Sailakki

Got a question you think lots of people have asked before? Then this topic is for you! (Most likely not final version, any suggestions for improvements are very welcomed).
Things to do (feel free to leave suggestions):
Edit the order from most common to least common question.
Suggest some good routers in different price brackets.
Suggest some VPN providers.
Maybe add more questions.
General polishing.
 
 
 
Why is my Internet so slow?
 
How can I improve my wireless speed?
Quick list of things you can do to improve your wireless speeds:
 
What do the different wireless standards (802.11n, 802.11ac, etc) mean?
 
2.4GHz vs. 5GHz and what does dual band mean?
What is QoS?
What is the difference between a router, a switch and a modem?
 
What should I look for when buying a router?
 
What is port forwarding and how do I do it?
 
 
How do I access my router's web interface?
 
What is the difference between Megabit and Megabyte?
 
I have heard about this thing called pfSense, what is it?
 
What is a VPN and do I need one?
 

With my job i deal primarily with Windows Servers and Hypervisor platforms (VMware & Hyper-V) so I use them for test lab environment as well as VM's for development, testing, etc...and general stuff for home like Plex, ruTorrent, etc...

I´d go with Xeon and buy a used server:
 
Pre-compiled software is often times optimized for Intel CPUs, and I would advise against using Gentoo for a server because it can turn into a nightmare to maintain.
 
A pre-built server is as hassle free as you can get, they are certified for a number of operating systems, and you can be quite sure that the components all work together and nothing suddenly gives you weird problems that are difficult to deal with.  It goes as far as like having the right firmware version on the disks you´re using.
 
That´s something very easily underestimated.  So it´s likely the best option when you´re looking for reliability, performance and efficiency, including power efficiency.  I wouldn´t recommend buying anything older than Gen7 (or whatever compares to that from other manufacturers).  They don´t cost 20 or 30k, either.
 
Everything else depends on the exact usage you have in mind.  Web hosting and file hosting are rather wide applications, and they may better be seperated out to different machines because file hosting might require tons of disk space while web hosting might require a fast CPU --- plus a database server, which in turn may require fast storage (or even tons of fast storage, which is the point where things start getting expensive) --- and/or lots of RAM besides a fast CPU.  Depending on what kind of reliability you need, you may be looking at some sort of cluster ...
 

with the extremely big IF you don't care about efficiency or the power bill in general.
 
Since servers are running 24/7 and often with consistent loads this can eat up the money saved on the hardware in a few months.

Not a bad idea, just theres more to it than just "Is this brand new expensive CPU better than this $10 one from 13 years ago?" 
IMO a 5500/5600 Xeon pre-built ex-lease server is a better investment for less money - however if you are ok with spending $600-800 on the server, then sure go a Ryzen - or the new Intel Coffee Lake's come with integrated graphics so no GPU needed. 

Filezilla 
edit: im guessing this is for personal use

Just get the Ryzen. It is gonna be brand new after all, which means it has a warranty if something is wrong. If you spend your money on an used Xeon without warranty and something is faulty, you will have just spent your money and end up with no processor. Ryzen 7 does support ECC RAM, so no worries there. Also I'd suggest you get a 1700 instead of 1700X, because it is even better price for basically the same thing. Lower TDP as well. For a server, I would also suggest you to get a MOBO with dual LAN ports.

Ryzen 7 would offer more performance than the LGA771 Xeon E5472 

Go for a used LGA 1366 Xeon 5500/5600 system if going down that path, way better and just as cheap as what you're looking at.

If you have a local ecycle place near you sometimes they'll have some pretty good deals on older servers that can easily be converted to most of your needs. When it comes to actually building servers things tend to cost more than salvaging prebuilt.
 

If your going on the cheap look into a used pre-built desktop add freeNAS or unRAID and a couple 4TB drives and call it a day or if your looking long term and a bigger box look into a used server grade piece from ebay guys are having great results with these units and are reasonably priced

Epyc....

what are you using the server for?

the problem with LGA 1366 is expensive (still) motherboards they can be almost as much used as a brand new z270 since they still offer great performance

You say that Xeon is better for server than i7 ... not exactly true in all cases. 
Sometimes even servers need high single core performance, and in that case some good i7 would help a lot.
 
I would go with Ryzen in your case ... you can get R7 1700 for under 300$ now. Brand new and all that. Pretty decent performance aswell.

Why not Naples?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Matched-Pair-Intel-Xeon-X5675-3-06GHz-6-Core-Processor-w-Thermal-Grease-SLBYL-/172903855399?epid=2231729849&hash=item2841df7527:g:qaAAAOSwk6ZZtDYf
 

totes , 1366 has some hexacore xeons for pretty cheap if you hunt around , like 50$ cheap 

If you look at LGA 2011 and 1366 socket xeons, you can get a lot of performance for your dollar. Look at the e5 2670.