First homelab server

[whoami4546]

I am looking to purchase my first server to use to learn windows server administration and server administration. 

I know I want to purchase a R730 or R730xd.  I will max out the ram after I purchase the server. 

 

I was thinking about purchasing this Link. 

 

I believe it has the right amount of storage, ram and cpu power for a starter server. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id get ssds for vms, much faster than any hdd setup

 

Its more than enough for a starter setver, id probably get a r720 to save some money if it was me, those are more than plenty for learn on.

 

How many vms do you need, probably 128gb of ram is plenty, no reason ot max it out.

[whoami4546]

Be honest I wanted to max out the ram for cool factor.  Plus I have some ideas of things that are memory intensive. 

[Jarsky]

It would cost you a hell of a lot to max out the memory on an R730...you'd need 24 x 64GB DDR4 RDIMM's.....even if you got them as cheap as $200ea second hand (if you can find that many matching RDIMM's)...you're looking at about US$5k to max it out....what could you possibly want 1.5TB of memory for as well without having some huge enterprise requirement? You'd probably do just fine with 128GB of Ram.

 

As for storage, like Electronics Wizardy suggested, if you're using local storage then i'd also consider looking at a more barebones server that you can get some SSD's for instead. Lower power, less heat, less noise, faster. Theres typically a lot of these servers for sale without drives. 

 

Also keep in mind this server only has iDRAC Express and not iDRAC Enterprise, so you lose most of the powerful remote management tools like being able to do bios and array configuration, remotely mount media for installs, etc....

[Loki0111]

If you want to spin the dice on the lol'z you could try and get in on one of these. I am expecting the orders will all get cancelled though.

 

 

 

[whoami4546]

Thanks!  I know it would be super expensive to upgrade to max memory.   I plan to do it over a long period of time.