Well I bought 15 of each and made a pyramid.

Quiet but not silent.
If noise is a big priority you can retrofit some appropriate Noctua replacement fans.
This guy replaced fans with noctuas:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f101/dell-poweredge-t20-1031138-60.html#post22901900


This guy did a crazy mod of the T20 to fit a ridiculous number of disks, but also replaced fans:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f101/dell-poweredge-t20-ft-dell-perc-h730-aufgebohrt-und-zugenietet-1112100.html

My bad - The purchase date is the date used for the promotion range.
When filling in the form you select the purchase date from the dropdown list. If the date you bought it isn't on there, you've missed the offer.
So buying now or on 30/04 is still valid for cashback

https://plus.delltradetosave.com/gb/en/claims/promotions/invoice

Pretty similar to my setup. I picked up the 32Gb bundle
I added a dell PERC h310 raid card which I flashed to "IT Mode" (converts it to a LSI 9211 8i Host bus adaptor)
The HBA talks to 4 x 3TB WD Reds
I have a 250Gb SSD and spare 1Tb 2.5 disk that I use for VMWare ESXi vm storage - they sit in one of these 2.5" drive mounts.
I needed some additional drive/power cables like these and these, too

I run a VM of FreeNAS with the LSI HBA in VT-d passthrough.
I also run some other VMs using the NAS drives mounted over a virtual switch - e.g. Emby media server, bunch of other services etc

All in all its a lovely little system IMO

There was just the one that I could find on eBay. Just keep looking. The listing I bought was here and was titled "Dell KC230 Precision T7400 T7500 690 XPS Hard Disc Drive Caddy / Cage / Holder".

EDIT: The same seller/link has 3 more available now.

Do you have a link to the drive cage - I'm trying to find something similar but having trouble. Cheers

Thanks fryitup. Your post was the info I needed to pull the trigger on the T20 and then do a few mods of my own, not on the scale of the guy on the German forum, but I did add an extra cage for 2 more drives (see below).



1) I added an ASUS AMD Radeon R7 240 2 GB DDR3 Graphics Card
2) I added a solid state drive for Windows Server 2012.
3) I added 2 sticks of 8GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3 PC3-12800 to go with the 4GB already there (20GB in total).
4) I added a StarTech.com 4 Port PCIe 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card for the extra drives.
5) I popped in two StarTech 4xSATA Power Splitter Adapter Cables for the extra drives.
6) Fitted a new cage and two new caddy trays (both bought on eBay), ready for the two extra drives (only one istalled at the moment).

So, now I have 5 x 3TB WD Red NAS HDDs, with a 6th to add at a later date; all configured in (software) RAID5.

Pretty happy with my setup....for now.

Yes I too got that email when submitting the claim. They wanted a picture of the service tag which I sent and they then replied saying my claim was approved. But since that I have had nothing, I will call them.

hi

Give them a ring!!

i submitted my claim a month ago and was waiting for a reply...and when checking my emails yesterday i noticed that the dell cashback email had been sent to junk.
it said there had been 'technical problems' and i needed to contact them otherwise the claim would be rejected after 7 days!
i called them up, someone answered the phone straight away and explained the website had rejected ALL the banking details of recent cashback claimants and they could not process the claim, hence the email.
she said they were very busy as there were hundreds of claims to process.
she was very helpful - took my details etc, processed and approved my claim immediately.

hope this helps

Hi
I submitted my cashback claim nearly a month ago, nothing heard, does it normally take this long?

Don't forget the code for the free next day delivery!

In which case I'm ordering tonight :-). Cheers.

Much quieter.

While it's fresh in your mind - noise compare to the N54L? Now payday has passed, I'm just about to get one to replace my N36L.

Arrived a couple of hours ago and already up and running.
I just transplanted the SSD and Four WD Red HDDs, swapped the GPU and RAM from my old HP N54L.
All I had to do was download the Ethernet drivers for Windows Server 2012 and that was it!
Streaming high bitrate 1080p files simulateously around the house with Plex. Very happy.
Great bang for buck. Thanks OP.

A bit more digging and I found my answer; there are only 4 SATA connections from the main board, so I've bought a cheap 6Gbps PCI-e contoller to add 4 extra ports.
Time to pull the trigger on this baby! Thanks OP.

