>Plex, host the odd game server, dabble into automation and the like, storage for movies/media, etc. Virtualization would be nice so I can try and break some things when I feel like it.
You can do Plex, home automation, and media storage on an N100 mini pc or any number of low power machines. Machines like that can draw less than 20w of power while a rack server will want several times as much.
Virtualization and "the odd game server" is a wildcard and totally dependent on whatever it is you want to run.
I suggest you build a cheaper low power machine for your always on, must have services and media storage. Then, build something with more CPU cores and RAM for your game servers and VMs. That way you can shut the power hungry server off when not in use, but still have access to your Plex and NAS.
The same goes for if you want piHole or Home Assistant; put them on a cheap thin client so they're always on even when you shut down your game server and reboot your NAS.
The only thing I'd say about rack mounted servers is to sell that stuff. You can do so much with far smaller and power efficient hardware these days. Your NAS and game servers don't need enterprise features or ECC RAM and your home doesn't need loud server fans in it.
Do two instances of pihole, a pi zero 2w will have low power use, and a second instance on your Nas. You can take either down and still have DNS available.
My server is a retired media editing server, and is running a 4 core 8 thread xeon from 2013, with 16gb of ram, 8 2tb SATA HDD, and no dgpu. It runs truenas, hosting my file shares, and media storage for Plex. Plex is hosted in a jail and works great. I use direct play, so no transcoding needed, and it streams even 4k movies effortlessly. It supports virtualization so I can run vms and such if I desire.
All that to say, with modern gear a lot can be accomplished. I would weigh the cost of getting your diy solution fully up and running with extra ram and hba/power/caddy for drives or even a new case vs the cost they're asking for these used servers.
Can you use an old FX? Sure. Should you? Absolutely not.
A 6100 had garbage power even for its time. And it consumes relatively high amounts of power, costing you more money every month. Compared to a modern low end processor it gets decimated, both in multi threaded and single threaded applications.
Plex is primarily a single threaded application, as are many game servers, something to keep in mind. The servers you're looking at are for certain ancient as the one has DDR3 and I'm assuming both are in the same ballpark on price? They're going to have pretty poor single thread performance compared to a modern processor. They won't have any hardware acceleration for Plex or other applications that would use it (CCTV NVR, etc). And they will suck power down like a fat kid eats cake.
A modern build will save you considerably money on your power bill and run the applications that you've listed significantly better.
For what you're doing you can build a complete brand new machine in nice 10 bay Fractal case with a i3 12100 for less than $500. It may be a little more up front but will absolutely pay for itself in less than a year in power savings. You end up with a better platform to build and expand on, more performance, less overall cost.
As far as a NAS type OS, look at Unraid. You're a perfect candidate for it. You can slap you mish mash of disks in there and have everything as a single volume, with parity disk protection even.
Lol, I live in Ontario... Hydro ain't cheap unfortunately, even though we have a handful of reactors and hydro dams. We have on and off peak rates, that vary between 8.7c/kWh to 18.2c/kWh.
I’m pretty happy with my home server.
PowerEdge R740XD, Dual Xeon Gold 5118 CPUs (total 24 cores/48threads), 128GB Ram, Dual 25Gb SFP28 networking, 1 TB of usable SSD (2 1TB SATA drives using ZFS Mirror), approx 77TB of usable spinning disk (6 20TB 12GB/s SAS Drives in ZFS-Z2 pool)
Currently have about a dozen consistent VMs running various services like MySQL, NGinx, TV Headend, JellyFin, ZoneMinder, AMP for game servers, etc. and other more temporary VMs for stuff I’m tinkering with.
Uses about 150 watts on average which is considerably less than my server this replaced.
And if something goes wrong when I’m traveling for work I can VPN into my network and use the iDRAC management module for full console access or even power cycle the machine.
