Server Build Help - Intel NUC vs Custom Build

N

NE78

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Aug 2, 2022
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I currently have a HP Z820 Workstation with 128GB RAM and some SSD drives. CPU = Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2667 v2 @ 3.30GHz (2 Sockets). It runs great, but I am selling it as it uses too much power. About 111 watts to 200 watts depending on what it's doing.

My Goals:
  1. Save on my electrical bill (less watts the better)
  2. Have the power I need
I'm looking at 1 of 2 options:
  1. Buy an Intel NUC NUC12WSHi5 and place on a shelf in my 18U rack
  2. Build a custom Micro ATX system and place it in a Rosewill 2U chassis to fit in my 18U rack
Intel NUC Build:
NUC12WSHi5 - $525
64GB RAM - $150
Seagate Firecuda 520 2TB - $180
1TB SSD (Own already)
SABRENT 512GB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2242 - $70

Micro ATX Build:
ASRock B660M-HDV LGA 1700 Intel B660 SATA 6Gb/s DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard - $89
Rosewill RSV-Z2700U 2U Server Chassis Rackmount Case - $155
Intel Core i5-12600 - Core i5 12th Gen Alder Lake 6-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 1700 65W Intel UHD Graphics 770 Desktop Processor - BX8071512600 - $230
be quiet! SHADOW ROCK LP - $86
be quiet! Pure Wings 2, 80mm Fan - $9
Seagate Firecuda 520 2TB - $180
6TB Mech. HDD - Own
500GB or 1TB SSD - Own
1TB or 2TB Mech/SSD for Emby? - Own
Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro Series EA650G Pro 650W Semi-Modular, 80 PLUS GOLD - $99
Crucial 64GB Kit (2 x 32GB) DDR4-3200 UDIMM - $165

I believe that the NUC will use around 45 watts~ but am not sure about the other build, I know it's dependent on work load but any guess as to how much power it'll use?

Here's what I do with Proxmox, at the moment:
  • 5 out of the 20 VMs run most of the time, the remainders are just for testing, learning, etc.
    • I run a lot of containers, Linux OS's and a couple of Windows OS's
    • The containers are small, mostly web servers, the most intensive ones are TrueNAS and Emby
I will have to put a couple hundred into either build after I make the sale on the tower. Thoughts? Advise?
 
Thats a difficult topic.

Big servers are great because they are reliable, cheap to get and offer all the enterprise grade features you usually want when running a server. But power consumption of old servers is horrible so really expensive on the long term and new servers are super expensive so not really an option for a homelab.

Both of your options use consumer grade hardware without ECC and so on so not really suited for a reliable homeserver. In general: The more integrated the hardware is, the more power saving it should be, but also the harder to replace failed parts or to upgrade it. So in theory the NUC should be more power efficient.

Better option might be some enterprise grade thin clients or micro servers. Supermicro for example got some nice small Atom servers but these aren't cheap too: https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/a3spi-8c-hln4f
 
Not yet, I have it running on a Lenovo mini desktop, it has an 6th gen i5 and 32GB of RAM. It runs great for what I want at the moment. I'm sure that the NUC will run fine now.
 
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