Where do you buy home server?
-
I am looking for a home media server.... and wonder where would you buy them from? The company I am working for about to put old server for sale for internal employees... but that are VERY old (at least 6-7 years). I fear it will die on me after couple of months. So... Where do you usually probe for server on sale? Budget around $300-500 max.
EDIT: Purpose: spinning VMs for testing environment + streaming media to iPad/iPhone.
-
IntelNUC
-
For media at home, people often build their own.
-
-
@scottalanmiller said in Where do you buy home server?:
@aaronstuder said in Where do you buy home server?:
IntelNUC
Definitely a good choice.
Isn't IntelNUC a very small device? I forgot to mention, but I want to spin VMs (Hyper-V) for those machines.
-
Allow me to rephrase my initial question then... For Home Server (with VMs) do you need Server grade Xeon, Rack, ECC memory, redundancy PSU?
-
@stess said in Where do you buy home server?:
@scottalanmiller said in Where do you buy home server?:
@aaronstuder said in Where do you buy home server?:
IntelNUC
Definitely a good choice.
Isn't IntelNUC a very small device? I forgot to mention, but I want to spin VMs (Hyper-V) for those machines.
It's physically small. Very popular for home virtualization, though. Good amount of CPU and memory.
-
@stess said in Where do you buy home server?:
Allow me to rephrase my initial question then... For Home Server (with VMs) do you need Server grade Xeon, Rack, ECC memory, redundancy PSU?
Only if you need the type of redundancy / resiliency that a production system would need. I'm fairly sure that the latest generation of Intel NUCs have CPUs that will do virtualization. ECC memory, double PSUs, rackmounting, etc, are all things you need for business systems. If you aren't charging people to host stuff, no need for that at home. Not to mention fan noise, power consumption, etc will be next to zero with a NUC or similar device.
-
@stess said in Where do you buy home server?:
Allow me to rephrase my initial question then... For Home Server (with VMs) do you need Server grade Xeon, Rack, ECC memory, redundancy PSU?
No. Those things are good for learning about enterprise hardware, but not for learning about virtualization or systems.
-
If your goal is to learn about enterprise server hardware, you have to get enterprise gear. But not super new. If your goal is to learn enterprise hardware, call up @ryan-from-xbyte and get a generation (or two or three) old enterprise gear. But for virtualization, a mid-size CPU and a bit of RAM are best.
-
Thanks for the clarification. I'll debate with my wallet if I can afford NUC.
-
@stess said in Where do you buy home server?:
Thanks for the clarification. I'll debate with my wallet if I can afford NUC.
NUC will be cheaper than a "real" server.
-
The biggest thing that you need for virtualization is RAM. If you have an entry level Core i3 or a low end AMD you have plenty of CPU for your needs. A 1TB 5400 RPM SATA drive will do the trick too. A 2TB 7200 RPM SATA drive will do great. But RAM you really can't skimp on. 16GB minimum to do anything useful. 32GB would be recommended. The more RAM you have, the more you can do.
-
@stess said in Where do you buy home server?:
Thanks for the clarification. I'll debate with my wallet if I can afford NUC.
NUC is on the cheaper side of the options. What else were you considering?
