Hi all

I’m looking to replace my old IBM M3 an M4 servers with something more modern

Use case:

  • Proxmox:
    • OPNsense
    • TrueNAS
    • Plex/Jellyfin
    • Reverse proxy
    • Web servers for blogs etc
    • QBT
    • Nextcloud
    • IoT/home automation
    • A heap of linux VMs/Containers of odds and ends
    • Docker
      • arr stack
      • Dashboards
    • etc

Maybe replace the 3/4s dead laptop that is currently driving the lounge TV as well

I’m looking to hopefully replace the diskshelf at the same time and have a mix of sata and sas drives (I can carry over the HBAs for the sas)

I’ve not built a pc for nigh on 15 years so I’m a tad out of the loop.

From reading it looks like intel may be the best route and I was thinking of something like:

  • Core i5 12400 or Core i5 14400
  • B760M DS3H AX mATX or B660M Pro RS

I’m open to thoughts and ideas of what id doable

Edit: The IBM M4 runs E5-2650 v2 and 96GB ram

The M3 runs dual xeon 5xxx and has about 60BG ram and is only used for testing/play and is seldom powered up

  • @Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
    5•3 months ago

    A lot of it will depend on what age of hardware you are looking for, especially the price. Last year I upgraded all my machines to Poweredge R620 servers. These are old enough that you can find a lot of options for CPUs and memory dirt cheap, and you can find them with either 2.5" or 3.5" internal hot-swap bays. The 6xx series is 1U and the 7xx series is 2U chassis. If power is a concern, I run some VM servers with around 10 VMs in use, 64GB of memory, and a pair of 12-core Xeon E5-2630L v2 processors (2.4GHz, low power) at around 84W, but there’s plenty of options to customize to your needs unless you need current-generation horsepower. The PERC controller in them can be flashed to IT mode for full control, and I run ZFS through it for some of my machines. I built these machines for around $150-200 each and picked them up from ebay (there’s a US seller I can recommend if you’re interested in going that route).

    Keep in mind the R* series are rack servers, but Dell also has tower versions of the same machines available – I think those are labeled as M620?

    • @biptootEnglish
      1•3 months ago

      Usually labeled as P series.

      This is how I do my home system, Dell r710xd I believe. I bought it used via craigslist and I think it came from the local power company. In the States we have government surplus sites that have stuff cheap.

      You can mount a rack mount system vertically on the side of the wall, hanging down with a couple of shelf brackets.