I was thinking of buying an old Dell SC1420 on Ebay: 2xXeon 3.0 Ghz,64 bit,4gb ram,36 gb sata drive,dvdrom...seems like the perfect server...for just over $100....but,searching around the internet last night has me questioning that logic.
I noted(these posts were old mostly c. 2005) that many were trying to install Freebsd(3.0 ,I think)and Linux,to no success,BECAUSE Dell has doctored these 'Power Edge Tower Servers' so that the BIOS(and the the Setup CD)will ONLY allow one to install the OSes it was designed for,which in the case of the SC1420(and yet,a search shows people running Linux on the Sc430 and 1600SC!) was "Windows 2003 Server and RHEL 3.0.
I wouuld like to know if anybody has experience with Servers,in this regard,particulary,Dell and if in the case of Dell Servers,there's a way to 'fool' them into letting one install another OS,ie: FreeBSD,9.0.that is?
I noted(these posts were old mostly c. 2005) that many were trying to install Freebsd(3.0 ,I think)and Linux,to no success,BECAUSE Dell has doctored these 'Power Edge Tower Servers' so that the BIOS(and the the Setup CD)will ONLY allow one to install the OSes it was designed for,which in the case of the SC1420(and yet,a search shows people running Linux on the Sc430 and 1600SC!) was "Windows 2003 Server and RHEL 3.0.
I wouuld like to know if anybody has experience with Servers,in this regard,particulary,Dell and if in the case of Dell Servers,there's a way to 'fool' them into letting one install another OS,ie: FreeBSD,9.0.that is?