EDIT : I’m going to use a Lenovo P500 (at around $130) with 8 threads (will upgrade it later) and 64gb of RAM. It support the E5 v4 family so that’s great. If someone knows the power consumption, that would be cool!
Hello, I want to build a “homelab” and I’m searching for a server, what do you propose me as good options? I need something with at least 64gb RAM, can buy used, and minimum 16vcores… Around 150$ If you have any good options let’s comment below 👇 THX ❤
You’re not going to get anything like that for $150.
~$200 will get you a nice mini PC with 16GB RAM
Looking for recommendations for a racecar, at least 800 horsepower. Needs to hit 60 mph in under 4 seconds.
My budget is $2000. Please give recommendations.
LOL
Have you tried picking yourself up by your bootstraps?
“67 hemi cuda!”
Used HP ProLiant. It’s nearly 10 years old, but has 16 cores 64GB of RAM, and is just under $150 with free shipping
The hidden cost of power usage could be a lot more expensive then something more modern though lol
Agreed. 100% would not recommend going this route for a homelab, but it does meet every specified requirement
Look at my edit do you think it’s better?
https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkStation/ThinkStation_P500/ThinkStation_P500_Spec.PDF
Got a 490W or 650W PSU. Looks like the CPU is probably around 9-10 years. I’d say probably not much. I bet it’s idling would be around 120-200W depending on # of disks, disk type, and if your using the PCI slots.
For reference I’m running 4 Intel NUC11i7s, $400/unit bare metal, 64GB ram (2x32) $120-$130, and the most expensive part is the flash storage I am buying to fit my needs. Power on these are like 10W idle and max is like 60W each when using turbo.
do you think that this thing would be around 150W?? I think more about 50W Max, for example the cpu is relatively low-power
For comparison, I run a thinkstation p300 with i7-4790 (TDP 84W) 24/7 and the power usage looks like this:
Even when idling this old processor still guzzles 45W. Certainly not as nice as GP’s that only use 10W during idle.
hummm… yeah that’s a bit power hungry
I am not the best at estimating power usage but like I said depends on the configuration it has. That’s just CPU, not including powering everything else so it’s idle load will be higher. RAM, disks, type of disk, amount of disks, GPU or other PCI cards, etc every additional component adds to the idle watt usage.
for sure but even with all my stuff I think that something like that would draw around 40-50W idle and up to 90W running
They have some measurements from their machine though depending on GPU and CPU at least it’ll probably be higher. Also, if your hosting stuff 24/7 your CPU load won’t be 100% idle so you certainly would be higher than it depending on what you host.
Do you think it would be better to go to an consumer cpu instead of a xeon?
Oh I wanted to also mention another benefit of NUCs I have not seen mentioned commonly is their warranty. They are warrantied for 3 years for free! Asus owns the brand so the warranty process is a little more convoluted for old Intel ones but I had to do an RMA on one and that warranty is great for dollar value.
Xeon E5-2670, with 115W TDP, which means 2x115=230W for the processor alone. with 8 ram modules @ ~3W each, it’ll going to guzzle ~250W when under some loads, while screaming like a jet engine. Assuming $0.12/kwh, that’s $262.8 per year for electricity alone.
Would be great if you have an isolated server room to contain the noise and cheap electricity, but more modern workstation should use at least 1/4 of electricity or even less.
I just want to correct something is that the TDP is the power under load, so if the cpu is not 100% used it could be 20 hours at 25W and 4 at 90W
Power scaling for these old CPU is not great though. Mine is slightly newer and on idle it still uses 50% of the TDP.
the fans alone in that probably consume 50w at idle
Wouldnt bother with Gen8. We literally throw them in the e-waste recycle bin.
Either get a Gen9 if tight with cash (also EOL) or Gen10 servers which are currently supported and get current updates.If they are up for that, I’d be happy to part with mine for cheap. They’d need to get an E5-2650 (v2) to meet their 16 core requirement but a pair of those are pretty cheap.
lol that thing needs to be tossed in the recycler
Look at the edit I will maybe take that
At that price, the hardware will be ancient and you will spend more on electricity in a year than you spent on the server.
there’s no solution? maybe mini pc’s?
