Well I'm dumb AF. Looks like there actually is an NVMe slot at the bottom right of the MB…but it points down where there isn't a way to mount it…so I guess both Lenovo and I are dumb.
This similar setup was what I used as my home lab server for the last 10 years. Something to keep in mind, Lenovo uses proprietary power supply connector, so you may need to have an adapter that connect standard ATX PS.
If you didn't want to spend the money for an extra NIC, tagged vLAN is a great way to get away with 1 network interface.
Love seeing budget builds for 2 reasons – they are affordable for a lot of people so something that is possible to easily replicate and also they really show creativity when trying to stick to a budget. Keep them coming!
Lenovo P520/P520c should be around the same price as this one and actually has upward facing NVMe slots. I know this b/c I bought 3 of em over the last 2 years. Especially the P520 which has a superb amount of space for HDDs and enough SATA power slots on the PSU. Up to 512GBs RAM and CPU upgradable to 18c/36t W-2295. If theres anything that comes close for bang/buck I will be in your comments section letting you know about it.
In the subject of dumpster diving. Look around your area for companies that serve gas stations and grocery stores. I'm close enough to live near Niemans and they're recycling their stuff all the time, about a year ago i picked up an 8500 and 9700 based HP for next to nothing. The 9700 went to my sister's house with a TV tuner and a 16TB drive, and the 8500 became the on-site backup with a pair of 16TB drives on truenas. I have since 'downgraded' to a Jonsbo N1 with an Atom N100 but this allows me to better maintain the devices with a VPN and i prefer having 3 drives in ZFS Z1 as opposed to a single drive without backup and 2 drives in a mirror without parity calculations. I actually under-powered this thing because today i found out she wants to start putting in cameras for the exterior of the property and the kennel where she trains dogs, and i just so happened to test out frigate performance on this N100, should be fine for constant recording, but image recognition is only going to be good for like 2 4K cameras and she's looking at at least 6 of those dual sensor 180 degree POE cameras.
i really wish i had more time on my hands to take in more of these old corporate boxes because i hate seeing good hardware like this thrown into the recycle i think if i could fix these up and give them way it would help someone
im currently embarking on a lenovo p710 build for my home lab so i dont have to (hopefully) have as many pcs around the house however the motherboard was dead upon arrival and trying to source one for this pc is a pain lol but ill get there, great vid!
Just a heads up about using a linux bridge in proxmox for you opnsense VM: you really reeeally want to lock down your proxmox security for that configuration. The better setup is just passing it through and not letting proxmox touch it. But of course, if your just using this to play around with and tinker, it's perfectly acceptable.
Next upgrades, get a 4x 2.5GB ethernet port…replace the dual 2.5…more expensive, and more RAM…always need more RAM…but that is for "later" "Entry level" is the key word of the day 😉 Pretty cool…the all in one server is a VERY cool setup! Keep em coming!!!!
I really am enjoying this series. I would like to see what you could do with this same machine (and the 6-10 dollar M.2 plastic caddy to free up the main PCiE x16 slot) with 300 dollars!!! That would be awesome. Maybe throw in a cheap Quadro P1000 or 2000. I'd love to see it.
Yo, do you have a discord or anything setup to help people swap or sell gear for cheap for projects? I would love to know if there’s a good channel for offloading older gear to others for projects like that aside from just posting them individually on eBay for cheap af to get rid of without it going in the trash
Well I'm dumb AF. Looks like there actually is an NVMe slot at the bottom right of the MB…but it points down where there isn't a way to mount it…so I guess both Lenovo and I are dumb.
Dumpster dive fo sho
Great Vid, Do The Dumpster Dive lol
This similar setup was what I used as my home lab server for the last 10 years. Something to keep in mind, Lenovo uses proprietary power supply connector, so you may need to have an adapter that connect standard ATX PS.
If you didn't want to spend the money for an extra NIC, tagged vLAN is a great way to get away with 1 network interface.
