Home LAN server: old PC hardware vs. refurb. server

[Steve]

On Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:21:40 -0000, M. Milanuk <memilanuk at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Recently my little home server (Asus bare-bones kit PC that I bought
> used a year + back, Sempron 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 13.7GB HD + two 500GB SATA
> drives, CD/DVD-ROM) took a dump.  It's in the local PC shop, but I fear
> the MB may be done for.  As such... I'm considering options.  One may be
> if the shop has or can get for a reasonable price replacement parts.  If
> not, I may be shopping CraigsList for another old mid-tower PC again.
>
> In the past (6-8yrs ago) I had pretty good luck with some Dell
> refurbished workstations... so I started wondering if maybe their
> refurbished low-end servers might be a better idea than a
> run-of-the-mill desktop PC pressed into server duty.  Given that the
> load is extremely *low* (primarily backup file storage server for 2-4
> people) in this situation, I'm more just interested in the hardware
> lasting a good long while without having replace parts and/or the
> computer for the forseeable future.
>
> Any experience or comments on the matter?
>
Doesn’t really matter what you use, it could fall apart in the next few  
weeks or last years.  I’m using a ten year old MOBO, PIII 800MHz 384MiB  
RAM, with out any problems.

-- 
Steve

Yorvyk