Any recommendations for a low cost ex-corporate workstation?

trust.no.1

Hi,

The background to this is that I own a couple of Dell T5500 workstations that I purchased very cheaply on Ebay a few years back. I've maxxed both out with dual hex core 3.06Ghz Xeon processors and 144Gb of RAM -again sourced relatively cheaply on Ebay.

Whiie they continue to be solid and reliable, I'm looking to upgrade them for newer versions with faster (lower power) processors, faster memory (DDR4) and USB 3 capability. Though my current spec seems impressive I'm aware that it probably easily beaten by a unit with a single more modern I9 processor.

I never purchase computers new as they seem to depreciate in value and specification faster than new cars . So I usually look to the ex-corporate market.

Can anyone recommend a worth successor - ideally with dual processor capability? My budget is a maximum of £250 for each base unit. I can then do upgrades as I go along. Dell seems a very solid and reliable build but I'm willing to consider other manufacturers.

Any thoughts and/or recommendations apppreciated.

Thank you.

cerebus

Are you using these as servers?

I'm sure even my work server don't carry that much ram and they are used heavily as remote desktops

trust.no.1

cerebus said:

Are you using these as servers?

I'm sure even my work server don't carry that much ram and they are used heavily as remote desktops

Hi, I using them as workstations! In its heyday the TC5500 workstation cost several thousand pounds and was aimed at the CAD market. Yes - the maximum specification can easily beat that of some servers.

I use one of them to run the Qubes O/S and run several Qubes simultaneously. The other runs Windows 10 Pro and I use it to host a virtual lab environment on Virtualbox. The task manager in Windows 10 is a sight to behold with 24 hyperthreaded cores

The amount of  ram may be overkill but I got a cracking deal on eBay  a while back  - it seems there is not much demand for DDR3 registered server ram

mksysb

Take a look at Morgan computers, they have a good selection of refurbished work stations

https://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/pcs/

onomatopoeia99

I'm still using an HP Z800 as my desktop, which is a similar vintage.  Maybe look at a Dell T5610 which could have dual Xeons, albeit no later than E5 v2.  You might struggle to get dual v3 or v4 in your budget.