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What to do with old servers?


dummptyhummpty

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I'm inheriting three old HP servers from work and didn't know if I could put them to good use. They are HP ProLiant ML370 G3s. Two of them have the 2.8Ghz Xeon processor (with HT) while the other has two 3.2Ghz Xeons (with HT). They have between 1.5-2gigs of ram each. Two of them have six ~18gb drives while the other has six ~32GB drives. I might load up VMware ESX and play around, but I didn't know if I could put them to use and maybe earn a side income. Any ideas?

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I'm inheriting three old HP servers from work and didn't know if I could put them to good use. They are HP ProLiant ML370 G3s. Two of them have the 2.8Ghz Xeon processor (with HT) while the other has two 3.2Ghz Xeons (with HT). They have between 1.5-2gigs of ram each. Two of them have six ~18gb drives while the other has six ~32GB drives. I might load up VMware ESX and play around, but I didn't know if I could put them to use and maybe earn a side income. Any ideas?

Government wipe the drives then sell the servers on ebay.

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Government wipe the drives then sell the servers on ebay.

Yeah, that was going to be my last option. Any idea what they might be worth? I've seen them online for close to $600.

It's main possible use is storage. However, it only has a maximum capacity of 2.4TB and requires SCSI dives, which are pretty defunct by SAS drives. It would also be good as a TV recording box.

Yeah I thought of that, but they are a little loud for that, not to mention they are also pretty big. I've got other computers that could handle those tasks.

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They are nice, but they are noisy and eat a lot of power for not very much gain. You would probally be better off selling them and buying a quadcore box that uses cheaper commodity parts.

Yeah they are definitely noisy! They also helped heat our office, I don't think we ever had to run the heat!

If I did sell them for another server, any ideas what I could use that for? I thought it was nice to be given these and I didn't want to just turn around and sell them if I could find a good use for them.

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A VM server? Then you can run lots of things on it. I recommend Hyper-V or ESXi, depending on what OS's you want to run. Other than that, worlds your oyster...

Yeah, I thought of playing around with ESX as we just started using it at work.

send em over here i could use em, or you could colocate em in a datacenter and start a hosting company ;)

I thought about doing some web hosting, but I didn't know how involved that would be. I know the basics of getting started, but I don't know how time consuming it would be or if it's really worth it.

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Yeah, I thought of playing around with ESX as we just started using it at work.

I thought about doing some web hosting, but I didn't know how involved that would be. I know the basics of getting started, but I don't know how time consuming it would be or if it's really worth it.

Um...you have three, and for the price, I'd sell the two 18gb(x6) for 300-500each, keep the third and with the money, buy a quad-core for what you need; recording, fondling, etc. Use the third as your VMware server

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Um...you have three, and for the price, I'd sell the two 18gb(x6) for 300-500each, keep the third and with the money, buy a quad-core for what you need; recording, fondling, etc. Use the third as your VMware server

I didn't think about doing that. I don't really need any more computers as I'm trying to get rid of any unnecessary ones that I currently have. I guess I'll keep the good one to play around with and use the money from selling the other two towards a car computer. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. Thanks for the help!

BTW, I have a G2 version in my garage that any one is welcome to take.

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I didn't think about doing that. I don't really need any more computers as I'm trying to get rid of any unnecessary ones that I currently have. I guess I'll keep the good one to play around with and use the money from selling the other two towards a car computer. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. Thanks for the help!

BTW, I have a G2 version in my garage that any one is welcome to take.

location"? and if youd ship id pay

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It depends on what you would like to do. Maybe use one as a torrent / test box, one as a http server, ftp server, media center hooked to your TV wifi, ect.. its up to your imagination on what you want to do with all of those boxes. Too many boxes should never be a problem lol

If your a nice guy, and dont need that many boxes then why not install a basic ubuntu or windows, or something on them and give them away to young family members or kids in your community that dont have or cant afford computers to learn on that will really use it, and are genuine about learning about computers. Just let them all know ahead of time you dont offer tech support, and to learn the art of googling xD

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It depends on what you would like to do. Maybe use one as a torrent / test box, one as a http server, ftp server, media center hooked to your TV wifi, ect.. its up to your imagination on what you want to do with all of those boxes. Too many boxes should never be a problem lol

If your a nice guy, and dont need that many boxes then why not install a basic ubuntu or windows, or something on them and give them away to young family members or kids in your community that dont have or cant afford computers to learn on that will really use it, and are genuine about learning about computers. Just let them all know ahead of time you dont offer tech support, and to learn the art of googling xD

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm covered at home: My AppleTV is going to be handling file serving/torrents and I don't really have a use for a http or ftp server. I was trying to find ideas to earn some side revenue from these systems. I think I might keep one to practice VMware on though.

I'd happily give them away for people to use for learning linux, but they're actual servers: they're big (5U!), loud and hot. We had three of them in with a few Dell PowerEdge servers and never had to run the heat in the office. Now that they have been powered off, the office is MUCH cooler. I don't think they would be good for practice and they probably aren't the best machines to learn on.

Again, I appreciate all the ideas and suggestions.

location"? and if youd ship id pay

I've sent you a PM.

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damn i hate being broke.. i always like picking up new equipment...

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