Server Build

It’s well known that server and enterprise computing hardware has different specs compared to desktop or home devices. That also affects its price, compatibility and uses.

I could have used a regular PC or even a powerful laptop, but the scope of this project was building and managing for the first time my own server at home, which is called homelab.
The advantages of this is learning how to manage a server and its differences.

Anyone can use a virtual machine, but how about building your own server?

Requirements

General requirements
  • Cheap
  • Stable
  • Powerful
  • Capable to virtualize (VT-x instructions)
  • Server architecture
  • Tower case
Specific minimun requirements
  • Total price around 250$
  • 8+ cores
  • 12+ GB RAM
  • Multiple network interfaces
  • Fast & redundant storage

Choice

First of all, I dont have any contacts with a supplyer or friend that could gift me a server that took off from production for free, so to aim for the cheapest price I had to use my buyer skills on the second hand hardware market, which supposes a challenge.

Anyone can buy an expensive and new server but I dont have all the money it costs, thats why I looked for an older one.

The hardest step was deciding the socket and architecture it was going to be based in and the winner was the LGA 771, which is the server version of the Consumer LGA 775 socket for Xeon CPUs and the first ever to use the LGA [1] SMD [2] packaging type.

The Core microarchitecture is a legend when it comes to hardware terms;
  • Released in 2006.
  • It’s the socket with the longest life span ever, 7 years.
  • FSB based.
  • Capable of using DDR2 and DDR3.
  • It still has a nice performance.
  • LGA 771 Xeon to LGA 775 mod.
  • Pencil mod.
  • First unblocked/extreme CPUs to come to the market along with enthusiast gaming motherboards.
Also, the first PC I used, modified and overclocked was based in the LGA 775 platform back from 2008, so it’s going to have its proper tribute.

The chosen base server is a FUJITSU SIEMENS PRIMERGY TX200 S4
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Footnotes

[1]Land Grid Array
[2]Surface Mount Device