Want to build a server

a66as · 7 Nov 2015 at 15:24

Hi guys, i want to build a small server just for the heck or if and learning more about them. Wouldnt mind using it as a games server to host games on but this isnt that important. i have the following currently that i can use on it.

2 TB hard drive
250gb ssd

what else would i need? has to be mini itx build

Monkeh · 7 Nov 2015 at 15:53

Could do a lot worse than shopping round for a HP Microsever Gen 8 for something to learn on without spending loads, is pretty much a complete server minus drives and OS comes in a low spec but you can get them from ~£120 if you catch them on a HP cash back promo - I did, but spent a bit more upgrading it to run an Ark and possibly Minecraft server at home for the kids so atm it'll be Xeon E3-1220v2, 16Gb ECC, 4x 2Tb WD Enterprise drives for storage and a 250Gb Samsung SSD for OS, which is probably going to be MS Server 2012 Hyper-V, because its free or if I can get a decent enough small profile gfx card for it I might just run Win 10 pro and use it as the HTPC and a mini-server, not sure yet

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OCUK don't sell them so you'll need some googlefu to look for them, but there are plenty threads in this section with loads of info about them.

Yamahahahahaha · 7 Nov 2015 at 17:09

Sign up for Azure's free trial. £125 of free credit to spin up VMs and have a play.

Unless you just want to build something in which case a Gen8 microserver is a good idea.

Semple · 7 Nov 2015 at 17:12

What is it exactly you're wanting to learn?

a66as · 7 Nov 2015 at 17:19

I want to learn how to setup and install servers, and learn how to host games on it and etc. dont want to spend an arm and a leg though ill look into the hp micro server

Steveocee · 7 Nov 2015 at 17:38

I built my own server which is now in colo.
Mini itx gigabyte B75N, i3 2120, SSD and 8GB of Samsung green ram. Built it into a very thin small 1U case as well.

It hosts just a mumble server at the moment (so it's massive overkill) but I may try hosting some arma 3 server at some point.

Building and getting software running isn't the problem, power draw and bandwidth at your killers. Mine is very slim on power as I built it originally as a pfsense box and I'm blessed with it being in colo so I have a minimum of 50/50 uncapped usage but off a home connection you may struggle unless years at least 5mb up.

Armageus · 7 Nov 2015 at 17:50

If you specifically want to look at server grade hardware then maybe have a look at some older dell or HP servers E.g. HP dl360g5 or similar. You get all the toys like redundant psus, multiple network cards, hot swap drives, remote management etc

Only downside is noise and power draw, but enterprise hardware is great to play with.

Semple · 7 Nov 2015 at 18:57

I'd echo Armageus suggestion about buying some old spec servers for playing around with. The problem is enterprise hardware is expensive, and a microserver (whilst good - i have one myself) is nothing like enterprise hardware. So you won't learn much from a hardware perspective here.

The installation of OS and services could even be done without purchasing any hardware, as Yamaha suggested, create some VM's on Azure and have a play around.