I got a Dell R710 server in the mail today for use as a video processing server for DIY Tube Video Community. You get to see my unboxing, first impressions and initial set up of the server when it arrived.

This was packaged in a very large box full of what looks like spray foam inside plastic bags. It took me some time to get the foam removed from the package so I could lift the server out.

This is quite a large and heavy server at about 24 inches by 36 inches in size by about 3.5 inches high. It weighs a lot too, maybe 50 pounds.

I managed to get the server out and set it up on the box to examine it. Everything seems to have arrived well enough.

I put it up on my desk to have a closer look at the server. The server hangs over the front of my desk its so huge.

I removed the cover to have a look at everything inside and be sure it came as I had ordered. There are 12 sticks of RAM and two 6 core Xeon processors. I ordered 2x 146 GB SAS hard drives for now. This will get me going as a test server until I decide to take this online as a live server.

This came with dual 850 watt hot swappable power supplies.

I put the cover back on the server and let it warm up for a while before I turned it on.

I got the computer going and checked to be sure as it booted up that everything ran well. Everything is as I had ordered it, which is good.

I made a bootable Ubuntu dvd and installed Ubuntu server.

I will be installing DIY Tube Video Community software on this server to run parallel video processors. This will greatly speed up the processing of multiple videos at the same time. This server will give us room for growth, which is a relief.