Hardware reccomendations for low power build for ESXI data stores

luigi123mad

Cadet
Joined
Sep 24, 2022
Messages
1
Hi there,

I am currently planning a homelab both as a testing environment for learning Active Directory, Linux, Docker etc. and to host some things like plex, VPN and a Wiki.

The current plan is to purchase a server like an r730 as an ESXi host and have a separate rack mounted server running TrueNAS Core. The NAS will most likely have 2 or 3 SSDs for boot drives for the VMS, and 4 -5 4TB Hard drives for general VM Storage.

Since the NAS is not being used as a general file server and rather is going to be acting as a datastore for various VMs that are running 24/7, will this limit my choices of CPUs / MOBOs? I have had a read of the hardware reccomendation pdf and it seems that a Xeon line processor would be best for my build but they tend to have high TDPs compared to something like the i3-8300 reccomended in the pdf.

I found a Supermicro X10SLM-F with a Xeon E3-1231V3 for a decent price but I'm not sure if it fits my needs.

Any reccomendations for CPUs and MOBOs are much appreciated. (Also I think consumer grade hardware is frowned upon here, but let me know if it's viable)

Thanks
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
will this limit my choices of CPUs / MOBOs?

Not really. For a high performance server, you would probably want to avoid E3 Xeons because they have limited RAM, which is valuable to have when serving block storage -- you may find it preferable to have 64-128GB of RAM especially if you want to add L2ARC, and the E3 memory limits preclude this.

I have had a read of the hardware reccomendation pdf and it seems that a Xeon line processor would be best for my build but they tend to have high TDPs compared to something like the i3-8300 reccomended in the pdf.

You may have a misunderstanding of TDP. TDP is simply how much power you might need to be able to dissipate, and plan for cooling. There's a lot of confusion about this with people mistaking high TDP parts as "power hungry" parts, and while there is some sort of relationship, it's important to remember that a high TDP part tends to get its work done more quickly, and therefore returns to an idle state more quickly. This often turns out to be more efficient than a low TDP part, which has to spin up to its maximum capacity and run at that maximum capacity for a longer period of time to complete the same amount of work, using more power in the process.

There are lots of hardware recommendation threads so I don't know which of them you're looking at.

Also I think consumer grade hardware is frowned upon here, but let me know if it's viable

The reason "consumer grade" hardware is frowned upon is because it isn't suitable. There's a lot of angst about "server grade" boards amongst newbies, because they don't understand what they're looking at, but you buy a "server grade" board for a server for the same reason that gamers buy a "gaming grade" board for gaming -- it's optimized for the task. A server grade board comes with stuff like Intel ethernet controllers instead of Realtek, ECC support, IPMI/BMC control over the network, etc. There might be a slight price premium for the "server" board over a cheap "consumer" board, but it pays off.
 
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