Question Any use to an old G5 HP server?

sparkie1984

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Hi all,I'm not too clued up on windows machines but..

I acquired a HP G5 server from a skip at work, it works and has a single 2.66ghz processor, 2gb ram and 2x 146gb 10k rpm hard drives and a raid card etc. I installed a copy of windows home server to test it out and it all seems to work ok.

Is there any value to a machine like this to the average home user or is it too much?

I'm basically trying to work out whether to scrap it or sell it on.
 
There is some value but realistically not that much and technically you would to remove home server our sell licence with it.

Is it a tower or rack? The former will suit everyone the later really needs a rack.

Also if you compare power and noise to something like an UP micro server then it's going to be a hard sell,I would expect less than fifty for example.possibly a lot less and then you have to ship.

There are usually comparable models on the bay to get a flavour.
 
Thanks mate,

Yeah I would remove the OS, it was just to test it.

It's a tower

image.jpg


I also got the mac pro from the same skip which I know is more valuable and would be easier to move on (if I move it on)

Perhaps I should just junk the G5 then or keep it to mess about with if it's practically worthless
 
It's always shame when things have to be recycled. The other think that will rule it it is of the disks are SCSI as they are just too expensive to replace.

Have a look on the bay and see for comparables
 
I googled the disks and they appear to be £20 ish from eBay.

I think I'll put it in the loft and sit on it incase I ever have a need for it if it's worth so little.

Shame as it was probably a few quid back in the day. It has a slot for another psu and a second processor.
 
Going by the picture it looks like it might be an ML350 G5.

That would make the processor an X5355, E5430 or 5150. All Core 2 Xeons, the first two being quads, the third a dual.

It's an OK machine that would be perfectly reasonable for day to day use, especially given the capacity for plentiful memory (8 slots). If it's a quad core then it should be easier to sell plenty of people seem to want quad cores over dual cores even when there's no difference in performance.
 
yes it is a quad core, well it states quad core 2.66ghz processor.

from looking at the bios your quite right its a ML350, with 1x 2.66ghz Xeon processor 12MB L2 Cache installed, 2GB Ram and a Raid card. Which its warning of a low battery at the moment, perhaps thats due to it being inactive for a while?

Im a bit out of touch with windows based machines, having used macs for many years.
 
so basically its the same as the mac pro I have?

shame that the Mac Pro seems to be worth a load more money than the G5. I am still torn with what to do with the mac pro. I might keep it and whack an SSD in it and sell my macbook on.
 
For some reason I thought it was an older processor foot some reason. (That and I didn't do my home work ;) ).

How many bays are there our ports on the raid card as that might be worth selling. Is it SCSI or SAD?
 
looks like it can hold 8 disks, where the ribbons go from motherboard to the slots for the disks it says SAS? and the drives say, 10K 146GB SAS

it also has a small bit plugged into the "raid upgrade" port on the motherboard which seems to house the battery and says 128mb on it
 
SAS is the current standard, the successor to SCSI. The battery and memory is likely there for the raid setup in case of power failure. It sounds like a fairly serious bit of kit.

so basically its the same as the mac pro I have?

Without knowing the details of the Mac Pro I couldn't say, but similar yeah although possibly for a different market (you haven't mentioned a workstation graphics card which I'd expect mac pros to typically have).

shame that the Mac Pro seems to be worth a load more money than the G5.

Yeah, Apple have a good marketing department.
 
Thanks for all the help.

The Mac Pro graphics card is something like a GT120 with 512mb ram. It's also a 2.66 ghz with 3gb ram, a raid card (which apparently cost £800 new!!!!)

To be fair it sounds like I've found a couple of little gems in the skip, that probably were a few quid back in the day
 
RAID Cards can be very expensive ... Mine was nearly a grand new but thanks to these forums obtained for £150 :)

The memory will be used as a cache, the battery to back that up in case of power failure. No respecting RAID card should be without battery ;)

You may well find that you can actually use SATA drives in the HP as there is some interchangeability. There are some differences but often the same back planes are used. Google should be able to tell you in this case. Or shoving an old drive into it too !!

In the days you would have to spend a pretty penny on these :)
 
The Mac Pro is a lovely find. Raid cards on the Mac are expensive but not that useful as they are quite limited in the size of RAID volumes supported max's out at only 2.2TB.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201160
So if it were me, I'd take that out, sell it on ebay for a good few quid and just use the standard drive bays. Great sturdy reliable machine and yes a nice SSD in it and latest OS X it will be a great machine. The graphics card's can be changed to a better spec if you need more GPU power. Just check for compatiblity if you decide to replace.
 
Also I don't know how much dust the Mac Pro has collected from previous use. But they are nice and easy to breakdown to get to the fans and clean everything out with a soft clean paint brush and vacuum hose to suck up the dust as you move it. Damp microfibre cloth to wipe over surfaces. No need to use any cleaning fluids.
I used to have an early 2008 Mac Pro before swapping to a MBPr. IT had two Xeon quad core processors and it was always whisper quiet in normal operation. Enjoy!
 
Yeah I have stripped it down and cleaned it out already :) they're so easy to take apart.

I'm torn between keeping that and selling my 2015 MacBook Pro. Long term I'll probably get another iMac, I'm just waiting for the refresh first. It's such a great find I'm struggling to give up the mac pro
 

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