I know I should know the answer to this from the pictures in the thread, but I want to be sure: How many hard drives can I install in this tower, straight out-of-the-box?
The spec says: Number of hard drives supported is 4, but the write-up says: Consolidate data and media files with six internal hard drive bays supporting large storage capacity.
I currently have an N54L with 4 x 3TB WD Red Drives in RAID5 plus an SSD for Windows Server 2012.
Will I be able to chuck all of that into the T20?

Well nearly finished with mine, just need to install the OS onto the SSD, download office and steam.

Spec shown is the E3 xeon with a MSI 750Ti, 8Gb of Ram, Samsung slimeline DVD writer (with startech adapter cable) and Samsung 850 Evo 250Gb (not connected in photographs)

System seems quite quiet, am considering buying one for myself to replace a 4 year old i7 Inspiron laptop.

Also refer to this HDUK post re same product. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dell-poweredge-t20-tower-server-xeon-e3-v3-244-89-174-89-after-cashback-serverplus-2303497?page=4
There is a nice photo of the motherboard etc, where you can see the expansion slots and get a feel for the room in the chassis for cards:

Can someone clarify what size PCI-e cards this can take? Can it take full length/full height(as opposed to half/length - half/height etc)?

EDIT:

So, to answer my own question(and help anybody else) -

I use redhat at work and I'm looking to recertify later in the year so thought it would be better for practise using that at home

Hi did you choose CentOS for a particular reason? I am choosing between ubuntu server and centos, at work we use centos but i do find the package repo updates are slower..

thanks OP purchased one today and canceled my other pentium order.

Thanks for updating.

Looks like the other good deal Serversplus had on this bundled with 32GB RAM is no longer so good - it seems to have gone up in price.

**UPDATE** 01/05/2016

The cashback has been continued until 31/07/2016 on this model as per:

https://plus.delltradetosave.com/gb/en/pages/promotions/qualifying

Very tempting - especially the 32GB version which as others have pointed out would be good for vitualisation. Looks like I need to decide today really as cashback expires on the 30th and not sure the order would get processed on a saturday. Decisions, decisions...

Dont know, will find out

Are you able to use the cashback offer with Dell?

paid over £800 for it less than a month ago from Dell. Also got dual nic card, MS server 2012 license, extra 4GB ram and 1TB hdd.

It has 2 Display ports, I am running three monitors from it (the third with the VGA port). Also, the fan it is very quite in my opinion, I can only hear the hard drive.

Thanks - my n36l isn't silent, but is quiet enough through a cupboard door. to be honest it's probably more the disk vibrations that cause the noise (although I mostly use 5.4k disks). I'm hearding some good reports on noise and power usage, althoguh it's hard to seperate the G3XXX and xeon configs)

It has 2 DP ports but apparently they will not pass audio.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19577366

Can anyone who has taken delivery confirm whether this has any displayports? The spec says no, but the general image for this model shows 2 ports which look like they might be displayports

thanks for that extra bit of info!

Quiet but not silent.
If noise is a big priority you can retrofit some appropriate Noctua replacement fans.
This guy replaced fans with noctuas:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f101/dell-poweredge-t20-1031138-60.html#post22901900


This guy did a crazy mod of the T20 to fit a ridiculous number of disks, but also replaced fans:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f101/dell-poweredge-t20-ft-dell-perc-h730-aufgebohrt-und-zugenietet-1112100.html

​I wouldn't mind knowing this my gen8 was fan speed 6 percent on boot but I have setup ilo recently and it is 19 percent in my front room and near where I am sitting. As far as I know I cannot do anything about it. it is setup as I need it I moved from ahci to raid to make it quiet recently so if I can get this Dell and sell the gen8 I will

I'm thinking of moving from a microserver N36L - put off by the reports of noise on AHCI on the G8 so the T20 is on my list. Currently a media server + bits, but need a home lab for some extra bells.. RAID is not a concern as I use flexraid for partity (not tied into hardware raid and don't have all disks (i have 14+) to spin up when serving out a file).

Whats the noise like on these? I see reports that it's reasonably quiet - but this is going in bedroom cupboard (where my n36 is now) so needs to be as quiet as that.

Power is also another concern - anyone had a meter across this to see what the typical power draw is like? Not 100% sure what the n36 pulls down, but would guess it's in the 30-40 range.

