cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cloudhub.social/post/28451

Hello, I’m looking for a good first server for a homelab.
I do already have an old Dell poweredge 1950 I got for £30 but it’s:

• Loud
• Draws 350W
• Costs too much to run
• Only has 2 HDD slots
• DRAC card needs Internet explorer

I’m not too bothered by the noise because I can just move it, but the electricity cost is quite ridiculous for something less powerful than my PC in every way.
I live in the UK so electricity prices are a huge factor for this.

My Ideal specs are:

• ~16 cores (total)
• >= 128GB RAM
• ~100W idle power draw
• >= 4 3.5" HDD bays
• Preferably HBA mode on RAID card
• £100-200
• 2U

Is this completely unreasonable? I have found servers that match this all except the 3.5" bays and 2U.
Initially I found a Dell server with 128GB of RAM and two 12 core CPUs for about £200 but I realised it only has 2.5" bays.
There is a nice R720 on ebay I am watching but it will probably skyrocket near the end of the bid. Also, it probably draws a lot of power.
Any suggestions? do I just need to raise my price?
Thanks