Not with 64gb ram and 16+ cores on that budget
Not the cores but you can get 2x16gb sodimms for something like an Intel (now Asus) NUC. But that won’t be cheap lol.
Dunno if there are 2x32gb kits but maybe some higher end mini-pc has 4 bank ram or even full length dimms.
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Lmao dude thats simply not happening at that price.
You could get part of the way there with an old Dell server, but you’re probably gonna be paying closer to 2-300 for a decently spec’d one like you’re describing. You’re probably gonna be looking at a 10 year old twin quad core setup with a tdp of like 500W combined for JUST the cores. Your power bill is going to murder your budget, even if you somehow find a magical deal on the box.
You can usually find HPs for cheaper although they are pretty picky on what they work with. For some reason, HP decided that it will work with stuff they have not certified but the fans will constantly be at 100%.
I’ve edit the post with what I found, seems good and be more power efficient
Bear in mind, a system that is built to be a dedicated server will be meant to crunch data. That means 2 things:
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loud fans
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heavy electricity use
If you just want a lab, I suggest getting a desktop PC and loading a server OS on it. Practical hardware experience isn’t too valuable because platforms change and they usually make them super simple to maintenance with lots of online support. Getting a desktop will also save you some bread on initial investment.
A self-hosting server does not necessarily crunch data and it doesn’t have to have loud fans or use lots of power. It can idle in the 15-20W range with an Intel CPU and if you put the HDDs on standby when idle.
Yep, I’m speaking in generalities. Overall, my point is that a homelab doesn’t need something expensive because it may not be heavily used, so most of those features are not necessary. If the guy had mentioned running a business or customers, that’d be a different story.
You even had to qualify your own statement that one has to modify hard drive power consumption to achieve acceptable noise levels.
I had a SIEM running on a mini-pc like a champ. It cost me fifteen bucks and taught me a lot. Build to requirement, not title.
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What are you going to host/ use the server for?
At least 10vms and one NAS system
10 VMs? For what? Have you heard of docker?
Not every project can run in docker/linux.
Honestly that sounds overkill for someones. First time into self hosting.
I would start with something like a Nuc or a secondhand 1 liter PC (dell optiplex/HP elite mini/Lenovo ThinkCenter) which are dirt cheap on eBay.Do you have an indication of what you want to run that requires that mid range gaming setup?
Definitely agree. If you need to spin up a bunch of discrete VMs for labbing, that’s one thing, but noise, cooling, power consumption, and space all come into play for dedicated hardware. I host a variety of services and they all run on small, low energy hardware (which is often pretty cheap). I just spun up a matrix server on a $100 ebay HP ProDesk which has plenty of power (probably enough to deploy my whole stack).
Unless you have use case for that much horsepower I would suggest, like others here, buy a mini PC as a start and if you need more down the line buy a second one. They are cheap, fairly quiet and don’t use much power.
The only option that fits your budget today I can think of would be picking up one of the old xeon combos off of AliExpress. I spent like $100 on a MB+CPU+64GB DDR4 combo with a 2880 v4 I think. 14c/28t at any rate. You can probably grab a case/power supply/video card used for under $50 on eBay.
Please note that I’m not saying that this is a good option; it took a lot of fiddling for me to get mine running smoothly. But if you’ve got more time and patience than money, it might work for you.
Damn, what do you need that much RAM for?
Virtualization
If it becomes an AI homelab, that’s not so crazy.
I know there are valid use cases for that much, I just always like to check that they didn’t just see an LTT video and think they need way more than they do.
I’d recommend to go with some form of mini PC. If you don’t need much CPU power there are some very cheap N100 ones where you can upgrade the RAM.
N100 are low power, but quite capable of doing most things you’ll be asking a simple service box to do for you. Good option, and cheap.
