[geeks] FYI - very nice price on a 1U Intel server

[Joshua Boyd]

On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 09:22:17AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Dell has some off-lease servers available that have some very nice specs
> for the price (IMHO), I thought some here might be interested.
> 
> The units have dual quad-core Xeon CPUs running at 2.5 GHz (L5420 Xeons), 8
> Gigs of RAM (2x 4 Gig, with what appears to be four open RAM slots on the
> MB), and a 250 Gig SATA HD.
> 
> The chassis has (I assume) a non-redundant PS, but it includes 4 SATA trays
> in it's 1U chassis.
> 
> The price is $212 (with free ground S/H), BUT if you use promo code
> "Save30%Now" the price drops to about $150 - plus sales tax.
> 
> Website: http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/ - click on servers (there were
> about 8 left when I looked earlier - Note: the 30% discount code works on
> any item in the refurn store, incl. laptops, desktops, monitors, etc.)
> 
> This server appears to have been a custom/non-standard build for a large
> customer for use as a compute cluster node? Web server front end? It ships
> without rails, and, like some rackable brand systems it MAY ship without a
> top.
> 
> I know occasionally folks here are interested in such deals. and dual quads
> for $150 w/8 Gigs RAM in a 1U chassis w/ four hot-swap bays could make a
> nice small storage array.
> 
> I've ordered one, but there are many unknowns at this point (what is RAID
> controller, memory used, expansion slot technology, does it have a DRAC,
> etc.).

We have a bunch of those at work (purchased used).  I believe they have
no RAID, use PC2-5300P (maxes out at 24 gigs), allow at least one PCIe
slot, I don't know about DRAC.