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Server Build, Please Advice

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pluton8

Junior Member
I'm a computer science majore and I'm planning to build a server, mostly for learning skills. I'm in US, mostly plan on using server for media streaming, web hosting, VPS hosting, and running e-mail server. I'll be running lots of VMs for different servers, all running linux. I already have an ATX case, 450 watt power supply, M.2 SSD, and some hard drives for data. That leaves MB, CPU and RAM. Here's parts I plan on buying:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132571
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117563
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232091

Anything I should change for my purposes? I plan on buying parts and building rig soon, within a month. MB must have RAID support. One question is, is that the right speed for the RAM? Should I buy something faster or is 3200 overkill for this type of server?
 
That's a lot of crap to be hosting on consumer-grade equipment. I-5 is going to get crushed with half that on it. If it's just for testing stuff, whatever works I guess. I just wouldn't get my hopes up of 'learning how to server admin' with that loadout.

If you really want something to learn/test/play with, get a dell server, just a little 1U jobber will do it. single xeon, 32ish GB, and whatever storage you want. It'll cost you though.
 
Hmm. Lots of VMs?
You want cores and RAM for whatever you plan to run.

Will this server be just for learning or will it (eventually) perform vital functions for you?
 
Thanks very much for all the great advice. Yes consumer hardware is bad for servers, but I want to wait for Xeon Purley release before building full server. This is just for learning how to install/configure/adin software, and learn admin skills. I want to get something cheap for learnign and save money for a big quad-socket Purley system later. Also, after this temporary one is replaced I can still use it as personal HTPC for media streaming.

Maybe I'll get i7 instead of i5, or even get a Xeon E3 v5 and server mobo. But that is still just 4 cores so maybe not worth the extra expense over the i7 and cheaper RAM. I don't think I really need ECC memory and all that, because won't be running mission-critical servers on this rig, just for learning.
 
Getting something cheap is why you buy used rackmount equipment on eBay. It's way cheaper than building your own, and they usually come with ECC, etc.

Seriously; go shopping.

If you're really just interested in learning, I'd also point out the use of VMs on your desktop/laptop for learning Linux system administration, or the possibility of leasing a virtual private server for a few bucks a month.
 
If you are going to run VMWare ESXi, then Intel or AMD onboard RAID (software based) is useless. You need hardware based RAID adapters.
 
You will probably find the i5 to be fine really as mostly virtualisation is about I/O and loads of memory., CPU, not so much, of course depending of what you are doing, but most servers sit under 10% usage, especially in a lab\test\home environment.
 
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