Budget ITX server recomendations

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Bpeezy

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Aug 6, 2017
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I need to build a small linux dev/ssh box and storage server. I have 7"x14" requirement for mobo space the board must support 8 sata drives (4 at sata3) and leave a PCIe slot clear for a 40Gbe card. Now storage servers are typically very low CPU power, but I do computational biology research and I would like to have the power here to run my smaller scripts on this machine. Basically a small linux headless workstation, that happens to handle files (virtualization may be a how I try to isolate the development part from the file server).

After some research I am considering the ASRock C236 WSI mITX server mobo (~$200). But this is my first true server build, and I am at a bit of a loss on which CPU to choose or if this board CPU pair is a good value for what I need. I don't know much about the Xeon line offerings, and I would really appreciate your advice for what CPU to pair with this. I was considering a E3-1230 v5, but I am very open to suggestions. I would like to keep the budget around 300 for the mobo CPU pair (as high as 350 is ok if well justified). I just started learning about IPMI and that might be a nice addition, so would a cpu with some more cores. Please offer your suggestions/guidance.

Thank you for your help,
Bpeezy
 

Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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I would like to keep the budget around 300 for the mobo CPU pair (as high as 350 is ok if well justified).
I just check the retail price of E5-1230 v5 from Newgg , price for CPU is $260.
System board is $210 , that would added up to $470 , more than the $350 budget.

There is a open box of the same ASRock C236 systemboard @ Newegg for $158.
If you could find a cheaper CPU from Ebay, that would give up $200 for the CPU.
 

Bpeezy

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Aug 6, 2017
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Yeah, when looking at those parts I checked eBay to price them out. It was like 150 and 170 for a total of 320 for the pair.