Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Old 1U Server Equipment and its use.

[VinceB]

As I sit here typing this I have a stack of 10 1U 866MHZ P3 Servers in front of me. Sometimes its possible to sell these off to some sorry soul on ebay, however if not ebay what else? I would hate to throw them out and I would like to think they could be used for something. Perhaps I could upgrade the hard drives and turn them into file servers, but then how could I even break even with the cost of co-location. Are these machines just trash? I would like to know your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks!

Specifics
P3 866MHZ
256MB Ram (up ro 512)
10GB HD

[sshepherd]

The CPU is still decent for some applications, the RAM will be a limiting factor even if its upgraded.. and the hard drive's max capacity even if you were able to swap it out would likley be limited significantly is the system has an older BIOS.

I wouldn't put the money into upgrading them, and unless you have a specific application to use it for and existing spare colo space its pretty questionable as to paying just for its own colo.

Put it this way, you could rent a server + colo/bandwidth thats as good or better than the P3's for as much as it'd cost you to colo them not including bandwidth.

[VinceB]

This is all very true. I did consider the bios limitations for HD size too. I'd like to think I could use the cases for new builds but at the same time cooling would be an issue. Good old etrash got to love it.

[sshepherd]

I still run several old Dell 1U's with P3's in them, but its for specialized applications that only run on those Linux OS Builds. I'm amazed the servers even still run after 6+ years, starting to lose track.

However, the only reason I do keep them around is I've always had my own racks with spare power/bw, if that wasn't the case I would have hauled them back to the office for light duty or scrapped them.

Its pretty unlikely the cases are fit for building out a brand new system and for the hassle I doubt you'd be saving much.

I hate trashing that stuff too. At least try to find a buyer if you can, last thing you want to do is get stuck with an inventory of electronics that has a very short use/sale cycle.

[VinceB]

Your telling a guy that just cleared out milk crates of server parts via Ebay. Worst thing is once you sell it about a week later you find you will need it. Not a pack rat by any means, but I love my server equipment. I do run a couple of them locally for random applications.

[seankoons]

Have you thought about donating them to a local school or charity?

-Sean

[RackPoint-Morgan]

Well..if you ever run out of shelves you could always grab a P3 .

[leckley]

Depending on how large you can go witht he hard drives and how many they can handle you might be able to use them for a good backup system. To backup business files, clients files etc.

As for donating them, great idea! You may look into donating them to a private school, most public schools are state funded and already have better.

Lane

[JoeBuyDomains321]

Donate them to some school or you can use them for test environment. Although I still use some P3 servers for small tasks, but mine have a lot more RAM and bigger hard drives.

[VinceB]

Private schools in the area have pretty high tech labs around here. Maybe take a sledge hammer to them and post it on youtube?

[soundguy]

I have a few with similar specs and had no problem installing a couple of old 200 gig drives and using them as redundant backups/file servers. Left the original 20gig in one and I use it for secondary DNS.

I also have a bunch of dual 1ghz P3s with 300 gig drives and about a dozen customers each. They see heavy usage as media download machines and not a lot of number-crunching. Been building P4s for new customers for awhile now, but the old dogs just won't die :-)

[ATLDedicated]

Maybe load them up with some folding@home and just stick them someplace. Better then smashing them.

[sshepherd]

Originally Posted by OpenReaction

Maybe load them up with some folding@home and just stick them someplace. Better then smashing them.

You'd be better off selling them all and getting a single Playstation 3 for $400 if you wanted it just for folding @ home, and probably have 1/15th the power usage. You'd still make out better keeping them around.

[KarlZimmer]

They'd be perfect for setting up a load balanced web server cluster. Setup a pair of LVS boxes, get a decent box for storage, etc. and you could run quite a site on that.

[ATLDedicated]

Originally Posted by sshepherd

You'd be better off selling them all and getting a single Playstation 3 for $400 if you wanted it just for folding @ home, and probably have 1/15th the power usage. You'd still make out better keeping them around.

Yeah, but then you have to pay for a Sony product and that is just...ick.