**Dell PowerEdge T20 Mini Tower Server - Owner Thread**

[Buffalo2102]

Mine has Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1225 v3

Mine too. Very capable.

 

[Avalon]

Very late to the party - but I picked up a second hand T20.

I've flashed the BIOS to A20 and found 16GB ECC memory for it.

I now would like to upgrade the CPU (from Pentium --> Xeon).

What CPU is recommended and what PSU / GPU can I upgrade to?

How about you give us a clue about the intended usage as that dictates what’s best. You ask about PSU upgrades, what are you planning that requires a higher capacity PSU?

 

[bobsnail]

Hi All, appreciate this is an old thread, but there arent many resources for the T20 left so thought id contribute here

I have a Poweredge T20 with E3-1225 v3 processor. Although it has fallen off the official support list ESXI 6.7 works fine and i have been using it without issue. Just noticed that the Dell Image for ESXI 7.0 is out (it has passed me by so far). Anyone tried it? I guess im most worried about the Memory/drive controller (the CPU seems to be used in T130 which is supportted and i use an Intel network card which seems to be part of default build of ESXI)

if you have not tried ESXI 7 do you use a different baremetal hypervisor? The T20 is an awesome server, its much too soon to retire it.

 

[NickTheBiz]

Hi All, appreciate this is an old thread, but there arent many resources for the T20 left so thought id contribute here

I have a Poweredge T20 with E3-1225 v3 processor. Although it has fallen off the official support list ESXI 6.7 works fine and i have been using it without issue. Just noticed that the Dell Image for ESXI 7.0 is out (it has passed me by so far). Anyone tried it? I guess im most worried about the Memory/drive controller (the CPU seems to be used in T130 which is supportted and i use an Intel network card which seems to be part of default build of ESXI)

if you have not tried ESXI 7 do you use a different baremetal hypervisor? The T20 is an awesome server, its much too soon to retire it.

Mine has always been a large array of drives in a RAID array for long term media storage, but to be honest, with the onset of netflix, prime and disney+ it hardly ever gets used. Thinking of doing something like you but again, not really got a requirement as yet.

So what I'm trying to say is, keep me posted but I have nothing to add

 

[Buffalo2102]

Hi All, appreciate this is an old thread, but there arent many resources for the T20 left so thought id contribute here

I have a Poweredge T20 with E3-1225 v3 processor. Although it has fallen off the official support list ESXI 6.7 works fine and i have been using it without issue. Just noticed that the Dell Image for ESXI 7.0 is out (it has passed me by so far). Anyone tried it? I guess im most worried about the Memory/drive controller (the CPU seems to be used in T130 which is supportted and i use an Intel network card which seems to be part of default build of ESXI)

if you have not tried ESXI 7 do you use a different baremetal hypervisor? The T20 is an awesome server, its much too soon to retire it.

I use Proxmox. Have done for years and it's been awesome.

 

[NeoVo]

Hi all,
I upgraded my HP N40L microserver, to Dell-T20 some time ago.

Looking to make a similar upgrade present day, any recommendations?

Edit: Used for general VM use, file storage, plex media server etc.


Plan is to migrate current Dell-T20 offsite and retire the old N40L

 

[bobsnail]

Ok well.. just a quick update to confirm that the latest dell ESXI 7 image works fine on the poweredge T20. i did have to update the bios (i was on A6 and the latest is A20 so long overdue) and this update seemed to break my ESXI 6.7 install (i had switched the hard drive out, so i could just switch back if i couldnt get 7 working).

I got a warning during install saying that my add in dual port network card wasnt supported, but i know its a common intel chipset so proceeded anyway (and it works fine). Despite UEFI boot being supported in ESXI since 6.5 i had to legacy boot (If i didnt it installed fine but on restart said boot drive not available). I think thats a Dell image thing though, as had the same issue on 6.7.

Will take me weeks to get it all set up as i like it (cos im bad at this AND fussy... a terrible combination).

Thanks for the proxmox suggestion though... i will conisder it if ESXI ever stops working (im used to the ESXI now). Hope that helps someone.

 

[Vimes]

I have a venerable HP N54L that has served me for many years as a media server with 4 HD's and an SSD for the OS. It is great, but a little slow. No chance of any transcoding.

I am looking to get one of these Dell servers with a Xeon E3-1225 V3 second hand and hopefully it will be able to transcode a single stream 4k for Plex.....?
Is that realistic to expect it to be able to do that...?
If I also wanted to use a SSD as well as fill the four drive bays can I just use any SATA PCIe controller card for SATA connections or can it be a little picky...?

Thanks

 

[bobsnail]

Vimes, there is a thread here that may interest you https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...x-media-server-4k-transcoding.18789345/page-3

basically a guy there says its ample to encode 4k on plex

As for the PCIE SATA, you might want to read through this thread (page 17 specifically) for advice. apparently its best to avoid silison image or marval chipsets if you are going to be using unraid, YMMV of course

 

[Vimes]

^^^^^^ Thanks I'll take a read.

Thanks also for the advice on the controller card. Appreciate that.

 

[Godzillafan]

HI All,

Finally decided to dust off my new (well, old 2016) Dell T20 G3220 4GB,500G HDD. I bought it during that crazy cash back offer years ago, so got it under £100.

Also was bought to replace my older aging HP N36L. I think now on it last legs after lasting years (stripping down and deciding if that can be reused for 2020).

I want to set this up as my home server now, a really basic one.

Will most likely stick a NIC card (10G) in it and max out the HDD and make it a mini home entertainment / backup server.

First thing, I will open up the case to check what the makeup is and see how dated it is and then look to upgrade the memory and so on.

Question is how best to setup up (cheapest).

1. What's the cheapest option for memory 8 or 16gb (has 4GB at the moment)?
2. Do I need to upgrade the cpu chip, if so - whats the cheapest way and any recommendations (max without blowing up motherboard).
3. Stupid question - Its has no HDMI - so no graphics card - will I need one to get HDMI or should I just leave it and use the vga connector
3. cont.... reason I ask this, I am thinking of put all my pc games on one of the drives and then hoping to setup some sort of steam link up to other computers in the house.

Just hoping it not going to turn into a massive task, but to start with memory increase and just get it going will do. I not even considered the OS yet, worse i can't get my head around linux!

 

[decto]

HI All,

Finally decided to dust off my new (well, old 2016) Dell T20 G3220 4GB,500G HDD. I bought it during that crazy cash back offer years ago, so got it under £100.

Also was bought to replace my older aging HP N36L. I think now on it last legs after lasting years (stripping down and deciding if that can be reused for 2020).

I want to set this up as my home server now, a really basic one.

Will most likely stick a NIC card (10G) in it and max out the HDD and make it a mini home entertainment / backup server.

First thing, I will open up the case to check what the makeup is and see how dated it is and then look to upgrade the memory and so on.

Question is how best to setup up (cheapest).

1. What's the cheapest option for memory 8 or 16gb (has 4GB at the moment)?
2. Do I need to upgrade the cpu chip, if so - whats the cheapest way and any recommendations (max without blowing up motherboard).
3. Stupid question - Its has no HDMI - so no graphics card - will I need one to get HDMI or should I just leave it and use the vga connector
3. cont.... reason I ask this, I am thinking of put all my pc games on one of the drives and then hoping to setup some sort of steam link up to other computers in the house.

Just hoping it not going to turn into a massive task, but to start with memory increase and just get it going will do. I not even considered the OS yet, worse i can't get my head around linux!

1) The supplied memory will be ECC UDIMM. You can't use registered RDIMM which is very cheap. 8GB will be cheaper, you only need to buy 1 x 4GB ECC UDIMM. If you're not doing anything intensive then it will be fine with 4 or 8GB. You can use non ECC but would need to replace all of the memory.
2) Depends what you are doing. Mine has the default Quad core E3-1225 V3 chip. Needs to be a V3 and needs to end in '5' to have iGPU. Higher power CPU may not be supported as this CPU only 84W
3) VGA is fine as long as the CPU has iGPU. GPU is limited to ~25W so a cheap GT710 would work but not much else.
4) I'm not sure that will work well. If you want to run the games on the server it needs a decent GPU to run the game and encode the stream. As the slot only support 25W there are no suitable cards. Nvidia needs to be a GTX class card. AMD do a RX550 which is 35W and would probably be OK, however I have one and it's pretty poor even streaming Roblox. If you are just looking to setup a steam cache, that may be possible but that is just a download buffer to reduce load on your broadband connection. I haven't done it as only 2 PC's with ample bandwith.

For OS, I use unraid, it's not free so there are other options which are, however for the basic 6 drive limit it's around £45 and makes a lot of stuff easy. You can get a free trial for 30 days, which you can extend twice by 15 days to end up with 2 months. If it doesn't work for you then you can look at something else. The have a good forum to take a read in.

For storage I'd avoid larger drives as the cooling is marginal in the Dell
I found 3TB, 4TB drives fine, however 8TB+ drives run too hot in summer so I custom built a replacement in an Antec P101 case and the Dell is now backup.

