Quiet, cheap 1U server for ESXi?

[politby]

I am looking at setting up a cheap ESXi server to tinker with. There are lots of potentials on eBay under and around my budget of about 120 euros.

Some examples are Dell R300s, HP G5s, Intel S775 bare bones. I have 3 "must" criteria:

- ESXi VT-d support
- No louder than my SM SC826 PSUs
- IPMI

What would be the best choice? Note I am in Sweden so primarily looking at EU based eBay sellers.

 

[vegaman]

Quiet and 1u don't really mix unless you're using something like an Atom CPU. The servers you're looking at will generally have a bunch of 8500rpm 40mm fans in them - they make a lot of noise.
If you go to 2u you can use 80mm fans which will make much less noise

 

[politby]

I am aware a 1U server is not going to be quiet. I just want it to be no more noisy than the two PSUs in my 2U Supermicro case - that shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Diavuno]

If you just want to tinker with esxi but require Intel vt-d you'll need at least a g6 hp....

 

[Stanza]

Don't think the R300 does vt-d, R310 does

R310 is VERY quiet, low power, does VT-D

With an i3-330 only draws 40watts...but is limited to 16gb
Tho.... Bump it up to say a xeon x3450 or similar can take 32gb....power will jump a little tho.

Maybe have to wait a while to find a cheap one....