HesCalledTheStig

New only kinda leaves you with just the rx 6700xt. Which is a good choice overall for its price, it’s just not that impressive of jump as something around $320 used would be. Because used that’s the 2080ti’s price range which will be a better performer. If you’re intent on doing new on a budget that’s the route I’d go, 6700xt.

for gpu alone:
 
right now it seems for gaming amd is the way to go. probably rx 6000 (we are currently on rx 7000 so not that old) just because of the pricing. You can bascially go for anything from a rx 6600 class ($200 usd) to a 6800 class ($400 usd or a little more)
 
If you do want to go nvidia best option is to grab a 3060 or 4060, both are around the same price and performance, notable differences are 3060s tend to hover closer to $290 while the 4060 is dead at $300 right now. 3060 has 12gb vram while the 4060 has 8. 4060 is more power efficient and can be faster in certain games that support dlss. both will get murdered in rasterization by a rx 6700 class + ($300ish)
 
note I say class for the amd card since they have so many models, eg 6700, 6750, 6700 xt, 6750 xt, etc lol
 
note that you will probably have some cpu bottlenecking with these cards. I cant pick the perfect one for you so do a little research, read a couple articles, and you'll be golden 😄

A $300 to $400 budget can go pretty far, to the extent I would almost recommend both a cpu and GPU.
Since you can get i5 11400F’s for about $120 and a titan Xp for around $220, the pairing of both of those would be night and day compared to your current setup, and would play anything out today at least in 1080p at decent settings.
Or to just go entirely in on a GPU, rtx 2080ti.

The Rx10 line are very old Nehalem servers, so temper your expectations accordingly and don't get too financially invested in buying parts for it. (Not many of the parts from this generation carried forward to the Rx20 and Rx30 generations.)
 
It's great as a first homelab machine, and for getting your feet wet with TrueNAS or Unraid. If you decide you want an always-on NAS, a newer desktop will run circles around it and eventually pay for itself in power savings (vs running the R610 24/7).

No such dumb questions 🙂
Honestly I would just boot an ISO of Windows Pro first and see if things work, if not then think about getting a copy of Windows server.
The other option would be Proxmox or EXSi as a hypervisor and THEN run VMs of whatever you want on top of that without issue. It's a bit more advanced but cleaner setup imo.
 
Edit:
Remember "server" is just a role moreso than the hardware. A desktop PC build could be a server if you wanted it to.

So if I get a copy of Windows server edition I’ll save myself some headaches?  Will that edition support everything a home/pro version would?  Like would I still be able to run any software I wanted or would it limit me?  Sorry for the dumb questions. This is my first server project. A bit of a learning experience. 

Yes, you can use normal SSDs/HDDs in this. I've done it many times with mine 🙂
Any OS for the most part although if you use a consumer copy of Windows it might have issues (Home/Pro instead of Server) but you can always give it a shot before putting a license key in.

I have a friend that found one of these at a yard sale and offered it to me. He says it powers on and posts but has no hard disks.  Here are my questions.  First, can I run any 2.5in hdd/ssd’s in this?  And second, can any OS be installed or does it need to be an actual server OS?  I just thought it would be a fun project to build a gaming PC out of an old rack server or make a simple NAS. 

That is normal for stock coolers.

It often catches me out still as I expect it to be in Settings, given these options are not available AFAIK when using the client software, only the Web UI.

Yes, if you go using the WebUI you click the three dots next to a library, go into Manage Libraries, Edit and you will see Add Folders.

I just use RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) that comes with MSI Afterburner - or you can grab standalone, I believe - for both AMD and Nvidia cards.

Yes, you can do it through Adrenalin. The most obvious way is to use Radeon Chill, and you set the minimum and maximum FPS you want to target. It's under the gaming tab, then graphics. If you want to go into the advanced tab of there, you can just do the straight maximum FPS if you'd rather. 

Not really. Buttons might wear faster, yes, but it's negligible.

The mid left was actually a piece of fuzz in the socket. It scared me when I saw it on the photo. I blew on it and it was gone. 

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁

Have to agree. My YouTube feed just isn’t the same without Linus’s goofy face 10 times a day 😁