I'm wanting to build a small home lab with a "server" running vSphere and around half a dozen to a dozen VMs.
I could use my desktop if I were to beef it up with more RAM (currently just has 16GB) but would also consider building a dedicated small rig just for this.
My initial thoughts / requirements:
- low power / quiet
- min 64GB RAM, preferably 128GB
- preferably 10GB RJ45 LAN
- Support for local NVMe storage (probably around 1TB)
Maybe I'm asking for too much as some of the above points might be mutually exclusive? For example, if I wanted it physically small, then mATX or uATX only have two DIMM slots meaning 64GB max?
I need to check chipsets too - I really don't need much CPU power at all, they're idling 99% of the time, but do need the RAM. I think most desktop Intel platforms only support up to 64GB unless you go high end. My desktop PC is a Ryzen with an X470 chipset supporting 128GB RAM but it's fully sized ATX. So maybe AMD is the better option here as far as RAM support goes?
I don't need discrete GPU. Onboard would be fine as never connected.
Thoughts?