Hardware recomendations please

[91Chris]

Hi. Looking to replace my server (i7 860s h55m-ud2h) with something that supports full virtualization and device passthrough. Looking for cheap hardware, I cant afford to buy new. Lots of old server grade stuff on ebay but not really sure what to look for. It doesnt need to be super high end as I am happy with my current hardware... It just doesnt support full virtualization (freenas needs "UG" support). Better is of course better though. Looking to spend £200-300 $260-360 €230-330. Not set in stone but gives you an idea of what I have been looking at on ebay.

 

I am running freenas right now. I will play with the unsupported device pass through methods in bhyve before switching to esxi and running freenas and linux as vms.

 

Any suggestions?

[NelizMastr]

Most Core processors support VT-x and VT-d (the latter is of most importance here) as long as they're not K SKUs. Celerons, Pentiums and i3s even support unbuffered ECC memory.

 

If you really want to keep it cheap, grab a H61 or B75 board with a Xeon E3 1230 or 1230v2. You're looking at $40-50 for a board and $100 for the CPU. You can keep your memory.

[lewdicrous]

Adding a budget range would be helpful

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, Chris230291 said:

Any suggestions?

If you want device passthrough you want gear that supports IOMMU.

 

[91Chris]

Ye I wanted to add a budget but this is the internet, lots of currencies and market prices. £200-300 $260-360 €230-330 for cpu board and maybe ram too.

 

Ye I belive IOMMU is vt-d on intel system

 

Thanks @NelizMastr those xeons are even suggested on the freenas forums. I think my budget should be able to stretch a little better though?