Hi, I think this is my first post here.
My job was throwing out this server because they had no use for it. I took it off their hands I am now looking for something fun to do with it. I think that I want to set up a web server as well as a git repo on it. The server has two E7520 processors and I think 16gbs of ram. It isn’t the most powerful thing in the world but, I was wondering if anyone has any cool ideas for what I could do with it. Any suggestions on what OS or software I should use on it would also be appreciated. I have working knowledge of Linux, not a pro, I was thinking about using CentOS but, If anyone has a better suggestion I am open to it.
that would make a perfect game server
well if you like gaming maybe a game server, you could do some VM stuff, if power isnt an issue my boinc team could really use the extra help for CPU challenges...umm. theres alot of things you can do. What are you interested in.
So, one of my friends built a server that we use for games so I'm not sure that I would do that since we have something already, or if I do it won't be the primary thing I'd do with this machine. I have not really worked with virtualization before so doing something with that might be cool and I hadn't heard of boinc before but, after reading a bit about it that seems pretty cool. I really wasn't expecting to get this server so I really hadn't thought of much.
You could slap a couple of X7560's off of eBay for $13 a pop since they would double you core count and increase your frequency substantially, and from there you can use the server for most anything really. If you want to toy around with VMs, that'd be perfect. You could use the free version of ESXI, or Proxmox, or a catalog of alternatives to setup a free home lab. Maybe buy some refurbished cheapo hard drives and make an overpowered NAS out of the thing.
seems like getting the X7560's be a cool but, I don't think they will be compatible. The E7520's use at best DDR2 ram, while the X7560's use DDR3. I don't have the specs of the motherboard but, I am looking. If I find that its compatible I would do that, and as for HDDS, I need to find some used SCSI drives or find a way to use an adapter for sata to scsi.
Damn. The two cpus are socket compatible at least, so maybe its worth checking the server QVL to see if they're supported?