Yes, the only real drawback is the single channel memory connection, but that’s rarely a bottleneck.
Are you just starting out? I got started with home labbing with a Raspberry Pi 2B (1GB RAM!) and an external HDD I had lying around. I host Yarr, Navidrome, backups and a dashboard app Ive written on there and I am quite satisfied. I would really recommend starting small with hardware you already have and then buy new hardware as you go along. I am also using Tailscale. With this you can get your initial setup up and running in a day and save money if it turns out home labbing isnt for you or you dont really need the hardware.
thx
Any old Dell desktop/workstation/server should reach those specs. Poweredge rX30 and up, precision XX20/30 and up or optiplex (don’t know or understand that product line). Most of them are being rescued from the landfill. Might have to spend a crap ton over your budget, like 5-10x over, but you will get those specs.
Look at an r430 barebones, no cpu/ram and build from there using spec sheets from Dell on what it takes. I was able to get one for $400 3 years back, even came with 16gb of ram and a single 10 core Xeon e5-v3.
Also, what are you doing that need these kinds of specs? Running more than 10 VMs at once? Cloud gaming? Form follows function.
I want to run at least 10vms and one NAS system
What are the VMs for? Could you use containers instead?
Honestly, when it comes to your specified amount of Cores & RAM you’ll have tough luck. Got myself a MiniPC with 5700U and 32GB of RAM, two 1TB SSDs (mirrored) and 3 NIC but that was still 500€ after waiting for a decent deal.
Even buying a used PC off eBay will most likely cost far more if you insist on your specs.
I’ve edit the post with what I found
If your budget is $150, then you need to look for used options on eBay. Look for Dell Optiplex or Lenovo ThinkCentre towers. You will not find specs that good in your price range. But maybe you can get a decent CPU and save money to upgrade your RAM later.
MAYBE you’ll get lucky and find an old Dell server on eBay. Sometimes IT guys will sell their company’s old server for a profit. But I personally wouldn’t buy one of those, the monthly electricity costs are stupid.
I’m using an old gaming pc. 16 gb ram and i5 9400F. Less specs than what you’re looking for but I’m running Nextcloud, Plex (@4k), Pihole, home assistant, and an entire Debian virtual machine. All of that uses 10GB of ram.
If ya want budget, you can go really far with low specs.
Yeah, I agree. I’ve wanted to get into home servers for a while now. The final push was me running a Valheim server for me and my friends on my regular PC, while I also recently got some old parts from a friend that had build a new PC.
I just needed to gather a few more parts that were missing (case, SSD and CPU cooler) and now it’s running like a dream. It’s some old-ass hardware: An i5 4460 with 8GB of DDR3 and a 250GB SSD. That’s a 10 year old CPU. Doesn’t seem like a lot and I haven’t put a lot of services on it for now, but it still runs surprisingly well. I’m currently running a Valheim server with often 2-4, sometimes 5 or 6 players playing at the same time, Adguard and Syncthing. And yet, only 2.4GB of Ram is in use, with often around/less than 10% CPU usage, maybe a little more when a lot of people start playing VH. The CPU temps are around 30-33 degrees Celsius today, and that’s only because summer is arriving. It was consistently around 25 degrees Celsius in the past week. Today I tried to add a Wireguard server to it, although I ran into some problems and I wanted to put some more thought into what OS to run anyway (It’s just Ubuntu Server for now as I just wanted to get the Valheim server to run for now).I’m starting to get into an infodump, but long story short: You can indeed get really, really far with some very cheap hardware. I’ve only spend around 50-60 euros on it so far, by having some luck, patience and keeping an eye out for deals or viable hardware that people want to get rid of. You can always upgrade to something more powerful or more energy efficient, but if you just want to get into the hobby, you really don’t need a lot.
That’s awesome that you’ve got such an old PC doing so much!
That’s what I thought as well! I was quite surprised with what it still can do, so I’m really happy with it! Especially since I love giving tech a longer/second life when it’s still good. I always try to get the most out of it and this project is a great success :)