Cheers for any info :smiley:

It means dell will only provide enterprise support for deployments with those OS (WS2012 and redhat EL)

I installed Windows 10 with no issues, I am currently running two monitors and am going to try 3 when I get the correct cable.

hi all
can anyone confirm that its only server 2012 and a version of linux can be installed on this pc?
i want to install win 7. there seem to be conflicting reports on what can & cant be installed.
cheers

I am in a position to buy this now because I want the Xeon my HP Gen8 has a i3 3240 which runs quite nicely but now you have shown that picture I have no idea where I would hide that giant beast

Hi
Yes I was under the impression that it would, for some reason Dell say otherwise. If someone could advise that would be quite helpful, I want to run a 4k TV off this to use as a monitor, is there a low power graphics card (4k resolution) that will run off the current power supply?

This is what Dell said:
04/14/2016 01:25:28PM Session Started with Agent (Mario_Louis)
04/14/2016 01:25:28PM Garth: "Hi what is the max resolution supported by the built in Intel HD gfx on the T20? Thanks"
04/14/2016 01:25:41PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "Thank you for contacting Dell Business Sales & Finance. This is Mario, your sales advisor for today ,My email address is [email protected] "
04/14/2016 01:25:49PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "Hello Garth,"
04/14/2016 01:25:55PM Garth: "Hello"
04/14/2016 01:26:03PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "You are looking at the server T20"
04/14/2016 01:26:10PM Garth: "Yes"
04/14/2016 01:26:45PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "it has a VGA port"
04/14/2016 01:27:01PM Garth: "It has 2 Display ports"
04/14/2016 01:28:17PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "can I get the link you are on please"
04/14/2016 01:28:37PM Garth: "http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/poweredge-t20/pd?ST=+dell%20+poweredge%20+t20&dgc=ST&cid=41142&lid=1069631&acd=****-****-****-***&ven1=scc7gLQul&ven2=b"
04/14/2016 01:37:23PM Garth: "Hello?"
04/14/2016 01:38:27PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "1920X1080"
04/14/2016 01:39:07PM Garth: "Can I install a graphics card in this?"
04/14/2016 01:39:31PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "No"
04/14/2016 01:39:38PM Agent (Mario_Louis): "it will not support it"
04/14/2016 01:40:06PM Garth: "OK thanks, bye"
04/14/2016 01:40:33PM Session Ended

You definitely can, have a google and you'll see others have done so, apparently as long as it doesn't need power connectors your likely fine (750Ti is mentioned as working). For any more powerful GPUs you need a new PSU and an adapter presumably to plug the PSU into the motherboard (as it uses an unusual socket) though you'd be best to double-check this elsewhere.

You can't put a graphics card in this according to the Dell support chat people.

It may not be clear, but if you buy the 32Gb bundle from serversplus you also get the 4Gb DIMM that dell ships with the server.... which can go straight on ebay and reduce the total cost buy a little.

Hi, I got mine today, it's all good.

I wanted to put my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 card in this but it is borderline as the EVGA chat guy said "You're going to be putting around 270 or so watts under load" It will be a pain to swap the PSU with my current PC as my current one has different connectors.

Updated, thanks for the reminder :smiley:

Hi to OP - would it be worth to update the listing with this free delivery code?

I ended up buying from ebuyer because serverplus kept rejecting my card, little did i know that each failed attempt at a payment caused £300+ to go into a pending phase, now my account looks £900+ lighter with nothing to show for it :disappointed:

I know the money will come back but this is still pretty annoying, if your card is rejected dont keep trying, on the bright side i do have a HP microserver gen8 for sale, ilo 4 license activated, 1TB drive and 256GB drive, 4GB RAM, 32GB micro SD inserted with ESXI 5.5 installed

Free delivery was added by serversplus.
Code is DELLFREE16

Regarding size comparison with HP MS gen7 and gen8 I found this:

What's the cheapest and best legal way to get Windows 7 Pro or Windows 10, there are so many on ebay and each ad says they are the cheapest and most legitimate way to get Windows.

Hi all, really tempted with this.

Could someone who has one let me know what sort of noise levels this makes? I know with servers, noise is not an important consideration with manufacture, so is this nosier than your average desktop?

Thanks.

