EDIT : I’m going to use a Lenovo P500 (at around $130) with 8 threads (will upgrade it later) and 64gb of RAM. It support the E5 v4 family so that’s great. If someone knows the power consumption, that would be cool!
Hello, I want to build a “homelab” and I’m searching for a server, what do you propose me as good options? I need something with at least 64gb RAM, can buy used, and minimum 16vcores… Around 150$ If you have any good options let’s comment below 👇 THX ❤
What are you going to host/ use the server for?
Honestly that sounds overkill for someones. First time into self hosting.
I would start with something like a Nuc or a secondhand 1 liter PC (dell optiplex/HP elite mini/Lenovo ThinkCenter) which are dirt cheap on eBay.
Do you have an indication of what you want to run that requires that mid range gaming setup?
Definitely agree. If you need to spin up a bunch of discrete VMs for labbing, that’s one thing, but noise, cooling, power consumption, and space all come into play for dedicated hardware. I host a variety of services and they all run on small, low energy hardware (which is often pretty cheap). I just spun up a matrix server on a $100 ebay HP ProDesk which has plenty of power (probably enough to deploy my whole stack).
Bear in mind, a system that is built to be a dedicated server will be meant to crunch data. That means 2 things:
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loud fans
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heavy electricity use
If you just want a lab, I suggest getting a desktop PC and loading a server OS on it. Practical hardware experience isn’t too valuable because platforms change and they usually make them super simple to maintenance with lots of online support. Getting a desktop will also save you some bread on initial investment.
A self-hosting server does not necessarily crunch data and it doesn’t have to have loud fans or use lots of power. It can idle in the 15-20W range with an Intel CPU and if you put the HDDs on standby when idle.
Yep, I’m speaking in generalities. Overall, my point is that a homelab doesn’t need something expensive because it may not be heavily used, so most of those features are not necessary. If the guy had mentioned running a business or customers, that’d be a different story.
You even had to qualify your own statement that one has to modify hard drive power consumption to achieve acceptable noise levels.
I had a SIEM running on a mini-pc like a champ. It cost me fifteen bucks and taught me a lot. Build to requirement, not title.
Unless you have use case for that much horsepower I would suggest, like others here, buy a mini PC as a start and if you need more down the line buy a second one. They are cheap, fairly quiet and don’t use much power.
At that price, the hardware will be ancient and you will spend more on electricity in a year than you spent on the server.
