Hi! I’ve never had a server, except for a raspberry that I use as a DNS (pi-hole), but I’ve been wanting it for a long time. The other day I found something that is kinda old, but very cheap, and I’ve been thinking about buying it since then.

It’s an IBM System x3500 M4. It has an E5-2620, 32 GB of DDR3, and 7 wonderful 900 GB SAS hard drives (don’t know if actual hard disk or solid state), which would fulfill all of my linux ISOs needs for at least the next year (probably a bit more), and a RAID controller ServeRAID M5110. All for 210 euros, which I think is very cheap.

From what I know, the E5 is power hungry for modern standards, and the SAS drives are not exactly friendly for replacement parts. How much would that (mostly the SAS part) be a problem?

Also, what can I expect concerning RAID? That is definitely the most concerning thing for me, as I’ve never worked with it.

Another huge part is, I do not care about accessing it from the outside, but I’d be sharing this system with my brother, in another city, so we would have to figure out a way of doing it. Normally I’d use port forwarding, but we’re both behind CG-NAT. Is there any way of not using a third party server as a proxy/VPN/whatever? If not, what service would you recommend for this purpose?

Another thing, my brother just happens to have a probably working, 16 GB ECC DDR3 stick laying around, except that it’s 1600MHz, and the CPU only supports up to 1333MHz. I’m pretty sure that if I’d put two sticks with different frequencies, the CPU would use the lower one, but is that the case even if the CPU does not support the frequency of one of the stick? (in short, would putting the other stick work?)

If you have any other pointers or anything, let me know. Thank you :)

  • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    2 hours ago

    I’d definitely skip this in favor of something consumer-grade. You can find used Dell Optiplexes all over the place cheap and stick a large drive inside/outside of it and use it for a couple of years.

    A big old server is just going to drain your wallet on both power and parts with equal or worse performance and a lot more complexity for what 99% of home users will use it for.

    It sounds like your main goal is probably a media server and an Optiplex will give you an i5 or i7 with QuickSync which works excellent for processing video. RAID isnt really necessary here because you can just download more Linux ISOs if these one are lost, though it can be great later if you buy a bunch more drives and expand into other areas where data is less replaceable.

    Can’t say on access behind CG-NAT, as I haven’t ever dealt with it, but Tailscale might work as a free third-party option though that’s just a guess.