2x Xeon six cores, 2.67ghz, 16m cache 1066mhz FSB Dell remote access card 5 PCIe Integrated Nics are TOE ready Embedded VMware ESX 3i v 3.5 2Cpu Licenses Intel pro 1000 VT quad port 64gb memory, 16x4gb, 667mhz Dvd RW drive, internal, sata Perc6i SAS Raid Controller Internal with battery 1gb USB, Internal contains embedded hypervisor 1x5 SAS Backplane, for 3.5 SAS Hard drive only Poweredge R900
That last line has me worried. I want to pick these up for playing around with but don't want to have to buy SAS drives for it. I looked up the raid controller and it says it will work with SATA drives.
Before I put the money into this can a backplane be only SAS?
According to Linus, SATA will work on any SAS connector, but not vice versa. I have no personal experience with SAS so don't trust me, but rather look into their compatibility on a protocol level
SAS is backowercomp with sata but not the otherway arroud, I my self had the "same" porblem. But there is none. SAS would allow you to take full advantage of faster drives like a SSD (If i have understod the tech right) As well as using both sas and sata drives.
While the above posts are correct and SATA is "backwards" compatible with SAS in some instances, the Dell servers I used at my previous job did not accept SATA hard drives since the raid controller firmware would deny them. They would only work with SAS drives, and they only liked Dell branded SAS drives, the activity/health lights would not synchronize correctly on non-Dell drives and it would spit a bunch of health errors in the logs that were false.
You -can- specify you want a SATA raid controller if your purchase it from dell and save money on both the controller and the drives, or replace it with a SATA specific controller. If you have the means, though, stick with SAS.
Thanks man I see that too. I still pulled the trigger on them yet. I also have another question. Do you notice where it says max internal 5TB. So if i put in five 2tb hard drives is that considered 10tb internal storage? what if it is in raid and and i have it set to raid does that count?
SATA is backwards compatible with SAS. Question, what are you buying R900's for? These servers are REALLY old. The power to run them should be a consideration too. We have these at our datacenter and we are literally throwing them away as recyclers don't even want to bother with them.
Dell R710 are cheap, 2U less, more powerful, less power hungry, and cheap. You should look at these if you haven't already.
If you see a drive limit listed, it's per single drive not combined. E.G. if your controller supports max 4TB you can run multiple 4TB drives. The drive limit on those older controllers is 128 I believe with newer controllers supporting up to 256 drives.
They are old I know this but are they bad? A guy was selling them on Craigslist for 250 for both of them. I was just wanting to play with them back up my videos and maybe make a media server out of them. Something else to play with.
Truthfully I was jumping in blind and was just going to make it happen. Learn as I go. This is why I was asking you guys. Thanks guys by the way. If you guys know some better for a newbie I'm all ears.
Better off spending $350 on a single R710 on eBay vs 2x R900. These things are HUGE (4U), power hungry, and just old old old. They launched in 2008 (8 YEARS ago) in tech years that may be 100 years.
Thanks for the heads up I found one on ebay. Im looking to get instead of the R900s. For the same price of the 2 with almost half of the tdp of the R900. I didn't give power consumption a thought. Thanks for the help guys you all really helped. I'll give up dates as to what I get into. Probably will have more questions later.
You should also be aware of acoustics. These servers are LOUD and if this is something you plan on running in your home you may want to consider building one in a standard ATX case with active CPU coolers.
I've got get back with the guy and tell him I'm not going to take the R900. I have found a R710.
Specs.
I think it is a generation two r710 cause it has the drives across the face. Not all on the right hand side.
Description: R710 with NO RACK EARS INCLUDED You Cannot put a bezel on this machine without adding ears These were made special for EMC The functionality is not effected in any way
Poweredge R710 2U Server
Clean and off-lease - some minor scratches from pallet stacking 30 Day Warranty
NO COA on Machine NO Media Disc Included
Specifications 2x Intel Xeon 2.8ghz 8mb Cache 6.4 GT/s Quad Core CPUs X5560 6x 4gb DDR3 Memory 2x 146gb 15k SAS 3.5" Hard Drives 4x Blanks Included (will not hold drives) No Optical Drive Included Perc 6i Controller with Battery 4x Onboard Gigabit Ethernet iDrac6 Express (No Dedicated NIC) 2x 570w Power Supplies
I'm wanting to do a little bit of everything with this. Is there an OS that can handle being a media center, game server for Minecraft, virtual machine, and maybe be able to render videos?
How much for this machine? If this is a home server you really should look at building one yourself unless you have a space to put this where the sound won't drive you crazy or plan on colocation. Personally I would look at newer, lower power consumption platform. You can grab a used 2011-3 V3 14c Xeon on eBay $350, SM board, some RAM, etc and build yourself something really powerful and really quiet. Plus you can use consumer stuff for the power supply, case, etc and save some money.
You should look into virtualization (ESXi, etc).
Have you ever heard a server in person? They are basically vacuum cleaners 24/7/365. Even if you lower the fan RPM as soon as there is some load they are just so loud.
$200. I wish I had that kind of money to blow on parts. I understand it's going to be loud. I've got a place I think I can put it. I'll make a monster at some point but I'm just getting my foot in the door. Testing the waters.