My university had excedent servers after cloud migration and were going to throw them out. Any tips for sourcing drives and ram?
It's fun to roll the Aliexpress dice for homelabs. Worked out great for so far.
I'd be hesitant to do that with drives and I'd attempt to use consumer drives.
Is it worth the electricity costs?
eBay or Amazon
RAM can be bougt used on ebay. I recommend buying SATA drives instead of SAS drives if the system supports them. They are a lot cheaper.
I have had few rack server RAM sticks around for so long (something like few GBs). If you let me know the exact model I will gift them to you (if the model matches). I'm based in Italy.
Proliant dl380e g8. Based in Spain. Requires ddr3
I would recommend eBay. It's how I got parts for my free PowerEdge 1950 and a few old ass laptops.
I’ve got a bunch of ddr3 8gb server ram and some drives for that model if you’re interested
Lots of parts for these as these g8s and g9s are being recycled, ebay has a lot of great oem parts cheap. I have a dl360 gen 8 and gen 9
If you're in Canada, look for ANK servers, on Ebay. Easy to deal with, and lots of parts for this sort of server.
Do it eBay my friend.
I think I have a bunch of 4GB or 8GB *ECC DDR3. Post what you need, I shelved it years ago. If you're in the US I'll give you for shipping.
What is that FlexLOM card? It looks like a 530FLR dual-SFP+ module, which is a bit of an upgrade from the standard, plus maybe a 331T in a PCIe slot?
I have loads of 8GB modules from DL380 machines if you are UK based?
cloudninjas.com has pretty decent deals on ram/ misc specifically for servers and will tell you if it fits yours or not. I got refurbed hdd's on Amazon because I'm cheap, but at least they're enterprise level.
I would look for things on ebay. Google the model and find the type of RAM it needs. Same with disks. Disk drives are pretty universal, as long as you have the trays needed for that server. You either need 2.5 or 3.5 inch SAS drives. I can't tell from the photo. If you don't have the drive trays, make sure you get trays for your drives from ebay too. SATA drives will also work, but you'll have better luck with SAS drives since they're enterprise spec and tend to be more reliable and last longer. With RAM, the only thing that's really different from desktop RAM is that you want to make sure you get ECC(error checking) for a server.
I may have some. I’d have to check.
From this angle, that looks like a DL380 G5. It's not worth buying parts for. But if you must ... EBAY, of course.
Get the fan mod for the BIOS, your ears will thank you
WHAT DID YOU SAY
What fan mod?
Thanks.
eBay for RAM, should be pretty cheap for used stuff. Also, drive caddies eBay or Amazon, there are companies that make clones that work just as well as the originals. HP wants you to buy their drives, which were really just rebadged drives at 5-6 times the price. I'm assuming this is a SAS machine, if you want new drives you can use SATA drives in a SAS controller (can't go the other way) and it will work just fine for a home server. If you are fine with used, SAS drives are on eBay for pretty cheap.
If in the US, eBay or r/homelabsales.
Ddr3 is dirt cheap and those units are long in the tooth , e-waste so parts are dirt cheap .
Edit: I can't tell what it is, assumed g8 but the P models don't have heatsinks like that. It's either an E model or older. If older, literally not worth sourcing anything. I will send you a g8 for free just to scrap this ddr2 machine lol
Is it an HPE Proliant? If so go to their site, look for the “Quickspecs” for your precise model. That document will list every available part, and its product number. Search eBay for the bits you need / want. No ambiguity.
/r/homelabsales. Put in a wanted request.
IMHO DDR3 is too old to be worth it unless you get the RAM for free
buy low capacity drives on ebay they are often under 20 bucks to get the sleds then install your choice of drives
Look up the quickspecs for the thing, that will tell you which modules are compatible. Check ebay or homelabsales for it.
I have 8x 1GB DDR3-UDIMM ECC Modules laying around from upgrading my Dell R210 II, I would give you those for free when you pay shipping, but you're probably in the US and I'm in europe, so it's probably too expensive to ship.
Bro all these people getting free servers from school/work so jealous man lol
Ebayyy
Free servers tend to cost a LOT of money.
Even bought ones cost a LOT of money too.