Sorry I tried editing my post so the images would show and it's disappeared but I've just tried that code and it doesn't work right now. Could be back on before the 30th though

The free delivery code seems to be MSFREENDUK
(see in other posts - no idea if its currently working or not)

Isn't this a better deal?
http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/dell-poweredge-t20-xeon-e3-1225v3-3.2-ghz-4gb-ram-1tb-hdd-tower-server-t20-3708/version.asp?refsource=SDadwords&crtag=SD&gclid=CKrHrKiticwCFVIaGwodFuoO_g

Yeah me to, but they seem so over priced for second hand xeons (the ones i see are all second hand) they aren't even the latest gen and they cost that much? Most on ebay are £50 cheaper then this dell server which comes with a xeon :smile: I was going to pull the trigger on one on friday but seeing this deal...i could get the dell for around £200 after cashback, sell the 1TB drive that came with it, then sell the gen8 with a 256GB Drive and a ilo license, might get £150 from the sale

Seems like a good deal, the same CPU as in my Thinkserver TS140, with the the Xeon E3-1225-V3, performance wise, sitting somewhere in between the i5 4460 and the i5 4570, the 1225 having slightly better graphics performance than the latter two and a larger cache. A frustration with my TS140, if you want to go the slight exotic route of trying to change it into a gaming rig with a better graphics card than some GTX 750TI or GTX 950 cards, the TS140's platinum PSU doesn't have 6+2 pin power connectors, not that you would reasonably expect it to! Frustrated I can't think of a rational excuse to buy the Dell! Too many computers, here, and too many good deals on hotukdeals! :smiley:

I bought a hp gen 8, like it so far but all i've been thinking is "i wish this had a xeon".
the celeron in the gen 8 is so crappy it struggles to run one VM

I really want to sell my gen8 and get the dell with 32GB RAM :smiley:

If your going to get this and run virtual machines i'd highly recommend the RAM bundle too. around £100 off buying the ram elsewhere.

I picked this up 5 months ago for £174.89 after cashback !! :stuck_out_tongue:

I'm working on a comparison table between T20 and HP MS G8 based on my requirements. I'll share it later if I can... unfortunately I cant paste an HTML table here.

Right now the T20 is edging it out a tiny bit (for me) due to the Xeon CPU, but its a close thing...

I bought two of each of the items below to connect 4 3TB WD Green drives...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Afunta-Power-Splitter-Cable-Adapter/dp/B00D11RQ8Y?ie=UTF8&ref_=pe_1909131_77697001_tnp_email_TE_AMZLdp_2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/even-even-even-angled-compatible-Serial-backward/dp/B009KLPSIE?ie=UTF8&ref_=pe_1909131_77697121_tnp_email_TE_AMZLdp_1

You need a couple of right-angled SATA cables for the bottom drives and these are just the right length. The included cables are too short to connect from the PCI-e SATA adapter.

It is indeed a non-standard PSU, but I think you *may* be able to use a standard ATX PSU with one of these...

http://www.moddiy.com/products/Dell-OptiPlex-T20-PSU-Main-Power-24%252dPin-to-8%252dPin-Adapter-Cable-(30cm).html?setCurrencyId=6&gclid=CjwKEAjwubK4BRC1xczKrZyj3mkSJAC6ntgrwWrRv32GyF3ksLfxY3LLzDSgUE_mt41MuCX3Ru6p9BoCrQLw_wcB

You can buy adaptor for the mobo connection.
Google is your friend :smiley:

Can I use this for gaming if I put in a GPU and a good PSU inside?

That's great thanks! It's a rare feature on true servers. Will order one.

I linked the manual earlier.
you can see it says:
Auto On Time This option sets the time of the day when you would like the system to
turn on automatically. Time is kept in standard 12-hour format
(hour:minutes:seconds). The startup time can be changed by typing the
values in the time and A.M./P.M. fields.
• Disabled — The system will not automatically power up.
• Every Day — The system will power up every day at the time you
specified above.
• Weekdays — The system will power up Monday through Friday at the
time you specified above.
• Select Days — The system will power up on days selected above at the
time you specified above.
NOTE: This feature does not work if you turn off your system using
the switch on a power strip or surge protector or if Auto Power is set
to disabled.

Does the "simplistic" bios include timed wake ups? I use a HP elite tower as a server for this feature no idea why servers don't include this as its ideal for many purposes

Thanks for the tips re SSD in the ODD bay and compatible marvell HBA
Agree that xeon is required for the VT-d to pass thru nic and hba.

It is really sneaky!

When you add to basket you get this:

You are buying

1 x Dell PowerEdge T20 Xeon E3-1225V3 3.2 GHz 4GB RAM 1TB HDD Tower Server £265.00
VAT £53.00
Total £318.00

- £110 Cashback

= £208.00

Thanks - that IS a good price.
Any feedback on what are serversdirect like?
I understand that serversplus are trusted vendor on here.

