Low power server for HTPC/labbing?

[noobtastic88]

Hey all.

Was thinking of building a HTPC a while back, now I'm leaning towards getting something that can store/serve media and also be a "labbing" computer i.e. be able to handle probably 2 VMs running on it at once. I was thinking 16 GB RAM should do it - not sure what kind of processor I'll need though.

I want to use it to learn more about Win Server OS, maybe play around with DHCP, domains, backups, etc (I'm in IT but I really do need a home lab to play with vs the production servers at work)

Is this too good to be true (i.e. if I want a home lab and media server all in one is my electric bill going to need to skyrocket as the result of needing a powerful PSU to run hefty hardware?)

I won't be doing encoding or anything like that, just hosting media. I've never set up anything like this before so it's hard to sort of benchmark what specs are overkill and what wouldn't be enough.

Anyway, to conclude - low power and CHEAP to operate is my #1 priority. If it can run those VMs and a media server too - fantastic. If I can only pick between labbing and home theater functions then that's fine too.

Thanks!

 

[notlim981]

Hi. Actually you don't need a state of the art to run the above mentioned. Something like an i5 6600 with a good H170 chipset mobo should do it, just make sure to get fast speed ram. That way you can spend a little more on something like a GTX 980 (which is getting cheap now that Pascal is out) and a good SSD, preferably a NVMe one, for the OS. Also, start with an array of 2 mechanical 4TB HDDs in RAID and see how it goes, that way you can add more HDDs later on if needed.

I guess a 650W PSU should handle all that just fine without skying rocket your electric bill.

 

[boosted1g]

You can easily build a ITX or micro ATX server.
Now the smaller the case the less room you have for hard drive storage.

If you are going to be running VMs then you want as many cores/threads as you can get.
Either get an i7 6700 with 65w tdp
Or if you want a lower cost alternative an older generation Xeon would word well but uses 80w tdp.

The first real decision you want to make is if you want ITX or MicroATX form.
ITX is smaller and can deliberately get hardware that uses less power but comes with many more limitations
MicroATX will be much more universal fit but will be a normal desktop size. Now FYI the microATX build still wont use more then 100w of power.

EDITED:
Actually let me take a step back, by HTPC do you mean movies, light games, or heavy gaming?