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Researchers have built server prototypes that re-use old components

(spectrum.ieee.org)
45 points rbanffy | 1 comments | 15 Nov 24 11:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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mistyvales ◴[17 Nov 24 00:52 UTC] No.42160997[source]▶
I find a lot of 10 year old Dell PowerEdge servers for basically free these days, some loaded with 128gb+ RAM. They work perfectly well with TrueNAS, pfSense, or even more powerful stuff. If you dont need a thousand cores, I always suggest them to people. Otherwise they end up in the dump..
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bob_theslob646 ◴[20 Nov 24 11:43 UTC] No.42192954[source]▶
What does it cost to actually run them though? It must be pretty costly
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1. evoke4908 ◴[20 Nov 24 23:53 UTC] No.42199453[source]▶
It extremely depends on how old the thing is. Generally the older they are, the more power they take. Machines were not efficient back then.

I have a poweredge from 2015 or so. Dual Xeon processors and all. It tops out at 500W absolute max. Though, idle is at least 75-100W. It's not too bad, I think I calculated <$100 a year. Obviously you can get some amount of virtual server for that much money, but I like being able to lay hands on a physical box. Plus the blinkenlights and HDD chatter noises are nice.