EDIT
Hold on. VAT
173.33 = 207
= same price as serversplus

Yes, but you need one with a chipset supported by Xpenology. I have this one...

http://eud.dx.com/product/iocrest-marvell-88se9215-chipset-sata-iii-6gbps-4-port-pci-express-controller-card-green-844282997#.Vw0OP03rtpg

Note that I don't think this will work on the Pentium version of the T20, I think a Xeon is required for DirectIO. Also, you won't get remote management via Intel AMT on the Pentium.

BTW, I have a 250GB Samsung SSD and a 750GB WD Black HDD mounted in the optical bay (they just clip in). vSphere is installed on the SSD and they're both available as data stores. I've also got a quad port Intel NIC in the box.

Indeed there are.

I'm certainly no expert on Adobe Premiere Pro (or any video editing suite) system requirements, but when I was reading about Premiere Pro system builds the consensus seemed to be that for the money, if you weren't a production house with dual Xeon machines rendering 24/7, the Xeons offered pretty diminished returns on an i7.

There's definitely Xeons that are far ahead in terms of performance than i5/i7 CPUs, however not at this price range unless you go for used parts.

I bought the Crucial RAM from Amazon last year so I guess not. Below is the relevant part from the chat:

James
06:42:18 We don't list this Garth as one we have tested. Does it currently work?
Garth
06:42:51 It works in my Dell T1600, I have just purchased a T20.
James
06:44:14 It is listed as compatible with the T1600 Garth. You can certainly try this as it may work but it isn't one we have tested. The specifications match what the T20 needs but I can't guarantee it will work.
Garth
06:44:58 OK, is it OK to try it out in the T20, it won't be bad for it if it is not compatible?
James
06:46:32 If the server doesn't like that part Garth it will simply not boot until the part is removed. It won't do any damage.
Garth
06:47:02 OK great, thanks for your help, it is very much appreciated. Bye.

Does that advice come with a no questions money back guarantee?

[/quote]Its not in the crucial list of compatible RAM:http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Dell/poweredge-t20
BUT
1) The spec is correct - ECC unbuffered pc3-12800E (1.35V LV DDR3 is supported)
2) The crucial compatibility checker lists DDR3 PC3-14900 but AFAIK this is NOT supported by the T20.
Owners manual here:http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/poweredge-t20_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf[quote]


Thanks I went on the Crucial online chat thing and the fella said the same but said to just pop it in and try it out.

Picked one of these up two weeks ago from servers plus, decided to add an extra two years warranty and have started to convert it to PC for a birthday present for my father.

So far have I installed a 750ti GPU on offer on here for £80 over the easter weekend and put windows 10 on it (via usb). In regards to the Win 10 install, it worked perfectly okay and after running its first set of updates correctly installed all the necessary drivers so the server 2012 versions on the dell website were not required.

Am planning on adding a 250GB 850 evo SSD, another 4GB of ram and slimline optical drive which ignoring OS (had old 7 Pro keys from work) should come in just over £400 after cashback which is fair considering I couldn't be bothered to go down the home build route.

Only point to note is the Bios is very simplistic, all I could access were boot settings, nothing else was available (It was the latest REV according to the dell site).

Hi, please could someone advise if I could add the RAM below to this server as I already have it in my current Dell T1600?

Crucial CT51272BD160B 4GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered ECC 1.35V 512Meg x 72

As the former owner of HP Microservers and of a Lenovo TS140 (similar to the T20 in this deal), I think that this is overkill for a plain home server.

One could run Xpenology and get very similar features with little effort, but without the full support from a Synology NAS, a bit more power use -20W idle, -and a bigger box (and little gain from having a much better CPU).

A tower server is a better fit for people who like to tinker / learn about virtualisation with ESXi or VMware, etc. or about Windows Server systems. It is also worth considering as a regular home PC + server (it can do both at the same time, with some configuration effort -with the caveat that it won't hibernate or get into sleep mode)

I use my Lenovo TS140 as a photo editing workstation / office machine (connected to a Dell 5K monitor using the onboard video card :sunglasses:), running Windows 10 Pro, and could run servers on VM machines at the same time if I wanted to (it is set up to do so with, but I do have a separate dedicated server).

Hi maybe can someone help me here. I have advent-dt2304 pc It has H61M-P31 (G3) motherboard https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H61M-P31-G3.html#hero-specification
can I replace with H81M-E33 motherboard
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H81M-E33.html#hero-specification
I think I would need new sata3 cables for ssd, but will ram, power suply work?
Thanks

Sounds similar to my plan...
Are you using separate RAID/HBA card to pass through the disks to xpenology?