Have fun

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

Nice info.

To parrot the above, UnRAID does work really well, and yes, the drives do get at bit toastie in there.

 

[bremen1874]

Drives do run hot in the upper bays.

I used my old HP N54L to create a 4 bay DAS that connects to my SAS adapter. The drives in there run nice and cool.

I now only have the cache SSDs and a couple of drives in the T20.

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

That's a great idea

 

[Godzillafan]

Thanks for all this info, I will look at each point at a bit at a time, but first I will get 10 mins to sit done and look at each part in the T20 and see what's what!

1) I will note the memory and increase to 8gb
2) Will leave the cpu for the moment and see how things go
3) Will start looking for a GT710 - (anyone use this route or used a cheap gpu to get hdmi out of it)?
4) Yip the PC game steam issue is a small one, but really looking at a way to do this as don't want my main pc running it. Just for the kids can play games on their laptop or on the 70" TV via the shield through geforce or just steam link. They end up looking at my pc via the link. My sli GTX950's on my pc has the steam and geforce loaded onto it. Through that, they are running games via the shield, so need to fix this somehow and move it. I might need to study this steamgaming from server a lot more as I am not even sure what kind of memory and GPU cards are required!

5) OS - time is my killer at the moment as I am juggling 2 schools run monring and end of day, 2 night classes and everything else - that's why I just need the easy solution - I even thought about a win 10 route, but not a fan of win 10. I will explore the unraid and check out a few vids on the tube.

6) I was going to recycle the drives I have, I think 2 at at least 5TB - your moving case issue might resolve this I want to end up with all 8tbs or at least 4 of them!

I will have my trustly old N36L as thats being stripped down - 4 bay DAS!!! I am going to look into this too, if its possible to seperate drives between the 2 cases and have them linked somehow (if thats what you mean), thats a great option. The Antec p101 case is about £100, I think!


Thanks for all the help and guidance - first things, first - lets get a parts list from the internal setup and see what's what. I can't believe its been 4 years and its just sat under my desk!

1) The supplied memory will be ECC UDIMM. You can't use registered RDIMM which is very cheap. 8GB will be cheaper, you only need to buy 1 x 4GB ECC UDIMM. If you're not doing anything intensive then it will be fine with 4 or 8GB. You can use non ECC but would need to replace all of the memory.
2) Depends what you are doing. Mine has the default Quad core E3-1225 V3 chip. Needs to be a V3 and needs to end in '5' to have iGPU. Higher power CPU may not be supported as this CPU only 84W
3) VGA is fine as long as the CPU has iGPU. GPU is limited to ~25W so a cheap GT710 would work but not much else.
4) I'm not sure that will work well. If you want to run the games on the server it needs a decent GPU to run the game and encode the stream. As the slot only support 25W there are no suitable cards. Nvidia needs to be a GTX class card. AMD do a RX550 which is 35W and would probably be OK, however I have one and it's pretty poor even streaming Roblox. If you are just looking to setup a steam cache, that may be possible but that is just a download buffer to reduce load on your broadband connection. I haven't done it as only 2 PC's with ample bandwith.

For OS, I use unraid, it's not free so there are other options which are, however for the basic 6 drive limit it's around £45 and makes a lot of stuff easy. You can get a free trial for 30 days, which you can extend twice by 15 days to end up with 2 months. If it doesn't work for you then you can look at something else. The have a good forum to take a read in.

For storage I'd avoid larger drives as the cooling is marginal in the Dell
I found 3TB, 4TB drives fine, however 8TB+ drives run too hot in summer so I custom built a replacement in an Antec P101 case and the Dell is now backup.

Have fun

Nice info.

To parrot the above, UnRAID does work really well, and yes, the drives do get at bit toastie in there.

Drives do run hot in the upper bays.

I used my old HP N54L to create a 4 bay DAS that connects to my SAS adapter. The drives in there run nice and cool.

I now only have the cache SSDs and a couple of drives in the T20.

 

[decto]

3) GT710 should be available easily at auction, I paid around £10-15 each for a couple I use when I just need a display. The 1GB DDR5 version is the best value balance, though if it is just for HDMI out it doesn't matter as long as the card has it. You can also get a VGA to HDMI or DP adapter. If you are using Unraid or similar you only need a physical display for initial setup, BIOS or troubleshooting. All OS features are available via a web browser. There are some reports of people using a more powerful GPU in the T20 so may be worth a google if you want to try it.

