What's the deal with Dell PowerEdge 840 please?

[mikehende]

Hey guys, very first time I am coming across a unit like this. PowerEdge 840
Service Tag: 14CM6C1 | Express Service Code: 2439837073

I read the manual but still confused, can I load win7 on this machine? Can it work like any regular windows machine?

 

[AWS]

It's a server, but, can be used as a workstation if you install Windows 7 on it. All servers can run any OS. Doesn't have to be a server version.

If you want to upgrade the memory you need to use registered ECC memory.

 

[mikehende]

Thanks, max intenral storage shows 4.0TB [4X1.0TB] SATA, not understanding that, does it mean we can put 4x1TB HDD's in there? If yes, does that mean we cannot or should not put a SATA drive larger than 1tb?

 

[AWS]

You can put one big drive in if you wish or 4 big drives. All that means is there is room for 4 drives. At the time the manual was written biggest was probably 1TB.

 

[mikehende]

So this machine is upgradeable to 8gb?

 

[AWS]

Yes it is.

 

[mikehende]

Alright, appreciate all of the help, thanks!

 

[mikehende]

So I went into the boot options and selected the dvd drive as first but it goes straight to windows server 2003. Something's up with this unit anyway, whenever I manually shut down it restarts and fan is very loud? Is that way this is supposed to work or it is supposed to be silent?

 

[mikehende]

I only now noticed that there isn't an onboard soundcard, so for the owner to purchase a soundcard and a HDD and then pay for the labor, I think it's wasted effort and this old machine is not worth even $100.

 

[AWS]

Servers rarely have sound cards. Maybe the dvd drive is bad.

The restart problem is probably a setting in Windows and/or bios. Servers are set to restart instead of shutdown. This is a fail safe in case of power loss. If you are managing the server from a remote location and power cord is accidentally pulled you couldn't log in and would have to call the datacenter to plug it in. It's a rare occurrence, but, does happen.

The fan spinning up high speed is also another feature of servers. All mine do the same thing.

 

[mikehende]

Thanks for the info but again not worth it, at least I have better knowledge now.

 

[allheart55 (Cindy E)]

The one that I used to have put out a lot of heat and was always more noisy than you'd expect.

 

[AWS]

The one that I used to have put out a lot of heat and was always more noisy than you'd expect.

Yep. Those older xeons did put out a lot of heat.