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

Hi all
My HP Proliant died last Friday so I’m in the market for a replacement and it seems the t20 or t30 is a very worthy replacement. It seems it “should” only cost around £100-£150 based on old hotukdeal + cashback deals but I’m struggling to find anywhere that stocks it for under £430. Am I looking in the wrong places (can anyone point me in the right direction?). Or have these servers been superceeded with something bigger & better already?
Thanks!
P.S. here’s a link I found but out of stock
https://www.serversplus.com/servers/tower_servers/dell_tower_servers/svdel-t203692p
 
I replaced my N54L with a T20. I got mine for £149 and got a Xeon CPU from the auction site so it worked out pretty cheap. You could get a G3220 version for £74 after cashback at one point but I haven't seen any offers like that for a while now.

Looks like you'll have to pay the money, try finding a used one, look at something else or wait for another cashback offer that may or may not come.
 
Hmmm, that’s a fair old price difference, like 2-3 times the amount :( I don’t want to take this thread off topic but are there any decent alternatives? I see there’s a Lenovo ThinkServer TS150 but clearly the t20/t30’s are popular so would rather follow the crowd. I’m interested in the t20/t30’s because of the amount of HDD bays.
I’ll continue scouting, any pointers greatly appreciated :)
 
I think you will have to give us some idea of what you are planning to do with it and what other things are important to you;
Is size or noise an issue?
What about power consumption?
Does it have to be new?

Someone can probably then suggest some alternatives.
 
Thanks buffalo, my main criteria is:
Noise: quiet/silent as possible
Power consumption: low as possible, like the n40l
Usage: file server for serving smb or ntfs shares
Hdd bays: ideally 6 or more
Size: mini server size, like the proliants or t20's, not rack mounted stuff
Condition: would really like new so less likely to have components like mono or psu failing, which is what I think prob killed my n40l

I appreciate I'm prob asking for a lot here.. :)
 
I have 2 x Xeon T20s and they tick all your boxes except the 6 drives, un-modded they only support 4 x 3.5" Drives. You're going to struggle to find a budget server with 6+ drive spaces.

Also worth mentioning the price of T20s has gotten stupid. Better buying new IMHO.

I Recently bought a Lenovo TS150, stripped it out and re-homed it in a Fractal Define case. Space for 8 disks (+ ssds) and absolutely silent.
 
Null_ said:
Thanks buffalo, my main criteria is:
Noise: quiet/silent as possible
Power consumption: low as possible, like the n40l
Usage: file server for serving smb or ntfs shares
Hdd bays: ideally 6 or more
Size: mini server size, like the proliants or t20's, not rack mounted stuff
Condition: would really like new so less likely to have components like mono or psu failing, which is what I think prob killed my n40l

I appreciate I'm prob asking for a lot here.. :)
Click to expand...

In terms of HDDs Bays are you talking about SATA PORTS? Or actual bays? I'm running 6 Sata drives in my Xeon T20 but two of those are SSD's so they can pretty much go anywhere
 
Sparky__H said:
I Recently bought a Lenovo TS150, stripped it out and re-homed it in a Fractal Define case. Space for 8 disks (+ ssds) and absolutely silent.
Click to expand...

That’s really interesting, have you got a url to a tutorial/guide on this? What case did you go for?
I’d also heard something about Lenovo having proprietary SATA connections or something, is that true? Does that complicate things?
 
Last edited:
easyrider said:
In terms of HDDs Bays are you talking about SATA PORTS? Or actual bays? I'm running 6 Sata drives in my Xeon T20 but two of those are SSD's so they can pretty much go anywhere
Click to expand...
PORTS I guess, I “modded” (use the term loosely) the n40l using a guide to remove the dvd tray to fit an extra 2 hdd’s. Basically i’m hoping to not be taking a step back
 
Null_ said:
That’s really interesting, have you got a url to a tutorial/guide on this? What case did you go for?
I’d also heard something about Lenovo having proprietary SATA connections or something, is that true? Does that complicate things?
Click to expand...

Sorry no guide. I just done a bit of reading before hand.
The case is a Define Mini (Old unit that holds up to 9 HDD)
Ts150 MB is MATX and fits perfect. the IO panel needs some pins bent but fits a treat. you will need another psu and a 24 to 10 atx cable.
SATA is standard. It's the ATX power input they use is non standard.

I can help if you go that route.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, just so I can get some costings:
Factual Design Mini £74 at e buyer
ThinkServer TS150 with 8GB RAM at servers direct £150
Any recommended Power supply £?
 
Null_ said:
Thanks, just so I can get some costings:
Factual Design Mini £74 at e buyer
ThinkServer TS150 with 8GB RAM at servers direct £150
Any recommended Power supply £?
Click to expand...

I went with be quiet but any silent psu will do. you will only need a 400w if that.

make sure you don't forget the 24 to 10 pin atx adaptor and make sure its a lenovo wired one.

also the pinout on the front input (power switch etc) is undocumented. I can tell you what they are when I get home. can also provide some screen shots if you want.
 
Null_ said:
PORTS I guess, I “modded” (use the term loosely) the n40l using a guide to remove the dvd tray to fit an extra 2 hdd’s. Basically i’m hoping to not be taking a step back
Click to expand...

I upgraded to the T20 Xeon from a N54l.

I bought a Sata card from the forest and whacked the drives in.

The T20 is a great design imo. Silent and powerful.

It seems odd to me to pay for a server then rip the guts out...(waste of time and money imo) I would get the Xeon T30 and a sata card.

By the time you've bought the case and the Psu you are creeping toward T30 money tbh.
 
HPe are meant to be offering lower priced deals for the Gen10 ML110, ML350 and Microserver and ML30 Gen9 under the label 'Top Value Offers'.
I hope it's true as perhaps some healthy competition will push prices down. Link

I've not seen any particularly good prices on any of these yet though, but with DDR4 prices the way they are I'm not sure we'll be seeing deals to rival the Original Microserver and T20 deals any time soon
 
If interested you can get the drive bays quite easily and quite easily add it into the chassis. I'm now running one with 8 drives and it all runs well, just added a SATA card and some additional power connectors. I had concerns at first about the running temps, wondering if I would need to add more fans/case mods, but it all runs nice and cool. Been running now for 7 months with 4x WD Red 6TB for storage, 1x Sandisk SSD for OS(WHS 2011), 1x WD 500GB for computer backup, and a Sandisk 2TB drive for CCTV recordings and a 500GB drive for server backup.

BAyA2Pm.jpg xjwtjcZ.jpg

Forgot how many drives are in it hence the edit - was a tiring day in work!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all your help guys.
The T20 I just can’t find anywhere,
the T30 is looking to be around £400
the ThinkServer + new case + psu around £270
 
T30 currently 360 if you search online. I'm impressed with mine. Upgraded the Ram to 16gb and its currently holding 2 x SSD and 4 x 10TB Ironwolf Pro's
 
Anyone transferred the T20 guts into a bigger, better ventilated, case?

Mine was freaking out today due to the drive temperatures.

I could also do with adding a couple of extra drives.

I could probably squeeze the extra drives into the existing case but that isn't going to help with the drive temperatures.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom