I love this community and I'm looking for some advice on building my new rig. I plan on having it on 24/7 and running Windows Server 2012. It will be headless and used as my Plex Media Server (including transcoding 1 to 2 streams), running about 15 VMs (all small, roughly 512mb RAM), and used for storing nightly backups from two laptops.
I'm on a limited budget (~$750), and this is my first server I'm building so I'm looking for help on the components I should get. So far this is what I've bought:
- AMD FX-8350 8-Core Processor
- OCZ/Firepower ZT 550W PSU
- AMD Radeon HD 5450 (Just to connect monitor when needed)
- Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB RAM **haven't bought yet, but will start with 16GB**
What motherboard and HDDs do you all recommend? While I was doing research, I read that if you plan on running the FX-8350 on 75+% load most of the time (which I assume will happen with 15 VMs going) you should get a 8+2 power phase motherboard.
What about hard drive configuration? Originally I considered a Samsung EVO as the boot SSD, but changed my mind as boot times wouldn't matter on a machine running 24/7.
Should I buy a separate 250GB WD Blue drive just for the OS? Should I RAID-5 4x2TB WD Red drives for Plex/VMs/Storage? Or should I keep them all separate? I.e.: 1 drive for OS, 1 drive for VMs, 1 drive for Plex and all media files, and 1 drive for nightly backups? Maybe connect two large external drives for backing up everything from all the drives?
I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I just want to be thorough and have the best setup for my situation.
Thanks!
I'm on a limited budget (~$750), and this is my first server I'm building so I'm looking for help on the components I should get. So far this is what I've bought:
- AMD FX-8350 8-Core Processor
- OCZ/Firepower ZT 550W PSU
- AMD Radeon HD 5450 (Just to connect monitor when needed)
- Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB RAM **haven't bought yet, but will start with 16GB**
What motherboard and HDDs do you all recommend? While I was doing research, I read that if you plan on running the FX-8350 on 75+% load most of the time (which I assume will happen with 15 VMs going) you should get a 8+2 power phase motherboard.
What about hard drive configuration? Originally I considered a Samsung EVO as the boot SSD, but changed my mind as boot times wouldn't matter on a machine running 24/7.
Should I buy a separate 250GB WD Blue drive just for the OS? Should I RAID-5 4x2TB WD Red drives for Plex/VMs/Storage? Or should I keep them all separate? I.e.: 1 drive for OS, 1 drive for VMs, 1 drive for Plex and all media files, and 1 drive for nightly backups? Maybe connect two large external drives for backing up everything from all the drives?
I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I just want to be thorough and have the best setup for my situation.
Thanks!
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