Dell Poweredge 4400

[SidebandSamurai]

Just a thought:  How about using an old Dell Poweredge 4400 server as an Unraid server.  I have one of these in my garage it has two xeon PIII processors and I forget what memory it has.  I can remove the SCSII backplane and install SATA drives.  I know that this beast can be really noisy so maybe not it would not be such a good choice.  but i was thinking of what to do with the hardware beside using it as a boat anchor.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Sideband Samurai

[SidebandSamurai]

I really do apologize,  I forgot the links to documentation and a picture...

 

First the Picture:  http://www.sparrowtec.com/images/products/dell4400-2.jpg

Now the documentation:  http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe4400/en/index.htm

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Sideband Samurai

[Rajahal]

Took me a minute, but I finally found the specs under 'user guide'

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe4400/en/ug/techspec.htm

 

Here's my thoughts:

 

2 power hungry CPUs

PCI expansion only (slow)

requires non-standard and expensive RAM

10/100 LAN (slow)

unknown power supply (likely to be inefficient)

replacing the SCSI backplane with SATA will be a pain

 

If you are looking for a weekend project that will ultimately net you an inefficient and slow server, then the Dell Poweredge 4400 fits the bill.  Otherwise, I would recommend against it.

[SidebandSamurai]

Yea, I see what you mean,

 

Let me defend this for a moment:

 

Removing the Scsi plane is really easy, takes about 5 minutes.

 

Advantages:

2 PSU at 320w each, both load balanced.  Optional third one for redundancy as a hot spare.

Maximum of 4GB ram.  That should be enough

Video card has 4mb ram so no 3d gaming here.

I don't need very powerful CPU's to run the server software, and it has two xeon pentium III

It can support 7 or 8 drives.

I could upgrade the network card by installing a Gigabit PCI card

install a SATA card to support the hard drives.

Yes, this is PCI, and its slow but from what i read about this monster, it actually has TWO pci bus paths divided between 7 PCI slots.  That has to be worth something in performance.

 

Disadvantages

It will be noisy.  Very noisy

could suck lots of power.  How much I have no idea.  For that matter, what about these 40TB monsters I have seen built, what is the maximum power draw on something like that.

Its heavy, with out drives its 115 lbs.

Its big  about twice as big as your normal full tower.

 

Thanks again for all your thoughts.

 

Sincerely,

 

Sideband Samurai

[Rajahal]

The cheapest I'm seeing 4 GB of that RAM costing is $100 - NOT WORTH IT...that type of RAM is obsolete.

 

168 pin 4gb RAM google shopping results

 

Putting any more than 2 drives on ANY PCI bus will result in slower performance.  Even with two separate channels, you are looking at maxing out at 4 drives before you start running into bottlenecks.  If you don't care about speed, then it should work.  Just don't put too much money into PCI SATA cards (you can get 4 port Sil3132 versions for about $20 at monoprice).

 

More PSUs isn't a good thing, it will waste power.  A single efficient PSU will do a much better job.  Forget about redundancy - invest in a good UPS instead.

 

I can pretty much guarantee that this server will use up more power than a modern 40 TB monster, though I can't provide any hard evidence for that assertion.

 

The biggest servers I've built weight about 60 lbs, and they hold 24 drives.  I can't imagine a server weighing 115+ lbs that can only hold 7-8 drives.

 

I'm still against it, but if you are willing to put around $200 into this server (not including drives or your monthly power bill), then you should be able to get it to work.  I would HIGHLY recommend that you put that money into more modern hardware instead.  You can build a modern 7-8 drive server for about $300 total (not including drives).

 

* I wrote this while drunk, so take it all with a grain of salt.