Advices for low powered server

[Glujaz]

Budget (including currency): like 200 to 300€

Country: France

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: ESXi VSphere, Pf sense, SMB shares and Apache

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

ok, right now, I'm using an old Mac mini from 2009 as a server, and I'm very happy with it. It used to be running OS X server versions, but until recently, because of Apple un supporting the last server version of Mac OS, I made it switched to a Debian OS running Webmin, and it's working fine.

it's a bit limited though, as there is not a lot of flexibility, USB 2 is slow (ok for hardrives though), and for whatever he reason, the Ethernet port is not detecting gigabit support anymore (seams to be a common problem on these machines).

so, I was thinking of doing a new one from scratch, with old parts bought second handed of course.

 

the need would be to be able to run vSphere on it to finally run each service independently from each other in its own virtual machine (and I used to run vSphere on an old Xserve, so I'm used to this tool). It will have to run the classic NAS services via SMB and from the web using Filerun, Apache services, and the standard networking tools like Pfsense, DNS and DHCP services, and that's maybe it.

 

im looking for a good start, for a very low powered CPU (with iGPU). My Mac mini is using 13W only, so it seems to be hard to find something that low powered, and I'm not really understanding all these TDP things shown...

 

for vSphere, it would I suppose need at least 4 cores, as it would require a core for the hyper visor, one for Pfsense VM, one for SMB and data VM, and one for Apache VM. 
 

i also want quite a small case with a 5.2" bay to put something like this inside : a 4 2.5" HDD hot swap  bay (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32971755273.html?spm=a2g0o.search0304.0.0.40a33be0erXT0O&algo_pvid=224661ce-9695-483c-b2c1-18a47ebd3293&algo_exp_id=224661ce-9695-483c-b2c1-18a47ebd3293-39)

it would also require 2 PCI slots. One for an Ethernet card, and one for a Santa card as I would need something like 4 sata ports.

 

thanks in advance for your recommandations :)

 

[jaslion]

For your usecase it's basically get a used dell full tower with an i7 from ebay and call it a day. I can't make a new system that isn't slower or has to use crappy components.

 

Why the ethernet card the board has it?

 

4 sata ports is still pretty normal in most tower pc's.

 

Also for power consumption I doubt it's doing 13w only but more of a 13w idle state is possible. Either way the system needs more performance to run all you want thus with this limit budget you'll have to deal with greater power consumption.

[Nuzicx]

Intel Atom

[Glujaz]

On 10/6/2021 at 1:34 PM, jaslion said:

For your usecase it's basically get a used dell full tower with an i7 from ebay and call it a day. I can't make a new system that isn't slower or has to use crappy components.

 

Why the ethernet card the board has it?

 

4 sata ports is still pretty normal in most tower pc's.

 

Also for power consumption I doubt it's doing 13w only but more of a 13w idle state is possible. Either way the system needs more performance to run all you want thus with this limit budget you'll have to deal with greater power consumption.

Sorry for the late reply, I was expecting email at each reply

 

the mini run at 13w on IDLE, and goes to 20w max under load, and that's pretty much the power requirement I'm looking for

 

i was hoping to get a range of target CPU even a few years older to start looking for. I know some i3 COU have 4 cores, but don't know much more.

 

the Ethernet ports are for being used with PF Sense, it will be used as a router

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Glujaz said:

Sorry for the late reply, I was expecting email at each reply

 

the mini run at 13w on IDLE, and goes to 20w max under load, and that's pretty much the power requirement I'm looking for

 

i was hoping to get a range of target CPU even a few years older to start looking for. I know some i3 COU have 4 cores, but don't know much more.

 

the Ethernet ports are for being used with PF Sense, it will be used as a router

Oh ok makes sense then for the cards needs.

 

Well thing is the mac mini uses a lower power version of the cpu's of the time hence the power draw but also the fact that it is slower.

 

For your budget and usecase it's actually just impossible to find something in that power target as just the add in cards will push you near it already. Especially when the hdds kick in.

 

So pretty much my recommendation still stands. Look for a i7 3000 series or better based dell, hp, lenovo FULL TOWER with a normal psu and 2 pcie slot (and 4 sata slots at least) and then just get that. You can limit the cpu max clock in esxi to lower it to a level you are comfortable with.

 

The power target you have to be realistic with you cannot expect this in this budget ESPECIALLY since you want to do A LOT more on a single device.

[Glujaz]

Thanks a lot

 

Saw that the 3000 series tends to run at 70w on idle... (looked for a 3770)

just found something at 60€ for an i3 8100 which is quad core too, and runs at 30w on idle.

it would cost me 2 to 3€ more (my mini costs me 2€ per month right now), so seems to be a good alternative. Do you confirm ?

 

regarding low power version, I'm ok with that. I would mostly need the cores, not the power as it will make only run Linux distros with basic tasks. How could I find something similar with 4 cores instead, and not in a laptop formfactor?