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What's your opinion about computers with non standard parts? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by KyotoBeerNinja@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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Hi,

I know a company here in Japan that sells second-hand computers, cleaned, repaired, and with a 3 years warranty. Lots of the usual suspects (HP, Dell, Lenovo), from entry level office desktops to higher end Xeon workstations/servers. Prices vary, obviously.

As you know, these computers often do not use standard off-the-shelf parts, which can be a problem if the motherboard or PSU fails.

What's your opinion about these computers? Is it worth the pain buying one (for a Linux or BSD based torrenting/seedbox machine, or build a NAS) or should I rather go another route -- either build a PC with standard parts or buy a brand new cheap mini PC?

Thanks!

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[–] kaiwulf@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Really kinda depends on your use case.

For instance, if I'm building an ESXi cluster, then yea HPE all the way. It's quite trivial to find the option parts I need to complete the build and scour eBay for them. With those components tested and certified to work together I shouldn't have to worry too much about weird issues popping up.

Now, on the other hand, when building a NAS / SAN, I don't want to be locked into buying HPE branded disks so I opt for a Supermicro system. It doesn't care what brand of disk you use so I'm free to buy what makes sense for the type of datastore I'm creating,

Supermicro is also one of the few who build their server platforms on standard ATX / EATX form factors, so it's pretty easy to get the chassis you like and build the insides out however you like. Also makes upgrading the server internals super easy. Just buy a later gen components and transplant them. They're very good about making documentation and compatibility matrices available online