Dell Poweredge server T410, 32GB ram, Intel Xeon E5645 2.13GHz Quad-core No HDD SAS
Going for 50 AUD (32 USD)
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I would look at the list of CPUs that support hardware encoding and see if this Xeon is on the list. If it’s not, I would pass on it for a Plex server. It might be good for a NAS, though. It’s a pretty old CPU, but would be perfectly adequate for a NAS/NFS server.
For Plex specifically it is a pass. This will have Xeons and Xeons don’t support quick sync. You are going to be much better off buying one of those micro desktops from Dell/HP/Lenovo.
I run plex and the full support stack on a dell optiplex 3060, obviously the data is stored elsewhere. Cheap, quiet and can stack them like legos.
Can feed 3 streams simultaneously, haven’t tried it with more.
E-waste
Too old and power hungry at this point. Plus the raid controllers of that generation only support up to 2tb.
Aim for at least a T320 or R320.
I use my R320 as a Plex server and it’s pretty good. Not as power efficient as something newer, but I got it for free, it has lots of RAM so I can run many VMs as well as Plex, and it supports SAS which made getting several inexpensive 8TB drives going in ZFS nice and easy.
I just want to make a small correction for others reading this. The Tx10/Rx10 CAN have a raid controller that doesn’t support larger than 2tb drives, specifically any of the PERC 6 lines. If your Tx10/Rx10 has a PERC H200/H700, you don’t have that 2tb limitation.
Edit: But yes, too old to be worthwhile for anything.
I believe you still are limited to 512k sector size though.
I mean, it would definitely run it. But so would a raspberry pi 4 as long as your just direct streaming 1080p videos.
I’d buy it in a heartbeat. My current one is a dual CPU Mac Pro 5,1. No idea what the power draw is, and I don’t care in the slightest.
You would not want to buy this E-Waste for that much money.
No, just no
Hard no.
That machine will cost you more in power than what you could have built a modern server for that will decimate that Dell relic in performance.
For $500 you can build a brand new, complete machine based around a i3 12100.
For comparison, a cheap 12100 has three times the compute power of that Xeon dinosaur, plus hardware transcoding. The 12100 will do 6+ 4K transcodes, that Xeon will do zero.
Yes, $50 up front is cheap. It will cost you far more in the long run while having garbage performance.
Are you seriously comparing something for $30 and something for $500?
Do you have a spec list? Because I have no ability to take what you said and translate it into a working machine, but I do have the ability to order from Amazon or NewEgg and assemble.
I also have two R730s that I’m considering turning into NAS and Plex setups, but I keep reading that I’ll be sorry. So…tell me what I want instead.
I agree that using old R730’s for Plex or a home server is silly. Getting rid of my HPE DL380 G9 (the HPE equivalent of a Dell R730) was the best thing I ever did.
For low end budget? i3 12100, Gigabyte Gaming X Z690 DDR4 or Aorus Elite DDR4 motherboard, Unraid, 2x8gb DDR4 3600 (I’ve been using Corsaor LPX for the last dozen+ Unraid builds I’ve done). Fractal R5 case with a Thermaltake GX2 PSU.
That should land you just a smidge above $500, not inclusive of the Unraid license.
i5 13500 is an excellent upgrade if you are anticipating running compute heavy tasks. Definitely pick up a pair of 1TB NVME to run as wrote cache and storage for your containers (Plex and whatnot).
Sell the R730’s. A single 13500 will likely be more powerful than both of them combined, not that you need the power in the first place. If you get lucky you can find some dolt that will pay a premium for them because they think Xeon’s are so powerful and cool!
Profit. Literally. You’ll make your money back in not paying to power a R730 (or worse, two of them).
Allegedly if I had a homelab, and allegedly had 8x10tb for storage. I would have allegedly used a dell tower server similar to this with 32gb ram and have allegedly had no problems.
Also allegedly I ended up with a second one for the times allegedly I’ve upgraded hard drive size.
No. I have a r710 and had to move Plex off of it because it can’t transcode real time period. Plex is now in an optiplex with a cheap quadro. Also Dell did a dumb thing where the pcie slots can’t handle more than 25 watts, so you can’t even add a graphics card.
Relative to a laptop or consumer pc this thing will be a power hog
Old Hardware, and very power hungry.
Look for desktop systems from main brands like Lenovo, Dell and HP, go for a G5400 or i3 8100 with 16gb of ram. Those are generally limited on hdd space, so if you need more than 2/3 HDDs, it would be better going DIY.
I think the power draw is going to make this not worth it.
I’m using this exact tower still. I inherited it for free from work. I swapped the CPUs to some lower TDP L5640s and put an H710 in to allow a 6x4TB array and a Quadro P400 for transcode.
It has no problems pushing 4K HDR streams in my house, or several 1080p streams remotely to family and friends.
You can definitely find lower power solutions, but probably not at this price point with the 6 Bay storage included. All things considered it really doesn’t draw that much power, but I might be biased with my inexpensive solar electricity.
That’s my plan with my T410, the L5640(s), though mine is going to be an occasional use ESXi host for bigger labs than my Gen8 Microserver can handle. Have you got power figures or was that just a guesstimate?