FS: Google Search Appliance (no software)

SOLD

Hi all,

Yeah, the price check was me

Here's the deal: it's a high-spec PC server, with a bright yellow paintjob, as supplied by Google. After the search software's license period expired, and the company who owned it renewed, Google sent out a new one.

Without a license for the search software the box is too hardened to do anything with - you couldn't deploy it without an enterprise account. To give it a new lease of life I've arranged for Google to log in remotely and remove their software - which they swapped for the root password, so the new owner will have complete control over the box, and can use it for whatever they like.

The spec is:
2U 19" rackmount case
Twin Ethernet adaptors
4xXeon processor (I believe 2.8GHz)
12GB RAM
5x 250GB hard disks on a full RAID controller (at the moment set up as two mirrored pairs with one hot spare)
Fully unlocked, working RedHat Linux installation.

Pics:






Included accessories: One Ethernet patch cable, one crossover cable, manual, rack mounting brackets (not shown), power cable


US Robotics 56K modem (only used once, to dial in remotely) with all cables


Original shipping box


The equivalent box new from Dell costs £3200+, so I'm asking [edited]£1500 (including worldwide UPS delivery) for a quick sale. If you pay by Paypal you pay for half the shipping costs.

Thanks for looking

Stone

 

How I would love my 'OWN' Google lol - never seen one in the Wild before, but saw a huge room of them at Google HQ once and nearly shat myself! Wasn't prepared for the vast arrays on display.

 

Wow, impressive specs, try to get a Game Cube emu running on it and post the fps ya get :lol::lol:

 

I don't think you'd get a great fps there, it probably has no PCI-e (or even AGP) ports, so it wouldn't make a great gaming system. However it would be a hell of a computer to use with Virtualbox or VMware, or maybe with a nice sound card and FL Studio the coolest looking audio workstation ever

 

in one pic, i see slots for cards

 

Yeah, but in 99,9% of these machines are just PCI slots, mostly used for extra network adapters or stuff like that. there's no way to fit a decent video card in there...

 

Yes, but you never know till ya open it and take a look. (Regardless, it sure as hell can store ISO's and have plenty of CPU power:lol

Hey Stone, mind opening that thing up, it could help the PCI ideas

 

...or he could look in the manual

 

FOLD it!

 

OH

MY

GOD!

I was searching for info on the hardware, when I found this.....



IT'S THE HOFF!!!

:lol::lol:

 

It's riveted closed, I was going to leave it that way so the new owner knows I haven't been pinching bits from it!

We used a couple of similar boxes at work - they were 2xXeon with 4GB of RAM, and I fitted PCIexpress graphics cards to them by cutting a slot in the motherboard's x8 socket (so you could fit a x16 card in there) which worked perfectly. Lots of 3Dmarks, anyway Graphics aren't everything though, it'd make a great multiplayer game server, or even just a very robust filestore. Plus it's really pretty, the pics don't really do the matt (powder-coated?) surface justice.

Stone

 

That's a security hex bit on the front, not a rivet.



Not that I'm saying that's the right size bit, just an example ;-)

The card slots have screws, too. It looks like those two round things on the back unscrew and the top slides off.

 

If the shipping wouldn't own me I would so pick this up. I could so pay for it from the proceeds generated by letting my brother have his way with it in the back room...

Also I'm surprised someone hasn't tried to hack the Google Software. If Google hasn't dialed into it yet I would recommend opening that box up and imaging the drive for *AHEM* archival and research purposes. For posterity as they say

 

Yeah, the two round things on the back are rivets :icon_bigg Once they're off, the top sheet just slides back, as you say.

[the front cage is just to prevent access to the CD drive, afaik]

That Hoff pic has to be an empty case, there's no way you could pick one up like that and still be smiling :lol:

Stone

 

BTW one of these machines might be able to run windowz too, or is linux only?

i'm wondering because it would be a perfect encoding/decoding/video editing machine...

i wonder how fast it can compress 1980x video in h.264 insane quality setting...

 

Probably about as fast a a Mac Pro running Windows (Similar hardware).

 

what? you must be joking.

 

Why not create a separate thread in the computer section to discuss all the ins and outs of this particular piece of hardware, thus freeing up the sales thread for genuine sales interest. Link it to the thread and all the discussion can take place there. Only my two pence worth, but I bet the seller jumps at every new post only to be disappointed that £2000 isn't winging it's way to his bank account ;-)

I'm guilty of it to, so not having a go folks! It's a sexy item worthy of discussion!

 

Why would he be joking? My mac Pro has quad xeons as well, its not that unusual (And mac pros can have 8 cores as well).