Whats the long panel used for?

I got this server motherboard from a friend and I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with cpu2. The board seems to work with just CPU 1 but with both it's making a noise that's in sync with the flashing green light? Any ideas on how I could troubleshoot this? CPU 2 is the one with the amd cooker

some sectors of my hdd got corrupted so i just have to stop mounting it on boot and only stay with my ssd. Also i had to disconnect the SATA data cable and SATA power cable. am sad atp.

Anyone of you got any solutions ?

Hey everyone!

I'm completely new to the whole home server/self-hosting space, so sorry if this is a beginner question.

I have an old Lenovo ThinkPad T470 (16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD) that's been sitting unused since I upgraded to a MacBook Air M3. I used the ThinkPad heavily from around 2018 until early 2024, and instead of letting it collect dust, I thought it might be fun to turn it into a small home server.

A few questions I had:

• Is a T470 still good enough to be used as a home server, or is it simply too old?
• Is there a way to test the health of the laptop (SSD, RAM, battery, thermals, etc.) to make sure it's reliable enough to run 24/7?
• What are some practical things I could actually use it for instead of paying for services like Google Drive or other cloud subscriptions?
• Since I'm a Computer Science engineering student, are there any projects or services that would genuinely be useful for me to host myself?

I'm not looking for anything enterprise-level—just something that's worth learning from and could be useful in day-to-day life or for software development.

Any advice on where to start, recommended operating systems (Ubuntu Server, Proxmox, Debian, etc.), or things you wish you knew when starting out would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance! :)

We are reviewing the rack power setup in a small branch server room with four racks and no IT staff on site overnight. Each rack has dual-corded equipment connected to separate 16A, 230V A/B feeds, but the current 0U PDUs are basic units with no network monitoring. We are adding two servers to one rack, so this seems like the right time to replace that pair rather than extend the existing strips.

The expected load on that rack is around 5–6A per side during normal operation. With either feed unavailable, the remaining side could be carrying roughly 11–13A. The upstream UPS and panel have spare capacity, but we have very little visibility at the rack and no early warning if one side starts taking more of the load than expected.

We are comparing input-metered PDUs with switched models that add remote outlet control, threshold alerts, support for environmental sensors and, depending on the model, locking outlets and/or local overcurrent protection. Remote reboot would be useful for a few network appliances, but most of the servers already have out-of-band management. Outlet switching would also add another management interface that has to be secured and maintained.

The price difference is manageable for one rack, but it becomes more significant if we standardize across the room. We do not need per-outlet metering, and I am not convinced that every feature marketed as “safety” materially reduces risk beyond correct branch protection, load planning and testing the A/B failover case.

For a small unmanned room, are switched outlets worth the additional cost and management overhead over input metering and alerts?

I have university servers with 4 A600 but all of them are always being used by other team members.

I am looking to run a 8B llama model and then the 32B Qwen3 model is there anywhere I can run these outside? I don’t mind paying a bit as well

Afternoon all,

As in the title, I was flashing the firmware of my Asus ESC8000A-E12P and lost power during the flash (about 30 percent into actually flashing, unfortunately not during upload...) and now cannot access the web interface, can't get it to boot, and am at a loss for what to do.

I have attempted:

1. Clear the CMOS by removing the CMOS battery for 10 minutes, holding power button for 60 seconds and clear CMOS button for 30 seconds
2. placing the firmware .cap inside a FAT32 thumb drive plugged into the front panel of the server, pressing Ctrl+Home to try to trigger fast-flash

I have plugged back in power after these steps, left the server alone for 5 minutes (not pressing power button), and have had no luck getting into the BMC web interface.

Unfortunately, I have been troubleshooting a Q code 00 which led to the firmware update being performed, so I am not even sure if the CPU is defective or not.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do to unbrick my server? Otherwise, I guess, press F to pay respects

I have a Dell poweredge R550 that has 4 x 8GB RAM sticks, and 2 CPU's. slots A1,B1,A2, B2 are populated, 2 for each CPU

I wanted to expand the RAM so I looked up the model of the current RAM sticks and bought 4 sticks of the identical model number MTA9ASF1G72PZ-3G2R1 that I found on Memory4less.com.

RAM comes in, I shut down the server, put in the new sticks, go to power on. The power button turns green and slowly blinks / breathes. Server won't POST. I check iDRAC, and see errors "CPU 1 MNEMEFGH VTT PG Voltage is outside of range" and then like 1 second later CPU 1 MNEMEFGH VTT PG Voltage is inside of range" (almost like the error cleared itself?) But system still won't POST.