I have one in my home, it's great thanks :smiley:. I run 4 Synology VMs along with various WIndows and Linux VMs on vSphere 6.0.

Thanks I bought one, gonna put windows on it and use it as a PC.

T20 Tower Server server for home user ??
1) it is big server
2) No OS
3) None swap disk in front
4) Size
5) Management like settings bios , tweaking etc ....

Now from 200- 300 + you can buy synology or qnap etc NAS with Intel CPU inside
1) Size nano compare to T20 Tower Server
2) OS by manufacturer no worries about licence about anything
3) 2 x Swap disk Say going on holiday take HDD give to friend or lock is safe
4) RAID 1 - for home user will be OK
5) Simple usage just tick boxes , add apps and you ready to go
Im NOT saying that NAS is more powerful or better just for home user it is more that they need

If you want to go really cheap and I think it is better that dell server is HP microserver
Smaller more than you need 4 HDD + decent CPU + Free NAS download

I think before bigger is better not now : ) time is change

Logically people can think that it is better to have 4 HDD x 2 TB than 2 HDD x 4 TB

Anyone any idea how this stacks up against the HP microserver?

Purchased to expand my ESXi home lab

>>>>>
That 32gb upgrade bundle is amazing value for money V the spec, great find and heat added!

If I purchased the 32G variant would this be good for crunching 4K video edited in Adobe Prenier and saved as H264 (for youtube) and H265 (for vimeo)?

Currently using a 4 year old Dell Vostro 200 with an i5 Sandybridge, 8G RAM and 500G SSD.

(would of course add an SSD)

Easy enough to put Windows 7 on it? I just want it for Plex Media server really - it's more powerful than my existing windows machine

Great little server. Probably overkill for a home nas.

If a server cost this then how much is a PC just do do kids homework on....

Good work!

Confirmed

Morning, Im looking to purchase this: http://www.serversplus.com/product.asp?s=SVDEL-203708
Cashback is claimed after 30 days but the deal expires within 30 days, does that mean the cashback deal isnt valid?
Simon: As long as the server is purchased before the claim period ends and the claim is filed within the correct time period (I believe this is within 30-60 days for Dell) then the claim will be valid.
Me: Should I contact Dell to confirm this?
Simon: You can do, although I'm sure that is correct. If the server is bought in April it will be eligible.

Fantastic, appreciate the help

My bad - The purchase date is the date used for the promotion range.
When filling in the form you select the purchase date from the dropdown list. If the date you bought it isn't on there, you've missed the offer.
So buying now or on 30/04 is still valid for cashback

https://plus.delltradetosave.com/gb/en/claims/promotions/invoice

Wouldnt this make cashback invalid then, as you have to wait 30 days to submit a claim? If I bought today, I couldn't submit a claim until 12th May..

So does that mean that you can no longer get that cashback on this then?

Hmm thanks guys, so it seems that if I were to choose one then the HP is the wrong way to go. The T20 seems a better option plus looking at the idle and load power consumption of the Xeon compared to my old i3 shows its has considerable better idle power comsumption

The Dell page on the promotion says the promotion period is "01/02/2016 – 30/04/2016", is that for the purchase date? As you have to wait 30 days to claim the £110 back, which goes past the end date.

this deal has been running for a while, it was posted a month or so ago.

What you've built is almost certainly more powerful than the HP, and more capable as a media server if you have to transcode videos. But if you're just serving videos around your house to smart TVs/media players you probably don't have to transcode - you have the network speed and the players likely play all video types natively.

I don't know if the HP would be powerful enough as a game server I'm afraid. The processor in it is a dual core without hyper threading, where your i3 processor has 2 cores each with 2 threads, which might make a difference if you are simultaneously hosting a game server and serving 2 videos.

​It would be a big boost in terms of Plex (Dependent on your network/internet as well) it's VM capabilities can't be underestimated as well.

Some typically home-use things really, I'm currently using a 'server' I've constructed out of old components I had lying around (i3-540) so I've been wondering for a while if getting a purpose-built homeserver is worth it both performance and energy cost wise. So right now I'm using it for automated computer backups, serving media around the house (Plex and UPnP), overnight Steam downloads (slow internet where I am) and the occassional dedicated game server (nothing serious) for myself and a few friends.

7k passmark, good for 3 1080p plex streams with some overhead...cracking for the money!

Any ideas on what to replace an old N40L with that'd fit six drives? This fits them physically but only has 4 onboard sata ports :/

Hot - good find
Xeon on it's own is best part of £200.
Fine server for just over £200 after cashback