Hi All!
I currently have an old DELL PowerEdge T610 with 2x Xeon L5640. It currently runs at ~200w with Proxmox as the hypervisor. What runs on it is a couple of LXC containers running Docker, Home Assistant, and other random Linux software. My only VM I run that is heavy is a CCTV/Plex combo VM. Has to run on Windows That has a GTX-1050TI 8vCPUs 16GB of RAM. Unfortunately my power bill is dramatically increasing here in PA, and I think it’s time to rebuild a new server.
Wants:
Something to consolidate my other Dell OptiPlex side server with a heavy 4 vCPU /8GB RAM and various docker containers using around ~3GB of RAM.
HotSwap Bays to become a NAS Maybe all flash due to power usage of HDD?
Enough PCIe bays for 2 GPUs (Currently 2x GTX-1050TI Low Profile) Maybe a swap for something less power?
2.5/10GbE Networking
Needs:
It will be headless so IPMI or some kind of remote monitoring tool.
Low Idle power usage (I average ~15-20% currently with the Xeons)
Thank you everyone for your help and expertise. While I would like to stay under $1000 for just parts (storage doesn’t need to count) I can stretch.
Those are low power CPU’s and the T610 runs healthy power supplies but the performance per watt is long gone.
You’ll need a 12th gen or new T SKU intel for ECC and low power on the consumer side.
Else, buckle up for a ton of researching for an equivalent enterprise grade surplus solution. The T series from Dell is nice and quiet, as is the HP and Lenovo equivalents so aim for a 4U server when searching.
All enterprise grade solutions will have hot swap on the front, I recommend 3.5" bays since space is not at a premium.
iDRAC and iLOM requires licenses so be aware when bidding, but a piKVM is always a healthy option that will continuously receive updates long after EOL.
I mention this because a T610 is literally ancient. We had a client just replace one and his new server is 1/3 the size and power consumption with triple the performance.
Gah, I am still writing about this between completing compliance forms.
Long and short is 20TB drives for media, SSD’s for small IO/boot drives.
Before getting too into the weeds on specific hardware: What are you utilizing the GPUs for? Just Plex? Also, how much storage space is required, and what are your preferences regarding ECC?
Asking as at least by whatever PassMark is doing, the L5640 is less powerful than an N100, and maybe 1/3rd as good as a i3 12100: Intel Xeon L5640 @ 2.27GHz vs Intel N100 vs Intel Core i3-12100 [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software. Both of the newer chips in that comparison have quicksync video, so might be able to replace the GPU for Plex usage – I’ve no experience with the CCTV bits, can’t speak to that.
With that in mind, one could potentially, for example, pair a N100 mini PC with some off the shelf NAS box for bulk storage and drastically cut power usage. Ditto any of the higher spec mini PCs or NUCs for compute, or go with the AM4/AM5 home server-ish boards like TryTwice suggested if wanting to stick with everything in one chassis. Other things that come to mind are old workstation PCs – Dell Precision T5820s can be had for not very much on ebay these days, as one potential starting point.
But it will depend on things like how many users are hitting the plex server, whether or not you were also using that windows VM for gaming, how many cameras in the CCTV setup, etc. as to how much hardware you’ll actually need to throw at it.
Edit for anecdote, yay – as far as drastic power reduction goes, one of the setups I have on my shelf right now is a Ryzen 5600H mini PC in front of a Synology NAS with 2x 14TB drives (and 6 bays open for future expansion). The two of them, combined, idle at ~50W (7 for the mini PC, the rest is the NAS). It’s good enough that I shut off my x99 / Xeon v4 system (idles around 100W, with all its addin cards and 4x64gb ecc rdimms) unless I’m doing something where I really need the RAM capacity – and the mini PC has 64GB, so it’s a very short list of things that do, for me.
So the one VM is required to have a Nvidia GPU. The other VM that is a combo CCTV/Plex VM can run well without a GPU I just believed I would need one for Plex Transcoding which I end up doing away from home. Upload speed is ~ 30mbps I really appreciate the feedback and you made me laugh of how bad the L5640 is now. As it runs everything really well lol.
Also to add on the size really doesn’t matter as much. ECC I would like to have just in case of weird data failures and such. Also, storage wise I have some SSD in the DELL already that can move over for most of the critical OS and Hypervisor storage with a large HDD for Plex (I need to get more for RAID) and another 2TB for CCTV footage.
Yeah, being an actual enterprise device is not a concern (Literally just a homelab) I am really coming to the realization of how slow it is compared to new devices. If you were to recommend a 7000s part what would it be? Should I look for the same number of cores? I agree on what you say about HDD/SSD ideas. I rather be more on the consumer side as the NEW enterprise side is crazy expensive if I am not buying old parts again which would negate the upgrade in it’s entirety.
That has a GTX-1050TI 8vCPUs 16GB of RAM. Unfortunately my power bill is dramatically increasing here in PA, and I think it’s time to rebuild a new server.
– as far as drastic power reduction goes, one of the setups I have on my shelf right now is a Ryzen 5600H mini PC in front of a Synology NAS with 2x 14TB drives (and 6 bays open for future expansion). The two of them, combined, idle at ~50W (7 for the mini PC, the rest is the NAS). It’s good enough that I shut off my x99 / Xeon v4 system (idles around 100W, with all its addin cards and 4x64gb ecc rdimms) unless I’m doing something where I really need the RAM capacity – and the mini PC has 64GB, so it’s a very short list of things that do, for me.