GoldenX · Jul 4, 2019

Ray Tracing over LAN.

System Name	HP DL380 G5
Processor	2x Intel Xeon X5460 @3.16 Ghz
Motherboard	HP DL 380
Cooling	6 60mm intake fans rated for 14k RPM max load
Memory	16GB of DDR2 667Mhz
Video Card(s)	AMD XFX R7 360
Storage	3x 140GB 10K SAS JBOD
Display(s)	1x Hisense 42" TV
Case	DL 380 G5
Audio Device(s)	HDMI Out
Power Supply	2x 800w Proprietary PSUs
Mouse	A cheap logitech wireless mouse
Keyboard	Acer KU-0355
Software	Windows 10!
Benchmark Scores	Ill get around to em soon

System Name	Not so complete or overkill - There are others!! Just no room to put! :D
Processor	Ryzen Threadripper 3970X
Motherboard	Asus Zenith 2 Extreme Alpha
Cooling	Lots!! Dual GTX 560 rads with D5 pumps for each rad. One rad for each component
Memory	Viper Steel 4 x 16GB DDR4 3600MHz not sure on the timings... Probably still at 2667!! :(
Video Card(s)	Asus Strix 3090 with front and rear active full cover water blocks
Storage	I'm bound to forget something here - 250GB OS, 2 x 1TB NVME, 2 x 1TB SSD, 4TB SSD, 2 x 8TB HD etc...
Display(s)	3 x Dell 27" S2721DGFA @ 7680 x 1440P @ 144Hz or 165Hz - working on it!!
Case	The big Thermaltake that looks like a Case Mods
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	EVGA 1600W T2
Mouse	Corsair thingy
Keyboard	Razer something or other....
VR HMD	No headset yet
Software	Windows 11 OS... Not a fan!!
Benchmark Scores	I've actually never benched it!! Too busy with WCG and FAH and not gaming! :( :( Not OC'd it!! :(

System Name	Starlifter :: Dragonfly
Processor	i7 2600k 4.4GHz :: i5 10400
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Pro :: ASUS Prime H570-Plus
Cooling	Cryorig M9 :: Stock
Memory	4x4GB DDR3 2133 :: 2x8GB DDR4 2400
Video Card(s)	PNY GTX1070 :: Integrated UHD 630
Storage	Crucial MX500 1TB, 2x1TB Seagate RAID 0 :: Mushkin Enhanced 60GB SSD, 3x4TB Seagate HDD RAID5
Display(s)	Onn 165hz 1080p :: Acer 1080p
Case	Antec SOHO 1030B :: Old White Full Tower
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Bose Companion 2 Series III :: None
Power Supply	FSP Hydro GE 550w :: EVGA Supernova 550
Software	Windows 10 Pro - Plex Server on Dragonfly
Benchmark Scores	>9000

System Name	HP DL380 G5
Processor	2x Intel Xeon X5460 @3.16 Ghz
Motherboard	HP DL 380
Cooling	6 60mm intake fans rated for 14k RPM max load
Memory	16GB of DDR2 667Mhz
Video Card(s)	AMD XFX R7 360
Storage	3x 140GB 10K SAS JBOD
Display(s)	1x Hisense 42" TV
Case	DL 380 G5
Audio Device(s)	HDMI Out
Power Supply	2x 800w Proprietary PSUs
Mouse	A cheap logitech wireless mouse
Keyboard	Acer KU-0355
Software	Windows 10!
Benchmark Scores	Ill get around to em soon

System Name	Black MC in Tokyo
Processor	Ryzen 5 5600
Motherboard	Asrock B450M-HDV
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Kingston Fury 3400mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston A400 240GB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Line6 UX1 + some headphones, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Cherry MX Board 1.0 TKL Brown
VR HMD	Acer Mixed Reality Headset
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

I have a whole rack of servers but zero idea what the hell to do with them.

Ensefalon

Deleted member 178884

Guest

phill

Moderator

hat

Enthusiast

Ensefalon

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

Ensefalon

hat

Enthusiast

GoldenX

System Name	Ciel
Processor	AMD Ryzen R5 5600X
Motherboard	Asus Tuf Gaming B550 Plus
Cooling	ID-Cooling 224-XT Basic
Memory	2x 16GB Kingston Fury 3600MHz@3933MHz
Video Card(s)	Gainward Ghost 3060 Ti 8GB + Sapphire Pulse RX 6600 8GB
Storage	NVMe Kingston KC3000 2TB + NVMe Toshiba KBG40ZNT256G + HDD WD 4TB
Display(s)	AOC Q27G3XMN + Samsung S22F350
Case	Cougar MX410 Mesh-G
Audio Device(s)	Kingston HyperX Cloud Stinger Core 7.1 Wireless PC
Power Supply	Aerocool KCAS-500W
Mouse	EVGA X15
Keyboard	VSG Alnilam
Software	Windows 11