Steven Mainor wrote: > I would like to keep the budget under $500 not including the hard drive(s) > I already have drives. Less is better.
When I read server hardware I understand also server hardware. It has many CPUs a lot of ram, redundant power supply etc. It consumes a lot of power and costs a lot. For under 500 you can not get any of this and for your use case you do not need this as well. Years ago I build one to serve our needs at home. It has 4 virtual CPU and 32GB RAM - it uses 85Watt of power when not under load and it goes to above 100 if I compile software on it. It uses 10Watt more if I run a virtual machine (virtual box or vmware - I do not test containers, but I assume this will add overhead). The disks (I have 8) use also 3-5Watt each. Buying newer - larger disks, pays off, but it is insignificant what you save on power per year, most is burned by the CPU, so choose CPU and mainboard carefully. Unless you do not have to, avoid virtualization - it costs more energy. I hope this helps
