The HP ProLiant DL380 G4 (circa 2004-2006) features Intel Xeon "Nocona" or "Irwindale" processors with NetBurst architecture. While its 3.6GHz clock speed appears decent, key limitations emerge when running modern workloads:

// Sample PowerShell to check CPU capabilities
Get-WmiObject Win32_Processor | Select-Object Name, NumberOfCores, 
    AddressWidth, L2CacheSize, MaxClockSpeed

The Smart Array 6i controller with U320 SCSI drives presents several bottlenecks:

# Linux disk benchmark example (if running Linux)
hdparm -tT /dev/sdX
dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=1G count=1 oflag=direct

8GB PC3200R ECC memory may prove inadequate for SQL Server 2008 R2:

-- SQL Server memory configuration check
SELECT 
    physical_memory_kb/1024 AS [Physical Memory (MB)],
    committed_kb/1024 AS [SQL Committed Memory (MB)],
    committed_target_kb/1024 AS [Target Committed (MB)]
FROM sys.dm_os_sys_memory;

In real-world testing with similar configurations:

• IIS 7 handles ~150 concurrent basic requests (ASP.NET) before latency exceeds 1s
• SQL Server 2008 R2 shows 2-3x longer query times compared to Nehalem-era hardware
• Power consumption exceeds 450W at load (vs. ~180W for G7)

If proceeding with this hardware:

// IIS ApplicationHost.config snippet for performance tuning
<applicationPools>
    <add name="LegacyAppPool" 
         queueLength="5000" 
         cpuLimit="80" 
         memoryLimit="6000" />
</applicationPools>

-- SQL Server configuration for memory-constrained systems
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory', 6144; -- 6GB
RECONFIGURE;

While the $750 price seems attractive, consider:

The HP ProLiant DL380 G4 (2004 vintage) with dual Xeon 3.6GHz/1MB cache processors presents interesting challenges for Windows Server 2008 R2 deployment. Let's examine key performance factors:

// Sample PowerShell to check hardware compatibility
Get-WmiObject Win32_Processor | Select-Object Name, MaxClockSpeed, L2CacheSize
Get-WmiObject Win32_PhysicalMemory | Measure-Object -Property Capacity -Sum | 
  Select-Object @{Name="GB";Expression={[math]::round($_.sum/1GB,2)}}

The Smart Array 6i controller with U320 SCSI drives creates bottlenecks:

• Max throughput: 320MB/s (vs SATA III's 600MB/s)
• IOPS limitation: ~150-180 per drive (15K RPM)

# Linux alternative for disk benchmarking (if running Hyper-V)
hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
fio --name=randread --ioengine=libaio --rw=randread --bs=4k --numjobs=4 \
  --size=1G --runtime=60 --time_based --group_reporting

With only 8GB RAM, SQL Server 2008 R2 requires careful configuration:

-- SQL Server memory configuration for constrained systems
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory', 6144; -- Leave 2GB for OS
RECONFIGURE;

Test results from similar deployments:

Breakdown of $750/server investment:

• Power consumption: ~400W idle (~$350/year at $0.10/kWh)
• Maintenance costs: Higher failure rate for aging components
• Opportunity cost: No virtualization capabilities

For budget-conscious deployments:

# Apache configuration for legacy hardware (httpd.conf)
StartServers 2
MinSpareServers 1
MaxSpareServers 3
MaxClients 50
MaxRequestsPerChild 1000

For database tuning in memory-constrained environments:

-- SQL Server index optimization strategy
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_OptimizedSearch 
ON dbo.CustomerData (LastName, Region)
INCLUDE (Email, Phone)
WHERE Active = 1;

When planning to eventually upgrade:

# Sample migration script framework
$sourceServer = "DL380G4"
$destServer = "FutureVMHost"
Export-SqlDatabase -ServerInstance $sourceServer -Database "AppDB" 
  -BackupFile "\\nas\migration\AppDB.bak"
Import-SqlDatabase -ServerInstance $destServer -Database "AppDB" 
  -BackupFile "\\nas\migration\AppDB.bak"