Some of you may know of Kozoru. Some of you may know that they are in hard times. Thus, they are selling their cluster nodes. I can have one in your hand for $200. A good friend of mine worked there until a few months ago, and we are looking to turn around some of the machines. Here is what he had to say about them:
It's been a while (March or so) since I threw one together but I know they're P4 Celerons with 80GB PATA drives. I think all of them have 256MB (1 stick) of RAM but I know some of the DB Servers had two 256's in them. You might get lucky there.<br> <br> I *THINK* CPU speed is 2.8GHz but it might be slower. this is the only thing I can't remember about them from memory. On-board USB/Video/PS2 and 100BTX NIC.<br> <br> They're built in cheapish SuperMicro cases and they're pretty noisy, they use a big blower fan for the case, a small whiny low-profile blower fan on the copper heatsink, and the powersupply has its on set of fans. These ran 24/7 for damn near 2 years straight, we seldomnly had any problems with them (2 out of 100+ had power supplies die)<br> <br> They all boot off USB, so just add a USB DVD drive and install your OS of choice.<br>
He's got a post over at kcgeek.com that says the exact same thing. I think they are similar to <a href="http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/1U/512/SC512L.cfm">these 1U cases</a>, but I've never seen one in person, only photos. From what I've been told, they had been setup to boot a custom OpenBSD install from a 64MB USB key, and use the HDD for local data cache, storage, etc. when the cluster node was active. I can get them for pretty cheap. There are/were nearly 100 available. I don't have any idea how long these will last, as the (former?) Kozoru employees can get them even cheaper than I can. Contact me or ax0n (on kcgeek.com) if you're interested in one/a few. If you contact him, be sure to say you heard of these through me, though. ;)
Thanks, Jon.
Ok, specs and pics are in, for those interested! He's what he's got to say about them:
A company I recently worked for is changing directions this month and is selling off a ton of 1U Servers. They're a good enough deal that I figured I might as well see if anyone wants me to snag one for them. I left back in June but I can still get these if people are interested.
These were all built by hand. We bought the Case/PS, and all the components separately and built them in-house. As such, these cases can take almost any ATX motherboard if you feel like upgrading. A low-profile CPU cooler is included and will work with most P4/Celeron CPUs.
Specs:
Chassis: SuperMicro SC512 (~19" Wide x ~15" Deep x ~1.75" (1U) Tall) * 200W PS with ATX and P4 plugs * Supports almost all ATX motherboards (Upgradeable, not proprietary) * 100% copper low-profile CPU cooler with low-profile ducted fan * No place to put removable media in case (FDD/DVD/CD) * 2 USB ports on back * Enough room and power inside to install a second HDD
MOBO: Biostar U-8668-D - Info here: http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=u8668+d * On-board VGA, Sound, Game, 2xUSB, PS/2, Serial, 10/100 NIC, and Parallel ports * USB Bootable
CPU: Intel(tm) Celeton(tm) 2.4GHz
HDD: Western Digital 80GB
RAM: The two I got yesterday came with 512MB, but can't guarantee anything more than 256MB - I could swear most of them had 256MB when we built them. DDR 333MHz
Availability: There's more than 90 of them, but if they're not snagged up soon, they'll probably get shipped to California. I am picking up another batch of them for some local friends on Monday the 23rd.
Photos:
Front: http://www.focushacks.com/photo/ebay/1u1.jpg
Back: http://www.focushacks.com/photo/ebay/1u2.jpg
Inside: http://www.focushacks.com/photo/ebay/1u3.jpg
And that's what I know. From what he told me, the secretary/hr gal that still works there is looking for another job. As soon as she finds one, she's gone and the office is closed, and the leftovers get shipped out.
$200 and we're willing to deliver (gas money is nice) to the KC Metro, including Leavenworth. They are still available as of Mon, AFAIK, but they may not last the week.
Thanks, Jon.
This is down to the final day. We are able to pick up some systems tomorrow afternoon, and beyond that we have little hope. The lone remaining employee has been out to job interviews for the past couple of days and is ready to close the office for good. If anyone is still interested in a server I need to know by tomorrow morning so that I can get your payment and send it to my friend. PayPal is the fastest way we can handle it. I'll try to monitor my email this afternoon, and late this evening. There will be a hole in time while we are out for the evening. If I don't have your request and payment soon enough, I won't be able to send your money to be able to purchase a system. I leave for work around 8-9am, so that'll be my cutoff unless someone wants a large lot. Last I heard there were over 90 still available.
My friend also created a web page with the specs of the ones he's already bought: http://www.buzzsec.com/rackmount.html
Thanks, Jon. I can be reached at 816-916-5016 (cell) if someone needs to make contact and email isn't working (ie, after tomorrow morning). Payment through PayPal may be sent to michi_bear@yahoo.com at the rate of $200 per computer.
Not to start a price war or anything, but I'm picking up 10 of these tomorrow morning, and I'm getting them for $150 a piece. I've got buyers on 8 of them already (friends, coworkers and the like), so I have 2 available. I only want what I pay for them.
Email me, or email Jon Pruente, but after this week they're all gone.
Rich
On Wednesday 25 October 2006 3:01 pm, Jon Pruente wrote:
This is down to the final day. We are able to pick up some systems tomorrow afternoon, and beyond that we have little hope. The lone remaining employee has been out to job interviews for the past couple of days and is ready to close the office for good. If anyone is still interested in a server I need to know by tomorrow morning so that I can get your payment and send it to my friend. PayPal is the fastest way we can handle it. I'll try to monitor my email this afternoon, and late this evening. There will be a hole in time while we are out for the evening. If I don't have your request and payment soon enough, I won't be able to send your money to be able to purchase a system. I leave for work around 8-9am, so that'll be my cutoff unless someone wants a large lot. Last I heard there were over 90 still available.
My friend also created a web page with the specs of the ones he's already bought: http://www.buzzsec.com/rackmount.html
Thanks, Jon. I can be reached at 816-916-5016 (cell) if someone needs to make contact and email isn't working (ie, after tomorrow morning). Payment through PayPal may be sent to michi_bear@yahoo.com at the rate of $200 per computer.
That's right. So with the employee price out there, you can figure how slim my margin is after PayPal fees that get taken from me, and the PayPal fees again when I send it to my friend. :) We aren't making much on these, but enough to hopefully pick up one or two for ourselves in the mix.
Jon.
On 10/25/06, Rich Edelman rcedelman@comcast.net wrote:
Not to start a price war or anything, but I'm picking up 10 of these tomorrow morning, and I'm getting them for $150 a piece. I've got buyers on 8 of them already (friends, coworkers and the like), so I have 2 available. I only want what I pay for them.
Email me, or email Jon Pruente, but after this week they're all gone.
Rich
It seems that due to the rain I'll still be home later tomorrow morning than I usually am. I'll extend my deadline to the late morning/noon and possibly afternoon if things work out that way. As long as I have and verify payment before 4-5pm, we should be able to get what you need.
And a big thanks to those of you who showed interest, and esp. for those of you who've made a purchase!
Thanks, Jon.
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Jon Pruente -
Rich Edelman