Old server to use for nas

[Deltaman]

I have this old server a guy is gonna give me more than likely! Can I use it to store music on. Have it outside my audio room away from me, I don't want to see it. Connected to my streamer?

 

[Doodski]

Hmmz... If I where you I would black out the KEY for the Windows Server sofware...

 

[Deltaman]

Unfortunately this unit is a dinosaur and not worth the price of scrap. I won't be hauling it off for him.

Maybe that dat is worth 20 bucks or that's what there asking for one on eBay. He's got some newer units a lot smaller I'll be checking into.

 

[sam_adams]

Hmmz... If I where you I would black out the KEY for the Windows Server sofware...

Yeah, 'cause everybody would want the key for twenty-three year old MS server software . . .

 

[Doodski]

Yeah, 'cause everybody would want the key for twenty-three year old MS server software . . .

I have no idea the age... but it makes sense to not publicize it.

 

[audio_tony]

Dell Power Edge 1800 server.

The problems you will face with this are power consumption, it only supports 12GB RAM, and will most likely require SCSI disks (expensive, and larger sizes not really available) or specific SATA (SAS) disks, unless a different SATA controller option and cage was selected at time of purchase. SAS disks are expensive compared to standard SATA disks.

It's also likely to be noisy.

You'll also probably want to run Linux on this if you use it.

Personally I wouldn't bother with it.

EDIT: As for the server 2003 key being publicised, it really doesn't matter. As has been said - it's highly unlikely anyone would want to use server 2003 now - it's long obsolete.

 

[Raxumit]

Well, that will work I expect.. but.... The thing I don't remember is how many SATA connections a typical server will have. If none, this is a bad choice. I had one of those class of servers running with hardware RAID back before FreeNAS/TrueNAS, but it may not have enough SATA connectors if it does not come with a RAID card. And you probably don't want to run a RAID card any more anyhow - software RAID with ZFS is the way to go nowadays, in my opinion.

If you have any more at all to spend - and I mean, even $100 USD or so - you can find something more current that will be far easier to figure out and make work. Free is sometimes very expensive, if you know what I mean.

 

[sam_adams]

Dell Power Edge 1800 server.

 

[sam_adams]

If you have any more at all to spend - and I mean, even $100 USD or so - you can find something more current that will be far easier to figure out and make work.

An RPI 5 and moOde would work for a music only device. I was quite surprised at how stupid-simple moOde was to setup. I don't 'do' streaming, but it would be very easy for just about anyone who knows where the power switch on a computer is to set it up.

 

[Doodski]

Yeah, 'cause everybody would want the key for twenty-three year old MS server software . . .

Yeah, cause everybody is a expert on PC software like you... This is Audio Science Review the last time I checked and not Software Science Review as if we are expected to know about this stuff...

 

[mhardy6647]

I just won't even talk about some of the things in the basement. I don't think there's anything older than a 486DX2/66 machine down there anymore...
EDIT: Oops. Yes there is. A Radio Shack PC with an 80186, given to me long, long ago by dear family friends.

 

[Doodski]

I just won't even talk about some of the things in the basement. I don't think there's anything older than a 486DX2/66 machine down there anymore...

LoL... I kept my P75 for several years after it was totally obsolete and then gave it to a disabled gal that needed a introduction to the internet. It was slow as can be but she was impressed with what it made available for her.

 

[TonyJZX]

server 2003 is massively compromised by now so any install isnt a good idea

these servers date back to the days of scsi so they only support sata by use of pci-e cards

these are junk by now

i dont think even the cases are salvageable as they arent ATX i beleive

god i hate these things as i used to work on this era of noisy power hungry expensive shitboxes

if you were truly interested in a music server any modern desktop pc with say 4 sata ports would be all you would ever need with a fraction of the power usage

the above server is probably coming onto 20yrs old? its using ddr2!

to give you an idea i think the typical laptop back then was maybe a Core 2 Duo with 2gb mem running xp, office 2003, exchange 2003 and this would be all the office worker needed

i think amir might have been in charge of microsoft back in the day!

 

[Doodski]

server 2003 is massively compromised by now so any install isnt a good idea

these servers date back to the days of scsi so they only support sata by use of pci-e cards

these are junk by now

i dont think even the cases are salvageable as they arent ATX i beleive

god i hate these things as i used to work on this era of noisy power hungry expensive shitboxes

if you were truly interested in a music server any modern desktop pc with say 4 sata ports would be all you would ever need with a fraction of the power usage

the above server is probably coming onto 20yrs old? its using ddr2!

to give you an idea i think the typical laptop back then was maybe a Core 2 Duo with 2gb mem running xp, office 2003, exchange 2003 and this would be all the office worker needed

i think amir might have been in charge of microsoft back in the day!

