VM Server Build

[tito]

I was talking to my boss about building our own nas in the office, we share some ideas, and he ended up asking me to build a nas, 3 office pcs, and 1 pc for design. So I started investigating, my first idea was to build a nas and 4 pcs, but then I remeber "8 gamers one cpu" and started considering the possibility of building one big server, for nas and virtualization for the 3 regular pcs we need, mostly for office suite use. 

Basically right now I'm asking for advice, do you think it will be better to build one big server, and one design pc, or should I do 5 different systems, one for the nas, 3 for the office suite pcs, and 1 for design?
 

Possible rigs:

NAS

• Asrock z170 extreme 4
• i3 7100
• 16gb DDR4 NON ECC
• 4x2 TB WD RED
• 120GB SSD
• Seasonic 750watts Gold

Office PCs:

• Asrock h110m OR Asrock A320M
• i5 7400 OR Ryzen 5 1400
• 8gb DDR4
• 240 SSD
• EVGA 500w Bronze

For the design pc I was thinking of doing the same build as the office pc, but adding another 8gb ram and a 1060 6GB and perhaps another PSU, that pc will be mostly used for vectorial design, photo editing, and some light video editing.

We will be buying some regular monitors, so nothing really fancy, same for peripherals.

In the case that you think it will be better to build one big server for nas and office vm I would really appreciate any advice on parts, I have a budget of around 3kUSD. I dont have a lot of knowledge about servers, but I was thinking something with maybe a Xeon but im really lost there, so any help would be appreciate.

 

Hope you guys can help me, I will post any progress hopefully a build log about this!

 

PS. Im from Argentina, but I can buy from USA if its neccesary

 

[Lurick]

For the NAS I would pickup a QNAP or Synology NAS, 4 to 8 bays depending on how much storage you need and how much you plan to grow the NAS. They offer simple setup and easier to maintain and dole out file permissions plus you get support and other benefits like easy software integration. It is more expensive though but if you can streamline the process you'll probably save the extra money spent later on.

[TheRealCanadianGamer]

The NAS and the Office PC's look good, but for the design PC I would suggest this. The reason why I chose the parts from those brands/sellers is because of their excellent customer service and warranty. I chose the Ryzen 5 1600 over the 1400 because the extra 2 cores and 4 threads will be useful in design workloads.

[beersykins]

I'd avoid a single PC in this scenario, if you have any issues that's 4 people's lost labor while it's being looked at/fixed.

 

I'd second going with a premade NAS, but also a separate backup scheme for the data, unless there is zero value to the data you're storing.

 

There are some FreeNAS vendors that will blend you between home-grade NAS appliance and enterprise type of storage.

 

http://www.freenas.org/for-business/

[Supportsneedlove]

Why is it VM Pcs?

[brob]

Don't go the VM route. The problem with it in small offices is that any problem on the server brings all processing to a halt.

 

Use a purpose built NAS. Asustor, Qnap, and Synology, among others make reliable 4 bay NAS that are relatively inexpensive. Get two 4TB or larger NAS hdd. Seagate IronWolf, HGST Deskstar NAS, or WD Red are good examples. Get an uninterruptible power supply for the unit.

 

The office workstations should use the latest generation cpu, an i3-8100 or Ryzen 3 2200G, 2x4GB of DDR4-2400 or faster memory, and a 240GB+ ssd. I'd suggest a Corsair CX450 (non-modular) psu and a windowless case. The smaller mATX format is particularly suitable for office builds.