Hardware advice for an Old School clocker needing compact Server system
Hey all,
I used to be into gaming\watercooling\overclocking back in the day but as I've advanced in my career, my job has unfortunately taken over life.
IT responsibilities rule my world these days.
I get to play with some hefty network\server hardware on a regular basis, but I'm basically out of the loop when it comes to consumer market for years now.
Yes i could do the research, review benchmarks, read forums and pick winners, but I suspect many of you already know the best answers and honestly, im just burnt out.
All I do all day is design, deploy, manage and maintain networks and last thing i want to do when i come is research more hardware lol.
So help me be lazy!
The Situation:
I have 7 clients upcoming all needing major server\domain upgrades.
These clients vary in size from 250 users, down to only 7.
All of them need a very similar solution, and my plan is to build a (fairly) compact\portable temporary ESXI host with the following capabilities:
a) Virtualize any remaining bare metal servers on site
b) Temporarily Host the legacy systems while I deploy the new network\domain\server solutions
c) Deploy pre-built server templates via ESXI at a rapid rate, and perform high speed backups every 6 hours. (need RELIABLE, good disk\network IO)
Now I have access to all sorts of dell server hardware\chassis components in my graveyard.
But i'm looking for something
a) more compact that i can move around
b) is quiet enough\sharp looking to deploy in an professional office situation. Law firms and medical clinics.
What im looking for:
-dual 10Gbase-T ethernet OR SFP+ fiber connectivity onboard
-MINIMUM 16 core, 3.0 GHZ processor (AMD preferred, but not mandatory)
-MINIMUM 256 GM Ram support, ecc preferred
-Micro ATX form factor or smaller, maybe willing to go up to ATX
-3x16X PCIE4 slots (SAS Raid controller, External SAS HBA card, PCIE NVME card)
USB 3 and thunderbolt 3 or 4 would be great too.
money not really an object here, it's all a tax right off for me.
As far as cooling is concerned, i can probably dig up enough components to build a twin 120 or 140 radiator rig to keep noise down. I also have an older (but new) Silverstone TJ08-E case I was hoping to use.
What i want something in order of importance:
RELIABLE
compact as possible\quiet
extremely fast disk IO\Networking
Thank you in advance, look forward to hearing some suggestions!
