Is it worth getting an actual server instead of a cheap desktop pc for home use...

is it worth getting an actual server instead of a cheap desktop pc for home use? i know that real servers come with MUH ECC RAM and XEON, but am i even going to notice a difference in performance?

it depends on what you want to use it for

my first personal desktop 15 years ago was a dell server from their outlet store. threw in a graphics and sound card and it was a glorious time to be alive. i still use the case today.

just as a home media server

A cheap desktop will probably do you fine then, or get a Synology or QNAP box if you don't have much space.l

not really unless you are doing serious home crunching. Whitebox ESXi builds are fine and shit your gaming machine beefing it up with additional ram and running shit in workstation will probably do you well enough

Used old servers are cheap but are loud as fuck and consume a shitload of energy.
New stuff will cost too much for you and it's just plain stupid.

Make your own "server / NAS" with very cheap low end consumer parts instead.
Hell, even some used dell or lenovo machine with a core 2 duo or something will be less of a headache than an actual used server.

w/e cheap i3 - 7th gen offer you get.

Cheap efficient 16 - 32 gb of ram.

Das is that, all you need and it will consume maybe 150 watts in full load.

If you don't already know why a cheap desktop PC is going to be inadequate, then said cheap desktop PC will probably be fine for your uses. If you get into this stuff and want to do more, then you'll know more then about what you need.

This is just a first guess, but you probably don't need any special performance.

Using a single board computer ARM or onboard x86 is worth it for reduced power consumption in 24/7 use, though.

>am i even going to notice a difference in performance
yes.
servers generally have a heavier focus on energy efficiency and long-term reliability and therefore don't care about getting the highest possible performance out of their hardware.
old/refurbished server hardware can be cheap but buying them new is a waste of money, unless you do actually need reliability.

no its not, unless you need extra performance

let me illustrate, you can get an average pc or a powerful server and the main difference will be time it takes to encode a video to a different format. Apart from that the two machines will perform in almost exactly same way in normal everyday tasks. Also server will probably consume alot more power and be loud as fuck and take shit load of space

What exactly are home servers used for? Is it essentially a wireless data storage unit? Or would you be able to run software on it and effectively use it as the preformance hardware of your laptop?
I have seen people do both the later and former, but I'm wondering which is more typical.

I got a dell T7500 workstation, dual 6 core 2.9Ghz Xeons and 48gb ram for $275 on ebay
I'm pretty happy with it but it is a power hog and sleep doesn't work with Linux.

i just bought two poweredge R610s off ebay for $200 total, gonna set up muh VM/media/webserver rack. i like being able to play sysadmin in my own home

nice, I got a R410 for $75

Just remember they will use proprietary parts like the PSU with custom fitting so it will be tricky to upgrade and you can't even use a regular size PSU.

In rare cases, you can't install some drivers for windows home / pro and must use the server version.

Sometimes, software will refuse to install for server editions of windows.

Rare, but it happens sometimes.

WHY YA GOTTA ONE UP ME user
nah, nice find. the catch for me was neither of mine had HDDs. luckily, at my work there's just stacks of 10k SAS drives that they were gonna trash

>2017 using window

You can buy an enterprise workstation which has your Xeon CPU and ECC ram off eBay for only a few hundred. It'll have the bonus of being a desktop form factor with standard connectors, so you can stick in your gaymin gfx cards, and you also won't lose your hearing from sitting next to a 747 taking off like those 1U servers that everyone keeps going on about.

ex: HP Z420, Dell T3610

what about lto dives? is there an lto for retards guide? do i need a server os or can i just stick an lto drive in my old wangblows 7 machine? do you need special software to write to the drive?

if you have to ask Sup Forums whether you do, then no, you definitely do not need an "actual" server

The R410 had 2 sata drives but I put 3 sas 15k mirror plus spare

I highly recommend a Dell R510, very quiet and uses about 200 watts with 12 3.5 drives in it. perfect for freenas and some Linux vm's

hijacking this thread to add that i'm thinking about replacing the 2 5.25" bays on my optiplex 790 with 2.5" hot swappable bays... anyone done this? computer only has 2 3.5" bays in it by default

>do you need special software to write to the drive?
Yes. Use Veeam Backup & Replication, you can get a NFR license for free.

Y-you too

Wow another Sup Forums thread full of junior helpdesk/linus' penis tips.

Yes, server hardware motherboards are different than consumer boards in that they are geared towards efficiency but first and foremost, performance. Backplanes are capable of more raw throughput on average.

Get an HP ML350 G6 for like $200 and two Xeon 5650s for like 40 bucks. Boom, 12c/24t and onboard RAID that doesn't entirely suck (read WRITE CACHE). You can use consumer sata drives above 2.2TB with the integrated P410i. Plus, you get iLO for remote console access.

Also op, don't listen to these shitheads about power consumption. When you're running 100s of servers, power consumption matters, so they are power efficient enough to be noticeably better than consumer gear. My ML350 g6 with 12 cores, 144GB of ram and 6 drives uses about 150 watts at idle, where as my HP 8200 SFF (i7 2600, 32gb, 3 drives) is about 110 watts idle.

What's the drawback about using a server? Proprietary connectors. If your GPU needs external power, you're going to need to do some wiring and count amps.

>Wow another Sup Forums thread full of junior helpdesk/linus' penis tips.
that projection

>Also op, don't listen to these shitheads about power consumption
lol ok, pic related

>ML350 g6 with 12 cores
what a shitbox

> If your GPU needs external power, you're going to need to do some wiring and count amps.
Again no you dont. Pic related has two and a RAID card which needs PCIe power connector.

fucking killyourself

Only get a server if you want to learn more about sysadmin shit. Otherwise it's overpowered and a simpler setup will meet your needs. Or if you hoard massive amounts of data and need 24 full size slots.

no, for home use there is literally no reason to use real server hardware, anyone saying otherwise is trying to sell you something