One of the things I always find myself telling anyone wanting to build out a home lab, is that it does not have to be expensive. The Dell PowerEdge R610 is a prime example of this and in this case I was able to pick up a matching pair of decently spec’d R610s that are feature packed and perfect for virtualization for around $500 US for the pair. With each server having 12 physical cores and 48Gb RAM, these servers should have no problem running a quite a few VMs.
Specs:
Dell PowerEdge R610
CPU: 2x Xeon X5650 (12 Cores)
RAM: 48GB
NICs: 4x 1Gb
RAID: PERC 6/i
Bays: 6x 2.5″
PSU: 2x 717w
Management: iDrac6 Enterprise
You can find more info on my blog post here:
http://robwillis.info/2018/02/dell-poweredge-r610-review-virtualization-on-the-cheap/
Price:
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Rob, I’m looking for a two servers for vSphere 6.5 labs. After owning these two servers for some time now, would you change or add anything else? Any upgrades, different cpus or more ram? Also how much power they drawing in idle and during heavy processing? (do they need special power outlets?). If you could provide some more insights and details on your experience with these two units, as I’m trying to spec out the hardware for myself – Thank you in advance. Vic
Can i know what vendor make this good price please ? Thanks !
How are you getting Virtual Console to work…..are you using an older version of Java?
Can I use it as a NAS?
Hi, I want to ask , who knows H700 works with esxi 6.7 ? esxi see raid array ?
Thanks
At the risk of asking a ‘noob’ question here, I wanted to know – must I use SAS drives, or could I put in any (SATA, SSD) 2.5″ drive? I thought I saw in your raid controller configuration that you had an interesting mix.
Also, thanks for the awesome video; and I love your blog.
Where can I get that background at 4:20
Is this a comparable Cisco Server?
https://www.theserverstore.com/dell-poweredge-r610-6x-sff-1u-server.html
https://www.theserverstore.com/cisco-ucs-c200-m2-8x-sff-1u-server.html
It has an option for the X5650 Six core. although I still plan to look for these off eBay
I think HP DL360/380 G7 series are much quiter that any Dells, if noise matters
Hello, What drives do you recommend to use with the R610? Thank you!
I have one of these R610’s w/1x Xeon E5530
2x PSU, 4x2GB Ram, 6x 136Gb 10K rpm HDD, Windows Server 2016R2 (trial)
Question: Can I simply load Windows 10 on this and use it as a basic daily home computer?
I bought mine today, I can say that I stole it 🙂 Dell R610 2xL5640 96GB Ram 2xSAS146GB PERC6i Dell iDRAC6 Enterprise + rails 200euro
since we’re not interested in your win10 desktop screen. Would it hurt if you maximize the PowerEdge window?
They are cheap yes but they are very loud and consume a lot of power. I’m looking to build a server unit for 2K which will be used for virtualization, Web hosting, and machine learning. And looking to get the E5 v4 cpus, and add a gtx 1080 when prices drop.
Dang, I just bought a Dell PowerEdge T30 for $380.00. While it is smaller I would rather have had one of these. Owell.
Can you show what you do with this type of hardware? Please show your software setup! Thanks mate
I might suggest getting a pop filter for your microphone.
Few pointers to add in future
Start utility by hitting ctrl+ R
Look may be different on other bios
Go little slow
Overall it was great..thank you
Cool.. The only one thing its huge ^^
These things are too noisy to run inside my house
What’s the avg sound level?
Hey Great stuff man,
Did you have to buy the iDRAC license ? it came with it ?
Ordered yesterday $289
Dell Poweredge R610
2 x Quad Core 2.66GHz X5550 Processors
48Gb Memory Installed
2 X 500GB 2.5in SATA Hard Drives Installed
DVDRom
Dell PowerEdge PERC 6i SAS/SATA RAID Controller W/ Battery Backup
Dell iDRAC6 DRAC 6i Remote Access Board K869T Installed
Dual (Redundent) 717W Power Supplies
Did you purchase a vSphere license or are you running multiple free ESXi licenses?
NICE rack lol Pun intended. Seriously very cool and cost effective
Great buy, Where did you get it from..?
Does SSD improves the R610 performance ? Is it noticeable ?