Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Geek Culture / I just bought a server foR $10

Author
Message
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 06:12
Link
I just bought a Dell network server from a flea market for $10. I don't know much about servers, but I'm pretty sure it's very lame.
Its got:
2 733 MHZ Pentium III CPUs
512 MB SD RAM
256 KB L2 Cache (I'm not 100% sure what that means.)
17 GB raid Disk array (I have no idea what that means at all. Whats a "raid disk array"?)
It runs Windows 2000 SQL Server
It was donated to the flea market by a business. (which is probably why it isn't very good.)
I'm going to fix it up and eventually (possibly) run my website off of it, instead of paying dreamhost.
Whats kinda weird is that it has 3 hard disks, but they only have 5.99, 10.9, and 5.99 GB respectively.
I have an new(ish) 180 GB HD that my little brother is using in my old machine. I MIGHT take that and put it in the server machine.
So just how bad is this machine? Is it even worth it to fix it up? Would I be better off just buying a new server? (although thats not likely gonna happen.)

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Agent Dink
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Mar 2004
Location:
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 07:16
Link
I don't see why it would be bad to use... I'm not an expert though. I think it will be just fine to run your site off it.

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn Gorilda is lost!

Back to top
Profile PM
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 07:19
Link
umm... It has less than a gig of ram and less than 25 total GB of HD space? I'm no expert either, but it doesn't seem very good to me. It has windows 200 for crap's sake.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
JoelJ
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Sep 2003
Location: UTAH
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 07:45
Link
windows 2000 isn't necessarily bad for that.

that computer will be fine, other than your HDD problemo.
Just 2 years ago I had a server running that only had a 600mhz AMD CPU with 128mb ram running XP Pro. For a web/file server I never ran into any problems. But I didn't have high traffic.

I'd say, run that sucker, see how it works, if you don't have any speed problems, then keep going. Probably even pop a good Linux server OS on there, and you'll probably get a good boost from that. Linux servers are lighter weight. Not as demanding.
If nothing else it'd be a good learning experience for you.

And RAID is a nice way to have a bunch of hard drives work together to do different things. Depending if you have RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0/1, RAID 5, or whatever, it does different things. It's pretty sweet for servers especially. Here, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks


Intel Core2 Duo CPU @ 2.60GHz - 4.00 GB RAM - NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M - Windows Vista Business 32bit
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 07:51 Edited at: 8th Aug 2008 07:56
Link
thanks, I'll read into that. I was wondering about what RAID was.
the reason I was thinking this server is so bad is probably that I was thinking in terms of a personal computer, not a server. After all, for a personal machine, 512 MB of ram would be pretty lame. My current computer has 4 GB of ram.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Osiris
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Aug 2004
Location: Robbinsdale, MN
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 08:07
Link
RAID is really nifty for backing up data to several hard drives simultaneously.

RIP Max-Tuesday, November 2 2007
You will be dearly missed.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
DB newbie
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Nov 2005
Location: um..... i dont remember.
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 08:26
Link
yep bassicaly with raid you can use multiple hard drives in your computer that can also be used to backup files just incase one fails.


Come see the WIP!

Back to top
Profile PM Email
Van B
Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 09:25
Link
You can't assess a server in the same way as you can a normal PC. Really you have to see what it can do, and how smoothly it can do it - your not gonna be playing Oblivion on the thing.

RAID is like having cloned hard drives, any files that change are duplicated on a secondary hard drive. This at least tries to provide seamless file security, if a file get's corrupted there's always a second copy ready to replace it.

I think you've found an incredible bargain that'll prove very useful, so chin up and stop moaning about Windows 2000 - best OS for the job you will find.


Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
BatVink
Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Apr 2003
Location: Gods own County, UK
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 11:41
Link
Win 2K is still used widely in business as the operating system for servers. XP never came close to giving a good reason to upgrade. Win 2003 server is now worthwhile, but in my experience Win 2K still outnumbers it by at least 4:1.

RAID isn't quite duplicating data, it's a bit smarter. The result of RAID is that you only need one redundant hard drive in order to provide backup for four active drives. The fifth drive provides a checksum of the data on the first four, so if any drive fails, you can rebuild all of the data fast, and without resorting to backup.

The other popular method is mirroring, which is duplicating the data. You need a spare drive for every active one for this method. It is still a common method despite the need for so much more hardware, because it provides you with offline backup and data analysis.

Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 11:53
Link
It all depends on what type of server you want to run. I have a dual P133 with 80MB EDO running Win2k that runs just fine as a server for me. It's loaded with SCSI drives and works great as a file server. SQL server? Mmmmm not so much, I tried. The latency was ridiculous.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 18:56
Link
Thanks for all the info guys, and any further info/advice would also be appreciated. I guess I was just more uninformed about servers than I thought. But, hey, thats what this thread is for.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Van B
Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 19:14
Link
Ahh Steve, I always get RAID and ghosting/mirroring mixed up.

I think the best advice with servers, especially older ones, is to put them somewhere that won't bug you - they can be noisy blighters.

The main server in my office kicks out around 75 decibels, which is borderline illegal for working beside!. It is a rack mounted server though, the other desktop style servers are nice and quiet.


Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 01:04
Link
Who's puts the main server in someone's office?


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 05:39
Link
W00T! I just bough an old junker of a computer from the same flea market! This one doesn't work for some reason, so I'm gonna gut it and use the parts to fix up the server! I got a 128 MB RAM card and an HD of yet undetermined size.
Its odd though... I opened up the server and there were 4 HDs in there. Yet, when I open the My Computer folder, it only shows 3... hmm...

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 06:15
Link
I'm thinking of formatting all the HDs to empty them, then install Ubuntu server. Is this a good idea? I don't need any of the files that came with the server, so i don't see any problem with it, but I want to be sure. Does anyone have any other ideas?

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
JoelJ
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Sep 2003
Location: UTAH
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 09:04
Link
Quote: "My current computer has 4 GB of ram."

heh, and you probably barely use 2 of them. At least, I know I have 4 gigs and I'm rarely using more than 2 of them and that's with tons of stuff open

The reason you see 4 in the case, and 3 in My Computer most likely has to do with the RAID configuration. Either RAID 1 or RAID 0, I don't remember which, I think 0, is also called striping (not stripping, so don't confuse the two ), it two drives of the same size and uses them as one. The benefit you gain from that is faster write time, the disadvantage is if one drive dies, you basically lose everything on both.

I say go for Ubuntu Server. It really doesn't matter what's on it. There's no point in keeping what it had


Intel Core2 Duo CPU @ 2.60GHz - 4.00 GB RAM - NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M - Windows Vista Business 32bit
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 09:24
Link
cool, thanks. anyone else have any comments?

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 13:49
Link
Quote: "so I'm gonna gut it and use the parts to fix up the server! I got a 128 MB RAM card "


Make sure it matches with the server you have. If they're both PC100, that still doesn't mean you can use it. Server's are picky with ram, most these days would use ECC when a desktop can't(usually). I bet some people think all EDO was the same. Errr, I found it it wasn't when a chip started to corrode because it wasn't the gold stuff.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 9th Aug 2008 20:56
Link
It LOOKS almost Identical to the RAM chips already in there, but I'll check to see if it recognized it and increased the total RAM.
Thanks.

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
mm0zct
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Nov 2003
Location: scotland-uk
Posted: 10th Aug 2008 05:46
Link
batvink/van b you're both kindof right actually..
mirroring is raid 1, if one disk dies you have it's clone to recover from
raid 0 is striping, which puts half the data on each disk in small segments so it's effectively reading from both, or writing to both at the same time but different data to (nearly) double the read/write performance compared to one drive.
there are raid 1+0 and 0+1 that are actually different, wiki will explain i'm sure

i think batvink was describing of raid 5 (i'm too lazy to actually check wiki to find out)

they are all a form of raid though, raid is not one thing is describes many many different data distribution techniques
(redundant array of inexpensive disks... and here comes the flamewar that says the i is for independent or the d for drives)

AMD AthlonX2 5000 black edition @2.8ghz, 2gb pc5400, AMD/ATi hd3850, creative xfi music, 24" hp widescreen 1920x1200, ECS KA3 MVP mobo
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 10th Aug 2008 12:54
Link
Quote: "i think batvink was describing of raid 5"


Yup, the parity drive.


Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Omega gamer 89
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 12th Aug 2008 21:23
Link
Darn it! The HD I got out of the junk computer isn't compatible with the server! BTW, I think you were right about why there were only 3 HDs showing in the My computer folder. But I'm starting to see what an awesome find this was. I can't believe how luck I got!

If the good lord had intended us to go outside or have a social life, he wouldn't have invented the internet.
www.threeswordsproductions.com
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-11-20 12:33:50
Your offset time is: 2024-11-20 12:33:50