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I have a little office and 30 members of staff who all need to save resources and keep backups etc I have been offered by a friend of mine 3 x HP DL380 G3 Dual Xeon 2.4Ghz Rackmount Servers I was just wondering if they are still up to date ? Or are they too old and not worth spending my time with.

Hope you can help.

Oliver Bayes-Shelton
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    Warranty would run you $916 per year per server. If you're willing to risk going without a warranty (which I would not in this situation) you could save that cost. But, it would be cheaper to buy a new server (particularly the ML110 or ML350, depending on your needs). Most offices of 30 people who aren't sure why they need only actually need a relatively cheap server with good support, and something simple like Windows SBS (possibly Foundation). Probably best off contacting a local consultant to get this configured... Also, backups systems are sort of expensive, look at CrashPlan. – Chris S Feb 16 '12 at 19:39

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The question isn't whether they're old, it's whether they are sufficient to handle what you want to do with them.

Decide what apps and services you'll be hosting on the servers and what the requirements of those apps and services are, and then you'll know whether or not these servers will fit your needs.

music2myear
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    Not ONLY. Replace them after a maximum of 5 years or move them to not important backup - they are written off tax wise and failure risk goes up. – TomTom Feb 16 '12 at 19:28
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Stay away! See some of the older threads detailing similar choices...

HP DL380 G3 2U For Basic Web Server in 2012

HP Proliant DL380 G4 - Can this server still perform in 2011?

The G3 servers were around from early 2003 through 2004. There's no excuse to start fresh with 9 year-old technology. The servers were appropriate for their time, but are missing niceties like SATA/SAS, 64-bit drive capacity and intelligent power/acoustic management. It is still possible to obtain an entry-level modern server for less than $1000. I would suggest going down that path for supportability and future-proofing reasons.

Community
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ewwhite
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As @music2myear notes, you need to see if they will meet your needs.

Also note that warrnty will be an issue as you may be unable to get support and parts may be near end of life. Only you can make that choice.

If the apps are critical, running on old harware may present a challenge.

Dave M
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