I am doing some upgrades and a big part of that for me is aesthetics and future upgrades.

I currently have a couple 7020 I5 Dell Optiplexs but I am thinking about purchasing a couple Dell R210ii.

Is this a crazy move? I love the idea of a small 1U rack mount server and plus they are cheap. I can pick them up for $150 while I would be paying $150 alone for a chasie.

Is this a crazy move?

  • Admiral Patrick
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    59 months ago

    I still run an aging R210ii, and it’s been great. Mostly…

    If you’re going to use the server for storage (or I/O heavy tasks), you might be better to get the Optiplex since it has SATA-III (6 Gbps) and the R210ii only has SATA-II (3 Gbps). The R210ii also only has one PCI-E slot which limits expansion options.

    • @Number1OP
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      29 months ago

      I planned on attached some direct storage and using a truenas VM, for what I do I don’t think sataii will be that much of a downgrade

  • @[email protected]
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    49 months ago

    I would stick with the 7020’s or get something smaller like a Beelink unit that seems to be all over tech YouTube right now.

    The r210 is loud due to it being a 1U server. The upgrade path on the r210ii is very limited. Look up the Dell Technical Guide for the r210ii to get a list of what you can upgrade them to as far as CPU and RAM requirements. It only takes up to 32gb of ECC UDIMM which I always found more expensive than ECC RDIMM. For CPU, the best CPU it can take is only a 4 core, with no hyperthreading.

    Experience: I have run two r210ii’s before moving to three r230’s before finally going big to a r730xd. In the past month, I have migrated away from the r730xd to a Dell 5820T and 3x Dell 3070 SFF PC’s to combat the noise and heat generation in my home office.

  • e_t_
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    39 months ago

    Do you already have a rack? Rack servers are an inconvenient size and shape except in a rack.

  • @[email protected]
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    39 months ago

    I have an R210ii running opnsense for like 6 years now. It has never given me a single problem and easily my favorite little machine. And the oldest in my rack.