Server mobo or Desktop mobo for Home Server?

[Spiffeye]

So I'm building a server for use in the house, mostly for hosting game servers, voice chat, as well as cloud file storage, and possibly a bit of Plex -type streaming. I'm unsure whether to go for a fully fledged server motherboard like this:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9AX3T37492

 

or just a normal desktop motherboard like this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESETQNG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3TB1KWWKDRHDI&coliid=I3I6DJE6EDG6MG&psc=1

 

I'll be building the server in a cube case with one 8tb hdd, 2x8 16gb ram, and a networking card. Should I go for the server motherboard, and in addition, also get two cpus? Would that be necessary for my workload? And what difference would there be if I didnt go for the server motherboard and just used a desktop one?

 

Come to think of it, would the server motherboard even work/fit in a normal case?

 

Thanks a lot in advance, as you can probably tell I'm pretty confused.

[Mr.Meerkat]

A desktop motherboard is fine unless you want a xeon processor that can only be ran on a server motherboard...(or for some reason need ECC RAM for a game/file/VOIP server...)

[Beskamir]

What OS are you planning on using? If it's FreeNAS, ECC RAM is HIGHLY recommended so a server motherboard would be the better option as it has ECC support. Although your CPU would also have to have ECC support.

[DrMikeNZ]

When I upgrade my desktop I up-cycle the old one into a server which is fine for my needs.

This doesn't give me ECC memory though, which I would prefer in an ideal world for my file server.

[Mark77]

Personally not a fan of either of the 'choices'.  That HP board was intended for use in a HP machine, and appears to require E5 Xeons.  Its not really something that you'd be well advised to try and integrate, and if it breaks (for whatever reason), finding a replacement is going to be hard.  Kind of surprised Newegg has something like that so cheap.  Must be quite old.

 

The Asus board doesn't have AMT or IPMI.  Probably uses some interrupt-heavy Realtek NIC.  Is rather lacking on SATA ports. 

 

Not having ECC isn't the end of the world, but I'd aim for something with AMT or IPMI personally so you can remote into them instead of using up a lot of space in your place with a whole keyboard/mouse/monitor setup.  Boards with the Q chipsets work great for this with a compatible Intel vPro processor.  So you can use a cheap board if you don't want to spring for a full-blown Supermicro E3 Xeon-supporting board. 

 

If you're buying brand new, there's basically no Xeon premium these days (Xeons are often cheaper), and server boards aren't much money for E3's.  I guess a lot of it depends upon how much you want to spend.  I used to just throw whatever cast-off junk I had at my 'server', but got away from that a number of years ago when I started taking the whole server thing more seriously, realizing that virtualization of good hardware would save me a lot more $$$ compared to running multiple servers. 

[alex75871]

Supermicro server board, just dooo it. You won't regret it

 

It's not just about Xeon and ECC support. You want a server grade chipset also.

[NumLock21]

Installing server OS, then get a server board. Consumer boards lack drivers for server OS.

And that Asus one is crap, lacks front USB header.