Hello.
I plan on buying a 5 -10 years old server for setting up boinc and trying some other stuff on it too. They are cheap as 100 euros / USD and are looking very powerfull for this price.

I found one named "HP ProLiant DL360 G7 1U server" with:
2x xeon x5650, 3ghz 6 cores, that make 24 threads
32 gb ram, can increase and its funny cheap
2 hdds

Are older machines worth it? Im familiar with normal PC but totaly green with servers. Will i have any troubles setting windows up? Can i install ssd on it? Should i go for it?

The only thing I know about them is that they tend to have smaller diameter but very powerful fans that can be quite loud, especially under load. Placement (noise and ambient temperature for more efficient cooling) is definitely something you should consider.

Hello.
I plan on buying a 5 -10 years old server for setting up boinc and trying some other stuff on it too. They are cheap as 100 euros / USD and are looking very powerfull for this price.

I found one named "HP ProLiant DL360 G7 1U server" with:
2x xeon x5650, 3ghz 6 cores, that make 24 threads
32 gb ram, can increase and its funny cheap
2 hdds

Are older machines worth it? Im familiar with normal PC but totaly green with servers. Will i have any troubles setting windows up? Can i install ssd on it? Should i go for it?

I buy desktops similar to that when I can find them, I don't have a rack to mount those things in, and although they are not fast they just bang out the tasks day after day after day. A couple of those things and you can quickly move up your rac and credits at almost any project. I usually add a cheap SSD drive for the OS and then run free a/v and backup software along with Boinc and VirtualBox.

Some Projects like PrimeGrid won't work as well because of the way their software works with HT stuff, but most Projects will love you and your contribution!!

The one problem you may have is 32gb of ram could be a problem for some Projects that use alot of ram for their tasks but if you are careful you should be fine. You can see the amount of ram if you open the Boinc Manager and click on a running tasks and the to the left click on Properties. It will show you 2 sets of numbers for the ram, you care about the larger number as that's the max it could use per task.

Are older machines worth it?

Only you can answer that… Whatever machine you get is going to cost you money to buy and run, and until we find a place to redeem our BOINC credits it’s difficult to define ‘worth’… Performance-wise the X5600s aren’t bad; they’re certainly capable of running Rosetta, but don’t expect them to get you to the top of the leaderboard. I’ve got one, and frequent contributor here Peter Hucker has two. Unless you have cheap electricity I’d avoid anything older, as earlier CPUs are relatively weak and power-hungry.

totaly green with servers

They are big and heavy and noisy – a 1U server could have a dozen or more 40 mm fans in it. You will not want to be in the same room as this machine for any length of time without modding the cooling or investing in some serious soundproofing or hearing protection.

Will i have any troubles setting windows up?

Shouldn’t do. At the end of the day it’s still a fairly standard PC. I understand you can still download drivers and documentation for old ProLiant servers from HP, though you need a support contract to get firmware updates.

Can i install ssd on it?

Yes; bear in mind that servers are designed to have their hard drives mounted in caddies which can be several times more expensive than any other component (though you don’t have to use them; you just need some way of supporting the SSD in the right place in the slot so it mates with the connector and doesn’t fall off). Note that the motherboard might not have standard SATA or power connectors, so you will most likely need to find some way to use the existing midplane drive connectors.

Should i go for it?

YES :-⁠D But beware that these things can be habit-forming: once you’ve bought one, you may find it increasingly difficult to resist another, and another, and…

2x xeon x5650, 3ghz 6 cores, that make 24 threads
Are older machines worth it?

Keep in mind a Ryzen 9 5900X has the same number of cores & threads, is clocked higher, and will use almost half the power, and will be good for roughly 4 times the performance (or even considerably more depending on the instructions used) of that old server.
If the money saved is worth the increased power (think of the power bills) & the much lower performance, then it's worth it.

Intel Xeon X5650 v AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (make sure to double the figures for the Xeon).

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Thank you for information. I was about to get a cheap server anyway just to have fun with it. I bought this one and yes, it can be loud - didnt set it up yet, just turned it on but i think that fans did go for a test spin for a sec. I will try to make it running in a few days ;)

I see you got it going… ;-⁠)

To get it earning the right amount of credit, run the BOINC CPU benchmarks (Advanced view » Tools menu » Run CPU benchmarks).

2x xeon x5650, 3ghz 6 cores, that make 24 threads
Are older machines worth it?

Keep in mind a Ryzen 9 5900X has the same number of cores & threads, is clocked higher, and will use almost half the power, and will be good for roughly 4 times the performance (or even considerably more depending on the instructions used) of that old server.
If the money saved is worth the increased power (think of the power bills) & the much lower performance, then it's worth it.

Intel Xeon X5650 v AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (make sure to double the figures for the Xeon).

I totally agree with you Grant but some budgets just don't allow for that kind of hardware, I bought the same kind of off business lease dual quad core Xeons with a total of 16 cores thru HT for $150 plus $50 shipping, all US money, and they crunch like crazy. I also added an Nvidia 1060 6gb gpu and with a couple of adapters they too crunch like crazy. I have 5 of those things with a minimum of 16gb of ram in each one which I am slowly upgrading to 24gb or more. They came with 4 4gb ddr3 ram sticks included but no OS which I took care of with a 120gb ssd loaded with Linux. I may not have the fastest pc's but I do have 250 cpu cores, I have a few other pc's as well, that can flat pump out workunits.