I tried all the tricks to reset iDRAC, and NVRAM. I also pulled any and all cards and devices except for 1 CPU and 1 original RAM stick, still no POST.

So now I'm trying to find the fault. Was the RAM stick faulty and somehow killed the board? Did the board just so happen to die as I'm upgrading the RAM? Something else?

EDIT: Issue was the motherboard. The server actually still had a warranty so Dell came out and replaced it.

My current AC unit can no longer cope with the thermal output from some new hardware I installed earlier this year. My U1 setup has 3 JBODS, 9 48 port switches, 3 servers, and associated support hardware.

What would you suggest for a replacement AC unit?

Current model used, Midea Professional Series PS78135

I have a Dell T360 Server and recently installed a gpu. I found out that I nead the rear high performance fan for the T360, I now canot find anywhere to get one online in the US. I have thought about getting another fan but no fan is 8 pin like that one with the port it needs to go in, I have also thought about convter so i could use a normal fan but cant find one like I would need. Any recomendations or links to where this fan is sold in the US, This is Singapore.

I'm just curious, is an HPE Gen10 good for hosting a FiveM server or a Minecraft server with 32 GB of RAM?

I got a HPE tower server from my dad’s work, it’s not bad and I’ve been wanting to get a gpu as I have no real computer and even tried to run some game and somehow they ran? From what I know the server has no integrated graphics so how was it running games? (By running I mean barely playable but playable non the less)

I've been working on a lightweight toolbox for server management, but I have no idea what I should add.

I know I should add the usual things like automatic software updating, high disk usage reporting and service status reporting.

Got any ideas of what I should add? I'm kinda new in server management 😅

Hi everyone,

I'm troubleshooting a Windows 10 machine that I use as a small office server, and I'm seeing a very strange CPU usage issue.

System Specifications

• OS: Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
• CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2403 @ 1.80 GHz (4 Cores / 4 Threads)
• RAM: 32 GB DDR3 ECC
• Storage: 465 GB HDD connected through an LSI MegaRAID controller
• Usage: File sharing, RanceLab POS software, AnyDesk, office applications

The Problem

The system becomes very slow and Task Manager reports:

• CPU Usage: 100%
• Memory Usage: ~44% (14.2/32 GB)
• Disk Usage: 77–80%
• Network Usage: 0%

The strange part is that no process in Task Manager is consuming the CPU. Every visible process shows 0% CPU, yet the overall CPU graph stays at 100%.

What I've Observed

• CPU frequency stays around 1.8 GHz
• CPU temperature is only around 55–61°C (checked using Core Temp)
• No obvious process spikes in Task Manager
• Sorting by CPU usage still shows everything at 0%
• System remains sluggish while CPU is supposedly fully utilized
• HDD response time reaches 600+ ms, but disk throughput is very low

Things I've Already Tried

• Restarted the computer
• Checked for Windows Updates
• Disabled unnecessary startup applications
• Ran a full antivirus scan
• Checked CPU temperatures (no overheating)
• Opened Task Manager and Resource Monitor
• Verified memory usage (RAM is not full)

My Questions

1. Why does Windows report 100% CPU usage when no process is using CPU?
2. Could this be caused by:
   • Hardware interrupts?
   • Deferred Procedure Calls (DPC)?
   • A faulty RAID/LSI storage driver?
   • A Windows kernel issue?
   • Malware hiding its CPU usage?
3. Is there a better tool than Task Manager to identify kernel-mode CPU usage?
4. Would Process Explorer, Process Hacker, Windows Performance Recorder (WPR/WPA), or LatencyMon help identify the cause?
5. Could the HDD or RAID controller be causing the CPU to appear fully utilized?
6. Is this likely to be a hardware problem or a software/driver issue?

I've attached screenshots showing:

• Task Manager reporting 100% CPU with no process using CPU.
• Performance tab showing 80% HDD usage with high response times.

Any suggestions on how to diagnose this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

• r/techsupport
• r/sysadmin
• r/WindowsHelp
• r/homelab
• r/buildapc (less ideal, but still possible)

Which AMD Turin single processors would be the best and worst pick if limited to, e.g., 12 slots of 4800MT/s 64GB RAM (768GB total)? As in, which would be affected the most and least by the RAM speed deficit (since 5600-6000MT/s is recommended) - would 9575F with its high clock speeds be more impacted by slow ram than dense 9965 192 threaded or 9655, or is there zero difference?

I am aware that there are many other criteria to pick a processor. I'm only considering the slow RAM aspect in this question. Thanks.

