8 VMs, running all the self-hosted stuff for the house
4-6 VMs that spin up & down for testing different things
This has been running for a few long months now without any issues, but it is noisy and runs the entire room very how.
In the very near future I’ll be moving my work-space into the same room where these servers are and that room doesn’t have AC and/or enough ventilation (yes for a human-being to work there!).
So, I’m looking to replace the R610’s with something (doesn’t have to be new) quieter and cooler, that is preferable rack-mountable (1U max 2U) and that hopefully, has a lower power draw as well.
I’d like to avoid buying new drives and keep the SATA SSD I already have and if possible stay below $500 per unit…
Yes! I’m a huge fan of refurbished professional HP workstations. Owning several Z840 and one Z8G4.
Very quiet, extremely well engineered (including the air flow shroud with several low rpm low noise big fans) and come with several internal caddys for disks. Not low power by any means, as these run dual Xeons, but ECC ram and server grade motherboard and rest of components make for durable computers.
Could fawn over these for days, but I think you get the picture As I said, big fan!
P.S.: Side note, I also have them in my living room. No noticeable noise unless you’re super close.
I had a Dell R610 and a few Dell R715. I acquired a Dell R620 a few years ago and it’s much quieter than the others. I also have a Dell R230 that is almost silent. The newer Dells seem to have better thermal/fan management.
If you want something really quite I’d look at the Beelink MiniPCs. Tom has reviewed them. My workplace has purchased about 120 of them of the last two years for worker workstations (secretary, management, admin, etc…) they all love them.
As I said, big fan!