Haha depending on where you dumpster dive you can find full blown servers jajajaja
Here loving the content and helping the engagement stat lol
HP z440 with Xeon 1660v4 ( 8-cores, 16-threads ) for $120 on ebay. Mine has 100tb of storage ( 8 x 12tb Sata Drives ) ( 2 x 2tb Nvme SSD )
That was a better sponsor segue than Linus could ever hope to achieve.
Wow, I use one of those HPs as my Plex server. It slaps
Loved it, thank you.😊
Love seeing budget builds for 2 reasons – they are affordable for a lot of people so something that is possible to easily replicate and also they really show creativity when trying to stick to a budget. Keep them coming!
I do want to see you get dirty. Dumpster diving server!
Need to go dumpster diving my friend.
Next time if you do part 3, you can build an even cheaper home server with: A ski mask and a crowbar. Hope this helps 🙂
Lenovo P520/P520c should be around the same price as this one and actually has upward facing NVMe slots. I know this b/c I bought 3 of em over the last 2 years. Especially the P520 which has a superb amount of space for HDDs and enough SATA power slots on the PSU. Up to 512GBs RAM and CPU upgradable to 18c/36t W-2295. If theres anything that comes close for bang/buck I will be in your comments section letting you know about it.
In the subject of dumpster diving. Look around your area for companies that serve gas stations and grocery stores.
I'm close enough to live near Niemans and they're recycling their stuff all the time, about a year ago i picked up an 8500 and 9700 based HP for next to nothing. The 9700 went to my sister's house with a TV tuner and a 16TB drive, and the 8500 became the on-site backup with a pair of 16TB drives on truenas.
I have since 'downgraded' to a Jonsbo N1 with an Atom N100 but this allows me to better maintain the devices with a VPN and i prefer having 3 drives in ZFS Z1 as opposed to a single drive without backup and 2 drives in a mirror without parity calculations.
I actually under-powered this thing because today i found out she wants to start putting in cameras for the exterior of the property and the kennel where she trains dogs, and i just so happened to test out frigate performance on this N100, should be fine for constant recording, but image recognition is only going to be good for like 2 4K cameras and she's looking at at least 6 of those dual sensor 180 degree POE cameras.
i really wish i had more time on my hands to take in more of these old corporate boxes because i hate seeing good hardware like this thrown into the recycle i think if i could fix these up and give them way it would help someone
I really wish these things had space for 3×3.5 drives. I can always add a PCIE card to add in M.2 drives, but i cant add 3.5 inch drives.
Bruh… 😂 4:12….That Man had to do the some dirty deeds and the walk of shame for that hardware! I'll stick with the used lenovo lol.
im currently embarking on a lenovo p710 build for my home lab so i dont have to (hopefully) have as many pcs around the house however the motherboard was dead upon arrival and trying to source one for this pc is a pain lol but ill get there, great vid!
Meanwhile, my everyday driver desktop is pretty close to this machine… 🥲
Just a heads up about using a linux bridge in proxmox for you opnsense VM: you really reeeally want to lock down your proxmox security for that configuration. The better setup is just passing it through and not letting proxmox touch it. But of course, if your just using this to play around with and tinker, it's perfectly acceptable.
Next upgrades, get a 4x 2.5GB ethernet port…replace the dual 2.5…more expensive, and more RAM…always need more RAM…but that is for "later"
"Entry level" is the key word of the day 😉
Pretty cool…the all in one server is a VERY cool setup!
Keep em coming!!!!
I really am enjoying this series. I would like to see what you could do with this same machine (and the 6-10 dollar M.2 plastic caddy to free up the main PCiE x16 slot) with 300 dollars!!! That would be awesome. Maybe throw in a cheap Quadro P1000 or 2000. I'd love to see it.
Yo, do you have a discord or anything setup to help people swap or sell gear for cheap for projects? I would love to know if there’s a good channel for offloading older gear to others for projects like that aside from just posting them individually on eBay for cheap af to get rid of without it going in the trash
Sorry an 8700 is 6th gen ?. Excuse me ? LOL no it's 8th gen brother LOL.
Nice, looking forward to the 400 USD server video! 😃
Awesome video man !!