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Home Server/Used Servers
Be aware though, rackmount servers are usually pretty loud, and many older Xeons can be extremely energy inefficient. For most popular brands/configurations there are YouTube videos specifically for the sound. Search for "R720 noise" in YouTube and you will find videos of people putting their microphones up to them so you can assess the noise levels for yourself and your application. Don't let the noise deter you unless you plan to have this server in a living space in your home. Even if you do, anything 2U or 4U usually has the option for a "quiet mod" where you swap the fans with noctua's or similar, drastically reducing the noise the machines create.
Pros
- Excellent balance of cost vs. performance.
- Spare parts are dirt-cheap.
- Upgrades are cheap.
Cons
- Loud
- No warranty.
- No support.
- Old servers will lack more modern CPU's, potentially restricting the workloads you can use it for.
Important Notes
- Make sure the system is 64bit. 32bit are very old, avoid at all costs.
- Some older legacy systems do not support UEFI and thus cannot boot UEFI OS's.
- Some Very old (8-10 years) high end CPUs actually perform worse than modern low-to-mid end CPUs.
Things to look out for when buying used:
- 32bit systems have a hard limit on Ram. Avoid at all costs.
- Some older legacy systems do not support UEFI and thus cannot boot UEFI OS's.
- Older hardware specs may become performance bottlenecks (Earlier SATA/PCIe/SAS/USB revisions).
- Some Very old (8-10 years) high end CPUs actually perform worse than modern low-to-mid end CPUs.
- Lack of support for potentially desired features such as QSV, 1GB/10GB Ethernet, m.2, etc.
- Some disk shelf/server backplanes are SAS only and won't accept standard Sata drives.
Good places to find old server hardware:
Case mods
