New Server PC

[TylerD321]

Budget (including currency): Ideally Cheap as possible for decent. No hard budget.

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Basic server hosting (minecraft, ark, etc), maybe pihole, maybe nas eventually?

 

I found an i5 12400 sealed new in box just sitting on the shelf in my local Walmart for 75 dollars and was inspired - I have already purchased this bc yolo. I have always wanted to have a second machine in order to be able to host my own game servers to play on with friends. I would like to explore my options regarding this build. It might be neat to try to build a mini-itx/small pc if it is not absurdly more expensive. I have no intentions of ever running this with a GPU. I expect something along the lines of 16/32gbs of ddr4 would be the cheapest route to go with like an h610 board? Ram speed doesn't overly matter for server pc afaik.

 

I look forward to hearing what you guys recommend!

[Somerandomtechyboi]

51 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

I expect something along the lines of 16/32gbs of ddr4 would be the cheapest route to go with like an h610 board? Ram speed doesn't overly matter for server pc afaik.

Yea just go for a dirt cheap h610/b660

Used should help you get the cost down even further

 

mITX is overpriced to shit so stick with mATX, if you wanna make the thing as small as possible just build a small case for it

 

Rams wise probs not gonna save much if you go used, whatever 32gb kit for 50$ will do, branding can be ignored, same thing goes for storage

 

Cooler wise maybe youd see an improvement if you ziptied a cheap/free 775 copper core/am3 copper cooler onto the cpu (and i have actually done this before, only like 2-3c diff compared to using the push pins, actually quite easy to do) but depends on how bad the stock cooler is

 

Psu wise whatever used bronze rated unit you can find for 10-20$ that is less than 7yo or a pico psu if you wanna build a tiny case

[TylerD321]

21 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Yea just go for a dirt cheap h610/b660

Used should help you get the cost down even further

 

mITX is overpriced to shit so stick with mATX, if you wanna make the thing as small as possible just build a small case for it

 

Rams wise probs not gonna save much if you go used, whatever 32gb kit for 50$ will do, branding can be ignored, same thing goes for storage

 

Cooler wise maybe youd see an improvement if you ziptied a cheap/free 775 copper core/am3 copper cooler onto the cpu (and i have actually done this before, only like 2-3c diff compared to using the push pins, actually quite easy to do) but depends on how bad the stock cooler is

 

Psu wise whatever used bronze rated unit you can find for 10-20$ that is less than 7yo or a pico psu if you wanna build a tiny case

Here is what I have come up with. Unsure what I want to do for PSU or fans, any recommendation? May as well keep it new now

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pPzwz6

[Somerandomtechyboi]

43 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

Here is what I have come up with. Unsure what I want to do for PSU or fans, any recommendation? May as well keep it new now

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pPzwz6

Used psu for sure

 

Lotta money that can be saved with a used case, doesnt even do anything for performance so might aswell cost cut the hell out of it

 

not to mention the cooler like atleast get a 20$ one or prefferably stick with the stock cooler or buy/dumpsterdive a 775 copper core/am3 copper heatsink

 

Though 80$ for the mobo is pretty good unless you can find a used h610/b660 for <60$

 

 

Biggest wastes of buying new from biggest to least would be case > psu > cooler, can save like 40$ minimum with a used case and cooler from that list and expect to save more money when you get a used psu, id expect around 60-80$ saving with a used case cooler and psu

 

As for the psu just look around fb marketplace for some cheap bronze or gold rated unit and inquire here, im good at picking used units if the 3 units i have are anything to go by

[TylerD321]

9 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Used psu for sure

 

Lotta money that can be saved with a used case, doesnt even do anything for performance so might aswell cost cut the hell out of it

 

not to mention the cooler like atleast get a 20$ one or prefferably stick with the stock cooler or buy/dumpsterdive a 775 copper core/am3 copper heatsink

 

Though 80$ for the mobo is pretty good unless you can find a used h610/b660 for <60$

 

 

Biggest wastes of buying new from biggest to least would be case > psu > cooler, can save like 40$ minimum with a used case and cooler from that list and expect to save more money when you get a used psu, id expect around 60-80$ saving with a used case cooler and psu

 

As for the psu just look around fb marketplace for some cheap bronze or gold rated unit and inquire here, im good at picking used units if the 3 units i have are anything to go by

Turns out the used market in my area is trash. However, I did come across a few good deals on power supplies. I am going to grab a Seasonic Focus PX-750 for 60 usd today or tomorrow. Talked to the guy, it was used in an editing rig that he no longer has use for and didn't use very much haha. It looks brand new, no visible dust or anything.

There are absolutely no cases worth buying or even cheaper than what I linked for new, so I am going to go with that. I will look at how I want to go about CPU cooler.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

22 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

I am going to grab a Seasonic Focus PX-750 for 60 usd today or tomorrow

Overkill but still a very good deal

 

22 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

There are absolutely no cases worth buying or even cheaper than what I linked for new, so I am going to go with that

I mean you can buy dirt cheap used office cases for like <10$ or outright dumpster dive em, but i guess youd prefer something that looks good? i mean airflow can be solved by just running without the sidepanel

 

24 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

I will look at how I want to go about CPU cooler

Dirt cheap 775 copper core / am3 copper cooler only needs abit of effort to mount with zipties, i do see the merit of convenience if you go for a cheap 20$ tower instead but personally id just ziptie and save some cash as its not hard to do on a downdraft cooler

 

I have ziptie mounted a tower before (a large one at that) and yea temps were meh due to not enough pressure at the middle of the cooler + a massive PITA to mount, but ziptieing a 775 copper core proved mostly painless and no temp issues, ill do some more testing on ziptieing a tower cooler see if i can find ways to improve temps but that wont happen for awhile

[TylerD321]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

I mean you can buy dirt cheap used office cases for like <10$ or outright dumpster dive em, but i guess youd prefer something that looks good? i mean airflow can be solved by just running without the sidepanel

Those are harder to find around me for some reason unless they are stolen, I am okay with spending 30 bucks for a decent looking case.

 

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

I have ziptie mounted a tower before (a large one at that) and yea temps were meh due to not enough pressure at the middle of the cooler + a massive PITA to mount, but ziptieing a 775 copper core proved mostly painless and no temp issues, ill do some more testing on ziptieing a tower cooler see if i can find ways to improve temps but that wont happen for awhile

I was going to do this, but I decided against it since I am lazy and like the look of the cheap tower cooler, I will probably get the basic version of that one for 25 bucks. Then everything will match which is nice.

 

7 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Overkill but still a very good deal

Yeah I was shocked to find such a good deal. The only other PSU in my area used right now was an RM850 for 80 bucks. May as well save 20 bucks and get plat rated. Another neat benefit is I can throw a GPU in the machine eventually.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, TylerD321 said:

Those are harder to find around me for some reason unless they are stolen, I am okay with spending 30 bucks for a decent looking case.

Huh

Here in indo i can buy cheapo office cases for like 3-4$

 

Usually id assume the us has better used deals but i guess some areas have some pretty shit used markets, kinda curious what state you are in