what would you do with an old dell server?
My dumbass was gonna strip it for parts.
Curious what you industrious folks would do with it?
Similar except 4x2 TB https://www.ebay.com/itm/316549741700
Inb4 put Linux on it
Edit: well it booted earlier and now it doesn't. šµ
THE DUST
I'd use a Kill-a-Watt or similar to check how much power it uses, before deciding whether it's worth installing anything on it. Also check how much noise it makes, unless you have a separate room for servers. Enterprise servers aren't always a good fit for home use.
what would you do with an old dell server?
I thought this post was going to be a sea shanty.
...early in the morning
Add a GPU and mine some crypto, add a GPU and mine some crypto, add a GPU and mine some crypto, earlie in the mornin'!
This has made it worth it already
Sell to pay my electricity bill
Windows 95, directly on the Internet just for the hell of it
Depends on the specs. If it's really old the power consumption will cost more than you'd spend on newer hardware. I have such a box sitting at home doing nothing. It's cheaper to rent a hetzner dedi.
Same. For most people in our space, a Dell Optiplex micro is more than enough horsepower (except few expansion ports). There's no reason to be running a legacy server consuming 2.5kW just to host some movies or store your camera footage.
My thoughts too. I already have the Dell optiplex with external hard drive bays.
Overkill is overkill especially when it has a cost for power and your room sounds like a fucking aircraft hangar
For real. I got my hands on a fully loaded PowerEdge 2900 around 2017 and it added almost $100 to my monthly power bill.
But did your winter heating bill go down? Asking for a friend.
Drop it on a cop from a high window.
Or ICE agent. Dealers choice.
I agree with the advice of finding out how much electricity it will consume. When you step to this level, power consumption becomes a reality. Just looking at specs and doing some swag, it's probably going to cost anywhere from $15 to $25 +/- USD monthly. A $500 entry fee seems a little rich for my blood. Second, you're going to have to put that thing in a closet. Those fans are loud. Other than that, rock on bro! Git sum!
Another worth while consideration is heat generation. That takes more power to offset that too. During the winter maybe it wont be so bad, but it can be brutal in the summer.
Another worth while consideration is heat generation.
Indeed. I put my rack in the closet. Cut in a 500 cfm inline exhaust fan to the attic. Then I wired it to a thermostat. That way it's not constantly sucking 500 cfm of AC into the attic in the summer and heat in the winter. Then sound bat and insulation to keep the drone of the fans to zero with the door closed. Seems to work nicely. But yeah, when you step up to enterprise equipment and legacy at that, associated cost are worth considering.
So, uh, exactly how "old" is that server? Because, if I understood it correctly, it should be based on 8th gen Intel, which makes this a solid piece of equipment in any homelab (provided you can deal with the noise and power draw).
Strip is down and clean it thoroughly
Once you have done that do an inventory of what it is. If it is more than 8 years old recycle it
Run some jellyfin on it just for your house
I had a r610 running last year. two 1kw PSUs running 24/7. when I migrated to new hardware my monthly electrical bill dropped around $75 a month.
it sits in my rack as a shitty reminder that commercial hardware is cheap for a reason.
Looks like a rebranded R340? Nice! That's a good deal.
I'd keep it and run proxmox, but that's because that's why I like to run for my workloads. Depends on your needs. If your electricity is free, you could mine crypto or whatever.
........who has free electricity, and how do I get in on that?
Apparently Australians three hours at noon https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-03/energy-retailers-offer-free-power-three-hours-dmo/105965472
Or if you have one of those fancy new "bill by the minute according to exchange prices" contract in the EU, you might even receive money for using electricity at certain times š . But those times are (yet) far in between, so blasting the sweet free energy on crypto is not really viable.
I have one around that same class that is running Security Onion, because why not record and analyze all the things.
I've got a DELL server that I used as home server, but it was too loud. But it worked well, even at an advanced age. I moved the disks to a normal desktop machine (not DELL) that is much, much quieter.