Small First Server

I just did a post on what I am using now, but I thought it also would be a good idea to talk about what I would use if I had to start from nothing today. it doesnt do a lot of good to make a post on what I am using and then say “dont make my mistake” without providing some guidance. so this is what I would do if I was starting from nothing:

And here is the PCPartPicker list to make life even easier.

as of now, this will set you back a little under $750 before tax. that being said, I wouldnt buy all of this new. you could probably cut that price in half if you bought everything used, not just the hard drives. but the rationale is this: this build is small, quiet, and with an m.2 boot drive and a second for apps, it will be fast. not only that, the mirrored 16TB Exos drives means you wont be running out of storage anytime soon. the mobo has plenty of room for expansion if you ever want to go bigger – add HBAs, GPUs, more drives, etc. the ethernet is 2.5 gigabit, so its no slouch. you would be hard pressed to come up with a reason to need more horsepower than this unless you were building this specifically for VMs. anything else and this is more than a person would need, especially one who is just starting out.