This week, we were looking to get another server here at work which we needed for a test environment as well as to handle our file sharing. We had been running all these needs off of a collection of retired and ”converted” desktop machines. While this works, it is obviously not an ideal solution.

So I started exploring a rack-mount server option to handle all these needs in a single place. Since we only use Dell servers, I checked out their website, but after you add the drives, memory, rails and OS, it quickly gets into the area of several thousands.

Obviously, we didn’t need anything cutting edge, so I checked out EBay. What a great alternative. There were boatloads of 2nd and 3rd generation Dell rack-mount servers available ultra cheap. I was able to pick up a server which included a copy of Windows Server 2003 OEM and rack-mount rails for under $500. I hopped over to NewEgg and ordered some additional drives and then over to Crucial to pick up some additional memory. All in all the server came out well under $1,000 for everything we needed.

While this server is by no means cutting edge, it gets the job we need done much better than the “collection” of desktop machines accumulating in our server room.