First of all, thank you all very much for your answers.
After thinking more about what I really need and want at the moment, I’ve decided that a smaller (and cheaper) system will be enough for now. My plan is to primarily use it for storage, along with a few small VMs and Docker containers, and see how much power they actually consume. If, over time, I find I need more performance, I can always upgrade to a more powerful system in the future and repurpose the old one for backups or other tasks. With that in mind, I took a closer look at the system that etorix recommended.
I researched the components and selected a few to compare with other systems.
I found the MC12-LE0 for around 70€, whereas most other comparable boards (for AM4, AM5, EPYC 4004, Intel 12th-14th gen, or Xeon E) were at least 275€. I paired the MC12-LE0 with a Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G (160€) and 2x Kingston 32GB DDR4-3200, KSM32ED8/32HC (210€), so the base system would cost around 440€. The cheapest alternative system I found was with an X470D4U2/1N1 at 645€ (using the same CPU and RAM). So, I figured I might as well go with the MC12-LE0 and save some money.
I checked out several other systems as well, including:
EC266D4-4L + Xeon E-2436 + 2x32GB DDR5 for around 1145€
X11SCL-F + Xeon E-2234 + 2x32GB DDR4 for around 785€
H13SAE-MF + EPYC 4244P + 2x32GB DDR5 for around 1080€
Just to list a few for comparison. But overall, I think the MC12-LE0 offers great value for the price.
For the other components, I was thinking of something like:
Case: Inter-Tech 4U-40248 (130€) (max CPU cooler height 150mm)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 600W (65€)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L (60€) (height 110mm)
HDDs: 4x Exos X18 ST16000NM004J 16TB (1065€)
The total system cost would be around 1760€ + boot SSD and SSDs for the VM pool.
(For reference, the system I posted earlier would have cost around 5500€ + boot SSD and SSD pool for VMs).
What do you think about the setup?
I have a few questions left:
- Regarding the bifurcation card - can I use any card, or are there specific ones I should look for?
- For NVMe SSDs, are there special models for NAS/server systems, or can I just use something from the consumer market like the Samsung 980 (Pro)?
- Does it make a huge difference if I boot from an NVMe SSD versus a SATA SSD? (The system will likely be running 24/7).
- Is it worth mirroring the boot drive? If so, I’d probably go with two mirrored SATA SSDs, but if not, I’d stick with one NVMe as etorix suggested.
- On a similar note, would it make sense to use two SATA SSDs for the VM/container pool? That way, I could use the NVMe slot for boot and keep the x16 slot free for a GPU or additional storage in the future.
@ChrisRJ: I don’t have a fixed budget as you can see. I was ready to spend over 5000€, but I’d much rather “only” spend around 2000€ if I can!
@Farout: Noise won’t be much of an issue. I have a separate cellar room with 30-50cm thick stone walls, and with the setup I posted, I don’t think it’ll be too noisy. Thanks for the advice, though!
@Stux: Your setup for compiling sounds nice, and I might come back to you in the future to ask how you’ve set it up. For now, I think I’ll manage with my main PC, and I’ll consider building a more powerful system once I have a better idea of what exactly I need.