There are many different options for servers. The first question is, what do you need a server for? In this example, we are going to build a “small” server for file serving and virtual machine hosting.
Server Options
We are going to go the refurbished/used server route- specifically, Dell servers. Here are a few we are exploring and their specs:
| R630 | 2xE5-2650v3 2.3ghz 20 cores, 64GB DDR4, 2x750W R3 PSU, 2 2.5″ 500GB 7.2K drive, | https://amzn.to/2OysvEZ | S130, R630 8-Bay |
| R620 | 2xE5-2660 2.2ghz 8 core, 64GB DDR3, 2x 600GB 2.5″ SAS, 2x495W PSU | https://amzn.to/39eZnuo | H310, 8 bay |
| T320 | 1xE5-2450 2.1ghz 8core, 64GB DDR3, 4x600GB 10K, 1x350W PSU | https://amzn.to/2vfxqDZ | H310, 16bay |
| R630 | Dell PowerEdge R630 Server | 2X 2.40GHz 16 Cores | 64GB | H330 | 8X 600GB 10K (Renewed) | https://amzn.to/2Stb1uP | PERC H330 RAID Controller |
Hard Drives
Do we go with spinners or fast SSDs? For this example, let’s go with some fast SSDs! We’re going to stick with 2.5″ SATA format. They are cheap and easy to use. And we are going to use six 1TB SSDs and build a RAID!
What’s next?
Virtualization software is important and we will explore our options in the next article.