tl;dr Impulse-purchased an IBM x3650 M4 7915 to serve as the keystone of my homelab build; I’m either a mad genius or simply insane
I should preface this by saying I’m of a certain age, and with that comes a weird combination of nostalgia and reverence for x86-based IBM hardware. The first computer I could call my own was an IBM PC-XT I got second hand in the mid-90s. Not long after, I graduated to a PS/2 Model 80 that was in amazing shape and kitted out with an original VGA monitor, model M keyboard, and second-gen PS/2 mouse—if only my teenage self understood the treasure that setup would become.
Anyway, last night, in addition to some other odds and ends, I impulse-purchased an IBM x3650 M4 7915 primarily because I really appreciate System x hardware, but also mostly because it was like $110 USD with free shipping.
Planning to use this as the basis of a scratch homelab build primarily for use as a learning platform. I know there’s a lot of trial and error, pain and frustration, but also the acquisition of knowledge, and that valuable kind of growth that only comes in the wake of tremendous failure and defeat, sprouting like fireweed on an expanse of charred wasteland after a cleansing wildfire.
Either I’m a mad genius, or I’m simply insane
Meh. You paid someone to get rid of their ewaste.
With top end processors you’re still left with garbage CPU performance, especially single thread performance. 24c/48t of crap 🤷♂️ I’m not sure why guys in this group get so excited over cores and threads. Omgmoar! 🙄
For what you’ll pay in electric you could have had a brand new machine on a desktop processor that would decimate that machine on 1/4 of the power. (I went from 2660v4’s to a 13500, cut my power by now than half and have significantly better performance in every way. Paid for itself in 18 months)