Looking for some guidance for a homelab server. Here are my use cases:
- Want to run ESXi 6.5 with the following VMs: Plex, Windows 7, CentOS 7 Linux for web development, and others in the future (likely a mix of Windows and Linux guests for testing/development purposes)
- System capable of Plex transcoding 1080P
- NAS for LAN file sharing and data backups (I already have 6x3TB WD Red drives)
- I do not currently have a need for 10GB NICs (unless I am wrong)
- Build an ESXi host and use a Synology/QNAP/etc. hardware NAS for storage (assuming I'd configure ESXi to use the NAS storage via NFS/ISCSI), though I wonder what the noise/power implications of this option are (as well as IOPS/latency)
- Build an all-in-one, but I suspect this adds some complexity for the NAS component (enlighten me if my thinking is wrong)
- Some other option I have not considered (open to suggestions)