RFLMAO... Hey ! @amirm is not that antiquated... gg*

 

[Blumlein 88]

server 2003 is massively compromised by now so any install isnt a good idea

these servers date back to the days of scsi so they only support sata by use of pci-e cards

these are junk by now

i dont think even the cases are salvageable as they arent ATX i beleive

god i hate these things as i used to work on this era of noisy power hungry expensive shitboxes

if you were truly interested in a music server any modern desktop pc with say 4 sata ports would be all you would ever need with a fraction of the power usage

the above server is probably coming onto 20yrs old? its using ddr2!

to give you an idea i think the typical laptop back then was maybe a Core 2 Duo with 2gb mem running xp, office 2003, exchange 2003 and this would be all the office worker needed

i think amir might have been in charge of microsoft back in the day!

Hey, I still have a Dell laptop like you describe. It just won't die. I did finally put linux on it after Win 8.1 (or was it Win 7?).

 

[AnalogSteph]

Here's a Reddit thread dealing with much the same. 2005... that would mean Prescott era Xeons and DDR2 FBDIMMs, I guess? It's a historic power hog, from an era where servers were built like tanks, weighed a ton and regularly gobbled up hundreds of watts (and nobody cared about power supply efficiency much). That as a NAS at home, hell no.

One guy wrote:

I gutted mine and put a Supermicro in it. It does have good fans and a spacious drive bay.

Now that sounds like a plan. You may need to reterminate the fans as they seem to have a nonstandard 4-pin plug that does not seem to be identical to the later 5-pin.

Turns out people have done this before (and in fact, this here turns out to be from the exact user quoted above):

This Old Server, Part 1: Too Hot

I’ve written before (This Hot Server) about my home server, and the work I’d done to it. The case, dating from 1998, was as junky as the parts it once housed. This summer, we had anothe…

davidcmoisan.wordpress.com

Seems a tad involved, but may be worth it... they don't make tank-like server cases like that any more. Dell's Delta fans are pretty legendary, too. (I would consider procuring +12V for them from somewhere else if you ever need to run them at full tilt. The average fan connector will only supply 1 A, these can draw up to 2.5. I very much suspect that with more modern, more efficient hardware you'll be able to run a very quiet fan curve.)

 

[yelloguy]

Boot from a USB thumb drive, install plex. Add music from other larger USB drives plugged in. Leave it running headless in the basement. Install plexamp app on your phone.

 

[ThatM1key]

I mean you don't need server hardware to do home server stuff. Plenty of "4th gen Intel" and newer era computers are still plenty powerful for home server stuff. I would say right now 8th gen to 10th gen Intel machines is the sweet spot for good used prices. I wouldn't even worry about SATA & USB ports since PCIe cards for them are so cheap.

I'm a hardware king but a software peasant. When I used to access my old pc with hard drives, instead of sharing it to the actual network, I connected my main pc and the old pc directly together using ethernet (Windows Network Share). These days, I keep on my data on Blu-rays and M.2 drives. Some of the drives have my newer data (I update manually versus a proper RAID setup).

The truly home DIY thing I did was making a home made router. My ISP's Modem's WIFI would "Hitch", which was actually losing packets of data (Up to 5% loss). The Modem's ethernet jacks never had any packet loss and the cost of building a home router was cheaper & better then buying a "fancy $100" router. I would like to do 6E (A good chunk of my devices support 6E) but technically I don't need 2.5G jacks, so I can find a cheap 6E router/AP that only does 1G but I like being futureproofed & don't like paying again if I do need 2.5G.

 

[somebodyelse]

EDIT: Oops. Yes there is. A Radio Shack PC with an 80186, given to me long, long ago by dear family friends.

Tandy 2000? They weren't entirely PC compatible, like anything with a 186. The only 186 I ever encountered (knowingly) was in an Intergraph CAD workstation the size of a small filing cabinet.

 

[Snarfie]

To listen house wide for most to my Bluethoot headphone an Bose Wave i changed from a Windows enviroment to a Raspberry PI3 running on a Linux Kodi (network part audio) platform a 4tb hdd. Outcome way more cost efficient idle 1.9 watt