HomeLab Server Recommendations

[RaddyKewl]

Budget (including currency): $1000 to $1500 USD

Country: US

 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Will be the powerhouse of a Proxmox Cluster.

After Effects video rendering

Stable Diffusion rendering

Games: Fallout 4 with mods, Cyberpunk 2077,

Jellyfin (most likely pre-encoded MP4/H.264) on demand video and live TV

NAS Storage

Once setup, will run headless

 

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): 

 

For Stable Diffusion, I'd need an NVidia GPU (30 or 40 series preferred)

Multiple Ethernet Ports

Room for and connection for at least 8 Hard Drives in RAID for storage

Can't decide whether I want to do a rack mount or full tower, though I don't currently have a server rack.

I am in the Apple ecosystem (Macs, iPhones, Apple HomeKit)

Games would be played through Proxmox, VNC or something similar. Medium settings, 1080p 60fps

Open to purchasing a prebuilt server, workstation, or gaming PC, and adding appropriate hardware

Open to new or used parts

 

Edited November 4, 2024 by RaddyKewl
More description

[TubsAlwaysWins]

I picked up a Dell Poweredge R720 for like $180 shipped to my door... 20c / 40t, 128GB of RAM, 10G NICs, etc. Ebay is your friend. Just have to provide storage 

[skimmilk5]

If you don't want to go the rack route (since you don't already have a rack) and just want something small (and quiet) in the corner, HPE ProLiant MicroServers are fantastic little machines — I'd find a Gen 9 or Gen 10 v1 machine that some SMB is offloading. Like @TubsAlwaysWins says, you'd just have to provide storage. I've always had good luck with bare HPE disk trays that can be found for cheap and just sticking your own disks into them. The server should see them as compatible and HPE-legitimate disks, as long as the trays are good.

[RaddyKewl]

Updated initial post to add more description.

 

Another option I was considering was getting a full-tower gaming PC, adding RAM, storage, and a 4 port NIC. Are there any advantages of going one route over another?

 

1 hour ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

I picked up a Dell Poweredge R720 for like $180 shipped to my door... 20c / 40t, 128GB of RAM, 10G NICs, etc. Ebay is your friend. Just have to provide storage 

 

I'm thinking I might need something a little newer than the PowerEdge. Preferably something no older than 5 years.

 

1 hour ago, skimmilk5 said:

HPE ProLiant MicroServers are fantastic little machines — I'd find a Gen 9 or Gen 10 v1 machine that some SMB is offloading. Like @TubsAlwaysWins says, you'd just have to provide storage. I've always had good luck with bare HPE disk trays that can be found for cheap and just sticking your own disks into them. The server should see them as compatible and HPE-legitimate disks, as long as the trays are good.

 

Would an HPE Microserver allow me to add a graphics card... like an Nvidia 30 or 40 series? How many hard drives would it support? I'm looking for something that could support around eight 3.5inch hard drives, which would be added gradually over time.

[skimmilk5]

The ProLiant MicroServer line (or most servers, for that matter) isn't designed to accept graphics cards. What you're really looking for is not a server; you're looking for a workstation. Realistically, your needs would be better served by two machines: a server (your Proxmox, Jellyfin, network storage) and a desktop (After Effects, games).