Depends on how you buy it. If you keep power consumption at the top of mind, and you stay about 3 years back in the early refresh cycle, you can do very well.
Was gonna say this. They are fun to play with but they are LOUD, expensive to run, and likely overkill for most home jobs.
I have the exact same server. The drive caddies are hit and miss on ebay. Bought a few, didn't fit. Gave up on buying any. I see you pulled out the place holder bays out. I used a 3d printer and printed some of the drive caddies off of thingiverse. You'll want to search your exact model. But still ended up snipping some off so they would slide in.
The server has an option to put a PCIE riser nearest to your power supply there. There's a few of those on ebay as well. Looks like you have one installed on the opposite side next to the SATA cables plugged in. That would let you swap that network card you have in there for a GPU and power it if you wanted.
Seeing as you have RAM in both sides of the motherboard I would wager this is a DUAL CPU system.
Might search for the manual of your exact model/make so you can see what all features and hardware it can use. Get your ILO setup too.
Grats on the system! Mine sits around 200-300 watts with minimal load.
ebay
low density sticks are pretty cheap
drives? ebay or serverpartdeals... Servers usually support SAS disks, and sometimes you can find those for cheap since there is lower 2nd hand market demand.
Shameless plug: I have a pile of 6TB Toshiba 7200rpm SAS drives that came from a Dell server and are in good working order. Looking to send them to a loving home. They should work well in your server. PM me if interested.
Literally free?
First you have to find a RAM tree, then dry out the branches and whittle them into RAM sticks. That's how I got my RAM.
eBay
This image shows an open HP ProLiant server situated on a wooden desk, revealing its internal components. Here's a detailed analysis:
Server Model: The monitor in the background displays "HP ProLiant," which is the model of the server. This line of servers is commonly used in business environments for various applications due to their reliability and scalability.
Internal Components:
Processor and Heatsink: In the center, there's a large, metal heatsink which is part of the server's cooling system. It's mounted on the motherboard to dissipate heat from the processor underneath.
Memory Slots: To the left of the heatsink, there are several DIMM slots for memory. Some slots are filled with RAM modules (which appear to have white locking clips), while others are empty, indicating that the server is not at its full memory capacity.
Drive Bays: At the front, there are several hard drive bays with hot-swap capability, allowing drives to be replaced without powering down the server. Some bays are occupied by drives with red handles.
Expansion Slots: To the right, you can see several PCIe expansion slots, which can be used for additional hardware such as network cards or storage controllers.
Power Supply Unit (PSU): Partially visible at the back, the PSU provides power to the server. Its placement indicates a redundant design, common in servers for reliability.
Peripheral Devices:
Keyboard: In the foreground, there is an HP keyboard, suggesting that someone is interacting with the server directly rather than remotely.
Monitor: The monitor is showing a text-based interface, likely the BIOS, a hardware configuration menu, or an early-stage system boot process.
Maintenance Activity:
CPU Memory Board Carriers: In the foreground, leaning against the desk, there appear to be two CPU memory board carriers. These are typically used to hold additional processors and RAM for server upgrades.
USB Cable: On the front of the server, there is a USB cable plugged in, which could be connected to storage media or another peripheral device necessary for the maintenance or upgrade process.
Environment:
The server is situated in an office setting, indicated by the cubicle partitions and office chairs in the background.
This setup suggests that the server is undergoing maintenance, upgrade, or repair. The open chassis and visible internal components indicate that work is being done on the hardware, which may include installing additional memory, processors, or configuring the system for deployment. The presence of the keyboard and the displayed information on the monitor also suggests active interaction with the server's configuration settings.
Any tips for sourcing the parts?
SaveMyServer, TechMikeNY, ServerMonkey - all of those will have the parts you need.
Pictures that you can hear
It's not really that loud once it's finished booting.
If your looking for a decent machine try the hp elitedesk g3 800 sff desktop i5 7500 quiet as hell upto 64gram twin video out 10 usb usually come with 500gb ssd and 500gb hdd all this for about 70quid I just got two and I couldn't be happier 😊
Look at the options of what is compatible. You can look online by the parts numbers listed in this document.
HPE Proliant DL380 Gen 8 data sheet: https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/c04123238
Why bother
I got some drives cheap if you want it
Google the model number, buy stuff.