If you want to have a server that you can use to gain real experience with both hardware and software I would suggest getting your hands on a used rack server from HP, Dell, IBM or something like that.
Enterprise servers offer so much more features than regular "PC based" ones. Though it's nothing wrong with having both! Home built servers are after all, in general, quite fast and cheap!
Often you can find used servers quite cheap because almost no company that use enterprise grade hardware want to reuse "old" equipment for new purposes, most of the time they just get new and fresh hardware.
Also, you should definitely throw in something like a Cisco switch too, perhaps a Catalyst 3750G, quite cheap but with a lot of features.
But a word of warning: enterprise grade servers are LOUD!! I mean you need hearing protection loud!
TatorTotKing reacted to MindServ in Server Questions
