Hello this is my first time on this forum.

So my Uncle just gave me his old Server Blade. Inside sits 2 Xeon Processors and 8gigs of ram and not to sure of everything else.

I am mainly posting because... I really dont know what to do with it. I would say i just an average user with computers. I play video games and am currently in college to fullfil a degree in computer science. I have yet to get into any Web design classes. How can i use this heavy beast to my advantage.

I did plug it in and all it got to was the start up bios load screen and just sat there. Wasnt able to press F2 Del or F12 or what not.

So pretty much how can i use this to my advantage.Well, for starters, you could use it as a remote desktop/VNC terminal. You could use it to set up your own personal website. You could run multiple operating systems with Virtualbox/the better but pricier VMWare Workstation. You could use it as a media server. You could use it as a firewall. You can also use it as your everyday computer and INSTALL a desktop-geared operating system on it. Whatever you do on a PC you can do on a server, only multiple times fast.


As for video games, 8 Gigs of RAM and 2 Xeon processors by far exceed the requirements of even, say, Crysis, which is known for its poor optimization, but you will probably need to have a graphics card upgrade-servers were not meant to be plugged into a display. Preferably something high-end, as the graphics card is sure to be the bottleneck in this massive beast of a system. You could be a game host, speaking of games.


What else is there inside the server box? Only the motherboard and RAM? What is the make and model of the server motherboard?I'm guessing its  Dell. Service Tag JYVQ851

I would like to set up my own web site. I wanna start an on line portfolio for future employers to look at my work.

Is it really just like a Tower? My uncle did tell me that the on board video was the downfall cause that is not what servers go for really. I would not mind putting on like a private WOW server on it to allow a bunch of friends to LOG onto it. No clue how to start about going to do that.

Im also hoping that i can set this up to allow classmates access it when working on group projects and Senior Projects.heres a photo! hope they help understand what i have. Ill hook it back up and take a pic of the screen it stops on when i boot it.

[regaining space - attachment deleted by admin]and another Photo

[regaining space - attachment deleted by admin]and one more photo...

[regaining space - attachment deleted by admin]A server is pretty much identical to a tower, only it is not meant to be used as one and is optimized for I/O access. I can't see any expansion ports (PCI-E x1/x16, PCI, and maybe even AGP if it is very old.) from the pictures you have posted though. As for putting another graphics card in, you will be out of luck if you can't find any PCI-E x16 ports on the motherboard. Most servers include a lousy onboard graphics card ~128 MB or so, which will not be enough to play even simple. 2D OpenGL games.This is your Dell server:  HTTP://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=k12&catid=-1&impid=-1&os=WLH&osl=en&ServiceTag=JYVQ851Awesome! Thanks for the info. Any tips on setting it up?The Service Tag gets you a lot of info, but I see no manuals.  I'm not sure it has a video card, all communication could be via ethernet.  A blade without the blade server is probably useless.Well I had that same idea but it has it's own PSU and two VGA outputs. Quote from: Shrk on August 11, 2011, 08:33:18 PM

Well I had that same idea but it has it's own PSU and two VGA outputs.

Well I had that same idea but it has it's own PSU and two VGA outputs.

Probably boots to an embedded OS of some kind.