UK Server Build

[Masonnnnn]

Budget (including currency): £500-£600 GBP

Country: United Kingdom

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Linux-based server for hosting Minecraft servers and a few websites.

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): 

I already have a few Dell SAS 12Gbps 7.2K drives (MG04SCA20EN) which will be used for backups.
No monitor or peripherals needed.
Looking to build as soon as possible. Needs to be efficient and reliable for 24/7 use.

[1ball]

You could always go the "Get a Dell Optiplex" route. Site hosting usually is not terribly expensive in terms of compute power, of course it always depends on your specific situation so you should probably elaborate more on this point. Minecraft servers also should not be too bad if you are just hosting a server for you and your buddies, consider Aternos, from what I can research, you can get a server with around 2 gigs of RAM, and I would assume a couple cores. So if you get some like i5 with 16 gigs of RAM you would probably be ready to rock.

 

As for reliability, you could always throw in a UPS. However, that will cost you extra, so consider going actually the laptop route. Getting like some older gaming laptop, you can get a decent CPU and RAM, and plus you would get a battery, so if the power goes out your server isn't going to implode right away, and you can set up in Linux some kind of clean shutdown script.

[Masonnnnn]

13 minutes ago, 1ball said:

You could always go the "Get a Dell Optiplex" route. Site hosting usually is not terribly expensive in terms of compute power, of course it always depends on your specific situation so you should probably elaborate more on this point. Minecraft servers also should not be too bad if you are just hosting a server for you and your buddies, consider Aternos, from what I can research, you can get a server with around 2 gigs of RAM, and I would assume a couple cores. So if you get some like i5 with 16 gigs of RAM you would probably be ready to rock.

 

As for reliability, you could always throw in a UPS. However, that will cost you extra, so consider going actually the laptop route. Getting like some older gaming laptop, you can get a decent CPU and RAM, and plus you would get a battery, so if the power goes out your server isn't going to implode right away, and you can set up in Linux some kind of clean shutdown script.

Thanks! I get what you're saying, but I’m starting off fairly small and want something I can upgrade or expand later if needed. That’s why I’d prefer a proper tower or rackmount/server setup instead of something like a laptop or Optiplex. Just feels more scalable and better suited for 24/7 use long-term

[1ball]

10 minutes ago, Masonnnnn said:

proper tower

Very valid, you could buy some used tower for extra value, might even come with a GPU that you could then flip for extra cash lol. I would recommend this route if you really want to. You mention you wanted scalable, this is probably a better value than a rackmounted server.

10 minutes ago, Masonnnnn said:

rackmount/server setup

Check e-bay. I looked around for fun a while back and there are no shortage of Intel Xeon servers. Just be careful to read the listings carefully, you might think you are getting a killer deal until an empty server chassis arrives at your door.

[Masonnnnn]

2 hours ago, 1ball said:

Very valid, you could buy some used tower for extra value, might even come with a GPU that you could then flip for extra cash lol. I would recommend this route if you really want to. You mention you wanted scalable, this is probably a better value than a rackmounted server.

Check e-bay. I looked around for fun a while back and there are no shortage of Intel Xeon servers. Just be careful to read the listings carefully, you might think you are getting a killer deal until an empty server chassis arrives at your door.

Yeah that’s fair. I’ve looked at some used towers and rackmounts on eBay but I’m not super confident with hardware stuff like matching sockets, RAM types, power requirements etc. I’d rather just have a list of parts (CPU, board, PSU etc) that work well together so I can buy and build without messing anything up.