Server box just died, recommendations for a new one?
My Intel NUC server just died (whenever it’s plugged in, it makes a buzzing noise, and the external power LED is off (the internal one is on tho)), so I need a new server box. Any recommendations?
I can salvage the RAM (16 GB DDR4) and hard drive (1TB HDD) off of this one, I believe.
I don’t know how well your box performed, but I recently snagged a fujitsu esprimo box with an i5-6500. It has 5 sata connectors and two m.2 slots. There’s space for two hard drives and there’s like 5 low profile PCIE slots (2x x16 and 2x x4 I believe)
I think they’re a great deal (if you get the right CPU). Apart from the weird OEM PSU and motherboard, it’s a pretty bonkers box, and I got mine for 40$, which was very lucky
Pretty much all of mine are just tiny/mini/micros. The stack of 6 or so in my rack power everything I run (aside from my desktop, but I do have Linux vms and a Mac mini for app builds).
No issues so far.
Storage is all on my NAS, one for things like media server content, my dev work, pictures, etc, and one that’s a backup to that NAS. Only thing remote is my second level of backup.
8th gen Intel and up is pretty great for proxmox IMO.
If you don’t mind it being completely Chinese based, Beelink with their new Intel 12th gen mini PC were my upgrade from the last Shuttle device I’ve used.
Dual Intel 2.5G NIC plenty of USB and an extremely efficient Intel Alder Lake-N100 with a great price to performance closed the deal for me.
EQ12-N100 is what i went for, to be exact, there are more powerful options too, if needed.
As others just said, take the challenge of repairing or correctly identify what’s broken. It should be fun, and part of the diy ethos.
If, you are still going for a new piece for the upgrades…
Depends very much on your scope. Heck, there’s even aesthetics. Do you prefer AMD or Intel? Don’t you feel like having an ARM and take the challenge of compatible images? Would you need to check the transcoding compatibility for Jellyfin? Are you going fangless? Is one 2.5gpbs eth port enough? Etc.
That said, check the reviews from www.servethehome.com they have articles with benchmarks and videos for all the latest nucs and other hardware’s form factor servers.
Be aware that Intel discontinued the NUCs iirc… but Asus or some vendor might have picked up to grab that market segment.
Actually, only after posting it came to my mind that anyway all intel nukes are fangless. That’s their appeal. So that their bytes leave no marks. Long live the vempire.
However I have no idea what they are, if they’re the problem or some connected component. The label doesn’t return anything, so I think this 'uns a goner :(
ask a repair shop. Since the label is the same on the other things around it, they could use a parts tester to determine what it is and then order that part. If you’re in luck, that’s the whole problem. If it’s some other component that failed they could still probably determine and fix it
To be honest, I don’t think it’s worth the bother. This is just an i3-5 something, and I got all the working parts off of it. But it’s good a good idea, thanks!
This is the most likely failed part, yes. If you feel adventurous, you can try repairing it like DiodeGoneWild. Looks like the auxiliary power supply (5V 1A independent of others; powers BIOS chips in standby to allow soft power-on) works but the main one does not. Unplug the connectors, connect the black (GND) and green (ENABLE) wires to signal a POWER ON state and check all the voltage rails. Many units use a powerful 12V supply and step-down converters to create the 5V and 3.3V rails, as well as an inverter for the -12V one – if that’s the case, you can try backfeeding 12 V from another PSU and see if the rest come on. Once you identify the failed power supply, check its primary transistor(s) (big 3-pin components on a heatsink) for a short or open circuit.
A used Lenovo think centre could be a good replacement IMO (they take SODimm, aka laptop ram, just check DDR3 or DDR4) and usually accepts two sticks + a nvmy & a 2.5 HD and usually with lots of usb & ports for screen(s). They come in all types of prices but usually seems to be sturdy and long lived.
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