Quiet and compact home server (lab environment) for about $1000

[tyfius]

I am currently running a number of virtual machines on my notebook. On one side this is very handy because I always have them with me, on the other hand it's becoming a burden because they use quite a lot of resources. I would like to invest in a small and quiet home server.

Since it has been over 10 years since I assembled my own PC I am not up-to-date with the latest technology, sockets and whatnot. I started reading the guides, but I feel a bit overwhelmed. The goal is to use it as a lab environment, running 2, 3 virtual machines permanently, and room to experiment with a few more. It should be able to run 4 to 6 virtual machines simultaneously. I understand that running 6 at the same time might result in performance issues, but that's OK.

• 
  ■ The budget would range between 800 to 1200 euro's (so say around 1000 to 1500 USD, I don't know whether these prices are 1-to-1)
  ■ Must be quiet and compact, no rack, no big tower
  ■ I need either a CPU with a decent on-board GPU or a small GPU
  ■ I want my OS HDD separate from the HDD's that contain the VM's. I'm thinking of a RAID 1 setup (2x1TB) for the VM drives.
  ■ Must be super quiet
  ■ 2 network connectors on the motherboard would be nice, but not required. No extra network card.
  ■ 16 to 32 GB of RAM (I can start with 16 now, move up later)
  ■ Maximum space for 3 HDD's should be sufficient
  ■ I need everything from a case, cpu, (cooler?), gpu, hdd's, ram, motherboard, psu, ...
  ■ I don't need extra's such as a monitor, keyboard, ...
  ■ I don't know if I need a CD/DVD drive? I don't have an external one, USB should be sufficient to install the main OS (either vmware or hyper-v, don't know yet)
  ■ Must be so quiet I can place it in the bedroom with minimal noise!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Saberus]

Most people I know use http://pcpartpicker.com to help plan a build. It's not bulletproof, but you can look for features you want and build around that.

I took a swing at your specs and managed this setup at your top end, and it should be pretty damn quiet, but you may want to add a fan or two to make sure the video card stays cool: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7skfVn It only has one NIC, though.

 

[tyfius]

Most people I know use http://pcpartpicker.com to help plan a build. It's not bulletproof, but you can look for features you want and build around that.

I took a swing at your specs and managed this setup at your top end, and it should be pretty damn quiet, but you may want to add a fan or two to make sure the video card stays cool: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7skfVn It only has one NIC, though.

Thanks for your answer!

The specs look good and give me a decent starting point.