thinking about a new pc and server PC Hardware...

as a hobby for different projects i work on, that is why when i built this system the way i did and did not go for a workstation gpu

however I think it would be nice to have a work station gpu for my renders, and is why i was thinking about putting one on a server.

however I never had a home server and know little about them to be honest, sure i can build a website and add it to a server and do some server management, but to have a home server with a server os is going to be a learning experience.

I installed a couple server os's on vm's and tinkered with them a little bit, I also have and have wamp experience, but never planned out a server build and I am finding it hard to choose the right hardware and software for my needs.

like do i stay with this pc and use 99% of it's hardware and add a server os, or should I build a big dual core xeon cpu based server and take advantage of ecc memory? or should I build a couple of micro servers for websites and data storage and one mid grade server for Virtual machines as Dave suggested?

another thing I am having trouble with, is what server os should I use?
I like the thought of a -non- command line type os like windows sever or ubuntu server, but i like the thought that solaris was built with security from the ground up, but solaris is a command line type os.

ugg!! server research is making me head spin.

Thanks Freddy that was some great insight, I have been running my vm's on my ssd which is only 128gb and available space is getting low. I also run wamp for web development off my 1tb hhd and space there is getting low.

So i am looking into the future and see that my previous solutions so far is a mess. I have data duplicated and scattered everywhere on my 2 internal drives and a bunch of external drives. I also have back-ups scattered everywhere and it takes a long time to find data i am looking for.

I got a external 4tb drive that I started to organize all my data on, this is a lot of work and a long proccess, i am not even 1/4th of the way done yet.

another reason for wanting a server is to force me into better data management and back-ups. I could use a nas for this but why just have a nas when i could have a server that has all the nas features and a bunch more. to me a server seems like a win win.

I been doing a lot thinking and here is what i came up with so far.

main machine:
      use a workstation gpu, and have all my content creation programs on the main os for I looked into what Dave said about having them on a vm and even though I can render the programs that do the rendering are not utilizing my gpu. so my renders are taking longer to render than they would if i had them installed on my main os.

server machine:
      1) install nas (may need to be on a vm) and use it for nas feature for all my data needs (back up, organization, streaming, etc.)
      2) use 1 virtual machine for websites and app building and testing
      3) use 1 virtual machine for a mail client unless it is built into main servers os
      4) use multiple virtual machines to run many different pc os's (debian, ubuntu, windows 8, windows xp, etc.)
      5) and eventually home automation and security

I am thinking my final thought for my server would not have to be a behemoth but powerful enough to do above, perhaps a mini itx board, low power consumption xeon processor, and around 16 to 32 gb of ecc memory.

still need to know compatible hardware and what main server os would be best to use.

Not much I can add to this topic Syber, but I think you have a good idea of what you need, that is half the battle.

  I found something on the Optane  memory I thought you'd like


Carl2

I have to agree with that 

Standard M.2 NVMe is the best way forward for now on new builds, fast, compatible and relatively cheap to buy.

Those video's refer to the m.2 drives 16 and 32 gb sizes which can be used for better performance in hhd cache or system cache

there is also the larger volume drives for Data read and writes here is a look at them with a a little bit of hype.


and here is an older video that helps explain them bigger optane drives

Wow, almost DRAM performance.

With 4 drives on each board and 2 on the (I presume bootable) bit, that's €3k worth of drives + adapters.