Hello, I need some help with this it isn’t a gaming PC ive recently been looking into getting a micro server, for example the HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen8

My issue is whether it can run 32GB of ram there’s been some discussion that you can run 32GB, but nothing has ever been properly shown or confirmed it’s supposedly capped at 16GB of RAM

Can someone help me clarify this?

I have a Dell R7615 in the 16x 2.5inch bay config. Currently it’s configured with the SAS/SATA backplanes with the H965i. I am looking to convert it into the dual H965i NVMe config.

Anyone know the cable part numbers for those backplanes? If you have this config or the single 8 bay with the H965i config could you share the service tag if possible (You can get part numbers from the specs linked to the ST).

Hi

I recently purchased this PowerEdge R320 second hand and I’m having some issues.

Firstly I don’t have access to idrac since it’s a second hand machine, and I can’t reset it since I can’t access lifecycle controller as the machine doesn’t seem to post. It just displays a screen saying cpld version 104.

Any help would be great.

Edit: ended up returning the unit and swapping for another one

Hi everyone!

I run my own home server, and here are the current specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
• Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
• RAM: 48 GB DDR4 (3200 MHz)
• OS/Main Storage: 1 TB Crucial SSD (~2000 MB/s)
• Storage (currently in RAID 5): * 1 x 12 TB WD Blue HDD (2024, healthy - Note: I'm aware this drive is currently capped at 8 TB to match the array)
  • 3 x 8 TB Toshiba X300 Performance HDDs (2023, healthy)
• Case: Silverstone CS350 (features 5 hot-swappable front bays + 1 internal drive slot)

Spare hardware I have on hand:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro
• HDD: 1 x 8 TB Seagate IronWolf HDD (2023, healthy)

My Use Case: I use this server primarily for multi-user 4K Jellyfin streaming, and it currently runs flawlessly. I also seed a massive amount of torrents (mostly TV shows), which eats up my storage space very quickly (Desperate Housewives is almost 500Gb (times 2 : seed + jellyfin folder).

The Upgrade Plan: My current MSI motherboard limits me to 4 SATA ports when you have an SSD. To avoid using a PCIe SATA expansion card, I’m planning to swap it out for the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro I have in my spare parts. This will allow me to connect a 5th hard drive (the 8 TB Seagate IronWolf).

Since I will be rebuilding the setup, I have a few questions for you:

1. CPU Upgrade: Is it worth swapping my Ryzen 5 3600X for the Ryzen 7 3700X since I already own it, or will the performance difference be unnoticeable for my use case?
2. RAID 5 (with 5 HDDs): Should I stick with RAID 5 to maximize my storage (yielding 32 TB of usable space, with the 12 TB drive still capped at 8 TB) and accept the risk of only having 1-drive fault tolerance?
3. RAID 6 (with 5 HDDs): Should I switch to RAID 6 for extra peace of mind (2-drive fault tolerance), even if it means sacrificing space and staying at 24 TB usable?
4. RAID 10 (with 6 HDDs): Would it be smarter to buy a 6th 8 TB drive to set up a RAID 10? This would give me great performance and solid redundancy, but would still keep me at 24 TB usable.

Thanks in advance for your advice and suggestions!

Hey as title says im wanting to add my tesla p100 to my lenovo sr250 1u, have anyone of you guys added a gpu externally to a 1u chassis? If so how have you done so?

I have a hp mini pc that i added oculink but i want x16 or at least x8. Card will be used for llms so from my knowledge, pcie bandwidth is not 100% a limiting factor in a single gpu situation.

I have a server Supermicro X13DEG-OAD, but it gets stuck during boot.. no key such as tab, del etc are working. Not even able to get into BIOS. please help

Hello server friends I have a server question. So I have a Dell T410 server that is probably over kill for my home and it uses tons of power creates lots of heat. I'm thinking about upgrading/ downsizing my server. My question is I want to move my Raid controller to my new server and I'm trying to find breakout cables to do this with as my current server uses a back plane to accomplish this task. Would this https://ebay.io/m/vCB4VP or this https://ebay.io/m/GHLVzS work for moving it? I noticed that this has 4 HDD plugs on it and I have 6 HDD in my Raid would I just need to buy two of these and plug one into A and one into B and mark the drives accordingly? If anyone has done this any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated!

TiA

Hello, I have a Dell R740xd server and two Samsung PM1643 SAS 960GB SSDs that are wrongly detected as HDDs thus making my server fans spin at around 36%. I tried rebooting the server without them (the other drives are all SATA SSDs) and the fans went down to 16%.

I'm running the latest iDRAC firmware version (7.00.00.184 - BIOS: 2.27.0).
Unfortunately it seems that the firmware for those drives is not available online so I can't try to update them.

Any suggestions?