Best use for some quad core xeons, mobos, and RAM

[jmanjohns]

Hey guys, I have access to a few of these puppies:

Server System with
2 x XEON Quad Core E5405 Processors
8 - 12 GB of PC2-5300 RAM

I was thinking it might be awesome to build a new system around them, but I'm not sure if it would be worth it. I think I could put together a top flight system for like $600, including the cost of the old servers, but does that make sense to you guys? Should I just ditch the hardware and buy some new components? Can I get the same level of performance? Thanks!

 

[clarkjd]

What would you use these systems for? If gaming, do the MB's have a PCI/E graphics slot available? I think you would be better served to get new components. They would certainly be more energy efficient, and run cooler.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Those aren't gaming CPUs and I'm certain they'll be outgamed by a 2500K.

 

[blazorthon]

You could try selling those... If you do want them then a dual CPU slot board would be necessary to use both CPUs and even then the single threaded performance is what really matters in gaming, that's why AMD CPUs are beaten by similarly priced and even cheaper Intel CPUs in gaming right now. Having two CPUs won't increase single threaded performance, only multi-threaded performance would benefit. Then there is also the memory... DDR2 will bottleneck performance especially with slow DDR2 like those sticks.

Like I said, you could try selling those parts. They still are pretty good but they don't compare to modern hardware in gaming.

Are the CPUs and RAM all you have or do you have full systems? If it's a full system with a PCIe x16 slot then you could upgrade them with a low end video cards and sell them as a budget gaming system(s) or a workstation(s), someone would probably buy it.

 

[jmanjohns]

You could try selling those... If you do want them then a dual CPU slot board would be necessary to use both CPUs and even then the single threaded performance is what really matters in gaming, that's why AMD CPUs are beaten by similarly priced and even cheaper Intel CPUs in gaming right now. Having two CPUs won't increase single threaded performance, only multi-threaded performance would benefit. Then there is also the memory... DDR2 will bottleneck performance especially with slow DDR2 like those sticks.

Like I said, you could try selling those parts. They still are pretty good but they don't compare to modern hardware in gaming.

Are the CPUs and RAM all you have or do you have full systems? If it's a full system with a PCIe x16 slot then you could upgrade them with a low end video cards and sell them as a budget gaming system(s) or a workstation(s), someone would probably buy it.

Yeah, I was thinking about that last option. The systems have x16, but they are physically cut to x8s. I know there are a few graphics cards that do operate in that configuration. If I pulled them out of the rack mount cases, I could get rid of the x8 riser and I'd have full x16 pcie. Problem is, I wasn't really sure how to advertise something like that. It's kind of weird, you know? Any suggestions?

 

[blazorthon]

All PCIe graphics cards work in x8 but it is a little slower than x16 (not too much though).

Do all of these systems have two CPUs? if so then just say that. With 8 cores they would make great workstation systems and if you do ditch the riser and rack case for regular towers for the full x16 then video cards shouldn't be bottlenecked there. Can you list the full specifications of each machine?

EDIT: By full specifications I mean how many machines you have and each component of each machine.

RAM, motherboard, hard drives, optical drives, (not important but I'll mention this) floppy drives, version(s) of windows, etc.

 

[jmanjohns]

All PCIe graphics cards work in x8 but it is a little slower than x16 (not too much though).

Do all of these systems have two CPUs? if so then just say that. With 8 cores they would make great workstation systems and if you do ditch the riser and rack case for regular towers for the full x16 then video cards shouldn't be bottlenecked there. Can you list the full specifications of each machine?

EDIT: By full specifications I mean how many machines you have and each component of each machine.

RAM, motherboard, hard drives, optical drives, (not important but I'll mention this) floppy drives, version(s) of windows, etc.

Yup, they all have two cpus. The motherboards vary, but they are dell OEM boards for 2Us and 1Us. Custom jobbies that would require a little case modification (nothing I'm not capable of).

No floppies.
SATA hard drives.
SAS adapter on a few of them
None have the windows license keys on them, so I'd have to buy MS Server OEM. I hear you can get 7 working too.
PC2-5300F RAM (8-12 GB per system. Support for 64 GB)

 

[blazorthon]

How many SATA drives does each system have and what are their capacities? These machines are definitely useful even though they don't have windows but most buyers would probably prefer a tower/mid-tower case.

MS server OSs are expensive, don't waste your money on them. If you know any college students you can get free MS server copies through Microsoft Dreamspark and huge discounts on windows 7.

 

[blazorthon]

You could sell these machines on Ebay. Just remember to list all info on them. You could try selling them all as one sale or separately. If you sell them as one item then list exactly how many of these machines you have and instead of saying 8GB-12GB of RAM list how many machines have each amount of RAM.

Some buyers looking for a workstation would mind having rack cases, but if using a tower meant the PCIe x16 slots could run at x16 instead of x8 some more buyers might be more interested in tower cases.

CPU: 2x quad core 2GHz Xeon E4505 LGA 771
Hard drive: (1,2,3, etc) hard drives XXXGB each xxxx RPM (SATA (1.5Gb/s or 3Gb/s) or IDE)
RAM: (8, 12)GB DDR2-533 Max memory 64GB
motherboard: (whatever models these computers have)
Optical drive: (1, 2, 3, etc) (SATA or IDE) (CD reader, burner, DVD reader, burner)
Peripherals: (do these have mice and keyboards or not? Any other peripherals?)

I think you get the idea. If not then just post another comment stating you don't and I'll see if I can elaborate further.

 

[blazorthon]

If you have anything else to add to this conversation (especially further questions) then please contact me through the PMs. Sorry but I can't keep aging threads open in my browser or I get to many tabs open at once, it's time to do some cleaning so my computer stops lagging.