Right now I use an old Dell compaq (i3 3220, 12GB RAM, small SSD + 2TB HDD)

I use it for Owncloud, game hosting and automatic media management.

I want to upgrade to something more solid and with parity so I can actually use it for more than movies that I would be sad when lost but nothing world-ending. Plan is to use TrueNAS and throw maybe 4x 8TB drives in there with raidz1 with thy ability to add more later. And move all my docker stacks there.

I found a local seller of old refurbished servers and the prices and capabilities look very good but I want to go through reddit homelab experts first.

some of the good looking listings listings: (Prices converted from CZK to EUR)

  • Dell PowerEdge R610 12-Core 2.26 GHz Low Power ( 2x 6-Core L5640 | 8 GB | 6x SFF | 6/I | iDRAC6 | 4x 1Gb Ethernet ) - 74€
  • IBM System x3630 M3 12-Core 2.26 GHz Low Power ( 2x 6-Core L5640 | 16+ GB | 14 disků 3.5" | ServeRAID M5015 | IMM port | 2x 1Gb Ethernet ) - 102€
  • Dell PowerEdge R620 12-Core 2.00 GHz Low Power ( 2x 6-Core E5-2630L | 16+ GB RAM | 8/10 disků 2.5" | 1Gb/10Gb | Ethernet/SFP+ ) - 139€
  • Dell PowerEdge R510 12-Core 2.27 GHz Low Power ( 2x 6-Core Intel L5640 | 16 GB | 12x LFF | H700 | iDRAC6 | 2x 1Gb Ethernet ) - 167€
  • Dell PowerEdge R620 v2 12-Core 2.40 GHz Low Power ( 2x 6-Core E5-2630Lv2 | 16+ GB RAM | 8/10 disků 2.5" | 1Gb/10Gb | Ethernet/SFP+ ) - 198€

and many, many more (you can check the link above).

Big plus is most of them have 2 year warranty.

Questions:

  1. Are they worth it? Can I find something better elsewhere?

  2. power consumption is bad right? :D. Could I turn one CPU off or take one out entirely?

  3. noise - can the fans be adjusted so it’s actually usable somewhere where people live. Or can I upgrade the fans to something more manageable?