# Can I use a server motherboard to make an awesome desktop?



## Aaron Lingo

I am kinda new to making desktops and have been looking all around at many different motherboards and processors. Is it possible to buy a server from ebay that has 2 intel xeons 6 gigs of ram and 6 hdd and turn it into a hardcore gaming, video editing, and designing machine? I know I would have to add a video card and a sound card. Any help would be much appreciated! 
this is the server I was looking at
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProLiant-DL380-G4-2x-Intel-Xeon-3-6GHz-1Mb-64bit-6GB-Ram-6x-73GB-15K-SCSI-/110805050045?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item19cc7ee2bd#ht_12317wt_1185


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## voyagerfan99

You won't get the performance because it's a server. Stick with standard desktop mobos and CPU's.


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## Aaron Lingo

Why?


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## azeem40

Just because it is a server MOBO doesn't mean you will get the same performance benefits than if you were in a server-oriented environment.


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## Des_Zac

Don't forget this thing will be RIDICULOUSLY loud, just look up on youtube a server running, especially one with as many hard drives as this running at 15,000 RPM each, they are very loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Lnmx86dAA

There's an example.


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## voyagerfan99

Aaron Lingo said:


> Why?



The performance to price ratio is not as good as personal desktop computer components. Servers are meant for massive loads of distributed computing.

Taken from another forum:


> Intel-based Servers typically have no 3D accelerated graphic card and no sound hardware. Bigger Servers have a different architecture, which would have to emulate X86-Hardware - probably not fast enough for games.
> This is because even the fastest servers in the world do not have CPUs much faster than an Athlon oder P4 - they simply have more of them, and a better architecture than a PC. Having many CPUs won't help you with typical games. Rendering for Hollywood movies is typically done by large clusters of relatively cheap hardware, e.g. SGIs or Alphas running Linux. And you should consider that this movies are not at all rendered in real time. It takes months to render a movie of 2 hours. I think the best hardware for gaming (if you get the games and money doesn't matter) would be the computers used for military flight simulators.


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## Aaron Lingo

voyagerfan99 said:


> The performance to price ratio is not as good as personal desktop computer components. Servers are meant for massive loads of distributed computing.
> 
> Taken from another forum:



Thanks for the thorough explanation!  
I am kinda bummed it won't work but atleast I didn't spend the money on it and then regret it....


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## Richard89

Aaron Lingo said:


> Thanks for the thorough explanation!
> I am kinda bummed it won't work but atleast I didn't spend the money on it and then regret it....



You can however, use that server for storage.  If you wanted, you could set it up lots of storage space through a network.


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## Aaron Lingo

yea that would be cool but I had really expected the dual xeons and a good video card to be able to handle gaming and such.... THanks for the idea I will definitely keep it in mind.


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## jonnyp11

it probably would do gaming decent, but i don't think you can put a card in there or if the power supplies can handle it.


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## voyagerfan99

jonnyp11 said:


> it probably would do gaming decent, but i don't think you can put a card in there or if the power supplies can handle it.



Like I said before, the price vs performance ratio is just not worth it. You can spend $800 on a good mobo, ram, cpu, and video card and get better performance than a server setup.


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## OvenMaster

Des_Zac said:


> Don't forget this thing will be RIDICULOUSLY loud, just look up on youtube a server running, especially one with as many hard drives as this running at 15,000 RPM each, they are very loud.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Lnmx86dAA
> 
> There's an example.


My _GOD!_ 
I've never seen or heard anything like that before. 
Just imagine what an entire server farm for, say, Google, or eBay, must sound like. 
Probably need to wear earplugs, at the very least.

Added: Okay, Yahoo, for instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlnteixXfVM&feature=related


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## voyagerfan99

OvenMaster said:


> My _GOD!_
> I've never seen or heard anything like that before.
> Just imagine what an entire server farm for, say, Google, or eBay, must sound like.
> Probably need to wear earplugs, at the very least.



Most server techs do 

I've never seen a rack server up close, but I've worked with small office desktop servers. You turn those things on and they blow pretty hard and loud. Of course they do slow down after initial POST, but if it gets hit it kicks them right back up.

Similar to this video, only a fair bit larger:
[yt]4Ectwt91Fx0[/yt]


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## FuryRosewood

yea...as with the above...if you really want a server board, it will be due to the ECC ram...performance...that can be argued.


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## cabinfever1977

I think he was going to get the server cause of the price and he thought it was cool, but you can build a cool desktop for around the same price that will play games.


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