4) For streaming either with Parsec, Geforce or Steam, the GPU and CPU need to be able to run the game fully as the required resolution, just as a desktop would. The game runs on the hardware and the output is then captured and encoded by the GPU as a video stream. This can then be 'played' on any device with a decoder and the 'input' signals are redirected back to the server. Nvidia do this better, but I have had it working with AMD but I am no longer using AMD for this as the AMD cards don't virtualise well. If you were just running windows on bare metal, most AMD cards support streaming even down to RX550 etc.

5) Have a look at the 'Space Invader' video for Unraid. Win 10 would work too, if you just want to expose a shared drive or two to the network though it does need regular attention and reboots.

6) To connect to the external storage, LSI branded SAS cards are usually recommended. This can be picked up ex server for £20-£30 though you may need to flash the BIOS on the card so it acts as a dumb controller which can burn a bit of time. Many auctions advertise as preflashed which makes it easier. I had 2 of these cards in my T20.

I moved to the Antec case as I'm now running an old 10C 20T Xeon with 3 old but capable GPU's, one of which transcodes plex and the other two are used for low end game streaming. Most of the time the VM's are running Roblox with a 'clicker' so the kids can boost in games but it also allows them to play some better games on a potato laptop etc.

You can spend a fair amount 'being economical' with old parts. If you add in the cost of the controller, cables, rigging the PSU to power the drivers seperately and the resale value of the N36L ... they still sell on auction etc. You're fairly close to the price of a new case which would allow you to consider other upgrades in the futute... though there is a fair chance the Dell board and PSU won't fit ... I haven't tried.

Good luck

 

[Godzillafan]

Thanks for this, I guess it all starts with the first 4Gb memory stick and the rest will follow!

I will keep updating on here!

3) GT710 should be available easily at auction, I paid around £10-15 each for a couple I use when I just need a display. The 1GB DDR5 version is the best value balance, though if it is just for HDMI out it doesn't matter as long as the card has it. You can also get a VGA to HDMI or DP adapter. If you are using Unraid or similar you only need a physical display for initial setup, BIOS or troubleshooting. All OS features are available via a web browser. There are some reports of people using a more powerful GPU in the T20 so may be worth a google if you want to try it.

4) For streaming either with Parsec, Geforce or Steam, the GPU and CPU need to be able to run the game fully as the required resolution, just as a desktop would. The game runs on the hardware and the output is then captured and encoded by the GPU as a video stream. This can then be 'played' on any device with a decoder and the 'input' signals are redirected back to the server. Nvidia do this better, but I have had it working with AMD but I am no longer using AMD for this as the AMD cards don't virtualise well. If you were just running windows on bare metal, most AMD cards support streaming even down to RX550 etc.

5) Have a look at the 'Space Invader' video for Unraid. Win 10 would work too, if you just want to expose a shared drive or two to the network though it does need regular attention and reboots.

6) To connect to the external storage, LSI branded SAS cards are usually recommended. This can be picked up ex server for £20-£30 though you may need to flash the BIOS on the card so it acts as a dumb controller which can burn a bit of time. Many auctions advertise as preflashed which makes it easier. I had 2 of these cards in my T20.

I moved to the Antec case as I'm now running an old 10C 20T Xeon with 3 old but capable GPU's, one of which transcodes plex and the other two are used for low end game streaming. Most of the time the VM's are running Roblox with a 'clicker' so the kids can boost in games but it also allows them to play some better games on a potato laptop etc.

You can spend a fair amount 'being economical' with old parts. If you add in the cost of the controller, cables, rigging the PSU to power the drivers seperately and the resale value of the N36L ... they still sell on auction etc. You're fairly close to the price of a new case which would allow you to consider other upgrades in the futute... though there is a fair chance the Dell board and PSU won't fit ... I haven't tried.

Good luck

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

6) To connect to the external storage, LSI branded SAS cards are usually recommended. This can be picked up ex server for £20-£30 though you may need to flash the BIOS on the card so it acts as a dumb controller which can burn a bit of time. Many auctions advertise as preflashed which makes it easier. I had 2 of these cards in my T20.

I have one of these cards, but can't seem to flash it. I've tried all sorts of old machines that should see it, but for some reason none can actually perform the flash. Bit mind boggling.

So, if you can get a pre-flashed one for a small premium, I'd recommend it'd be worth the extra.

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

You're fairly close to the price of a new case which would allow you to consider other upgrades in the futute... though there is a fair chance the Dell board and PSU won't fit ... I haven't tried.

Good luck

There is a switch somewhere on the mobo that recognises when the T20 is no longer in its original case, and won't boot. Bit of a faff to get around, apparently.

I'm sure there's someone in this thread somewhere that did it