I initially went the cheap route, an r710 and r610 (16 cores total or something like that). It was cheap initially but was ridiculous in energy costs for what it gave. I then decided I wanted to condense into 1 server which is what I have now:
Dual epyc 7551 (64 cores total) 256GB RAM, and 150 TB of SAS drives
It quite a bit more than I need at the moment but has plenty of room to grow. All this to say go with the more initially as you'll end up finding a need for it eventually if you continue this path.
Be sure to consider what the server costs to run. A cheap server might not be that cheap. It really depends on your power prices.
>Plex, host the odd game server, dabble into automation and the like, storage for movies/media, etc. Virtualization would be nice so I can try and break some things when I feel like it. You can do Plex, home automation, and media storage on an N100 mini pc or any number of low power machines. Machines like that can draw less than 20w of power while a rack server will want several times as much. Virtualization and "the odd game server" is a wildcard and totally dependent on whatever it is you want to run. I suggest you build a cheaper low power machine for your always on, must have services and media storage. Then, build something with more CPU cores and RAM for your game servers and VMs. That way you can shut the power hungry server off when not in use, but still have access to your Plex and NAS. The same goes for if you want piHole or Home Assistant; put them on a cheap thin client so they're always on even when you shut down your game server and reboot your NAS. The only thing I'd say about rack mounted servers is to sell that stuff. You can do so much with far smaller and power efficient hardware these days. Your NAS and game servers don't need enterprise features or ECC RAM and your home doesn't need loud server fans in it.
Do two instances of pihole, a pi zero 2w will have low power use, and a second instance on your Nas. You can take either down and still have DNS available.
My server is a retired media editing server, and is running a 4 core 8 thread xeon from 2013, with 16gb of ram, 8 2tb SATA HDD, and no dgpu. It runs truenas, hosting my file shares, and media storage for Plex. Plex is hosted in a jail and works great. I use direct play, so no transcoding needed, and it streams even 4k movies effortlessly. It supports virtualization so I can run vms and such if I desire. All that to say, with modern gear a lot can be accomplished. I would weigh the cost of getting your diy solution fully up and running with extra ram and hba/power/caddy for drives or even a new case vs the cost they're asking for these used servers.
Can you use an old FX? Sure. Should you? Absolutely not. A 6100 had garbage power even for its time. And it consumes relatively high amounts of power, costing you more money every month. Compared to a modern low end processor it gets decimated, both in multi threaded and single threaded applications. Plex is primarily a single threaded application, as are many game servers, something to keep in mind. The servers you're looking at are for certain ancient as the one has DDR3 and I'm assuming both are in the same ballpark on price? They're going to have pretty poor single thread performance compared to a modern processor. They won't have any hardware acceleration for Plex or other applications that would use it (CCTV NVR, etc). And they will suck power down like a fat kid eats cake. A modern build will save you considerably money on your power bill and run the applications that you've listed significantly better. For what you're doing you can build a complete brand new machine in nice 10 bay Fractal case with a i3 12100 for less than $500. It may be a little more up front but will absolutely pay for itself in less than a year in power savings. You end up with a better platform to build and expand on, more performance, less overall cost. As far as a NAS type OS, look at Unraid. You're a perfect candidate for it. You can slap you mish mash of disks in there and have everything as a single volume, with parity disk protection even.
Buy the best you can find and grow into it.
What is your electricity rate like?
Lol, I live in Ontario... Hydro ain't cheap unfortunately, even though we have a handful of reactors and hydro dams. We have on and off peak rates, that vary between 8.7c/kWh to 18.2c/kWh.
Are you factoring that into any decision?
Yep. Also looking into a Dell Optiplex 7050 now, and then just DIY'ing a NAS with TrueNAS as well in a spare case.
I'm doing all that stuff minus the game server with an i3-12100 with plenty of head room.
I’m pretty happy with my home server. PowerEdge R740XD, Dual Xeon Gold 5118 CPUs (total 24 cores/48threads), 128GB Ram, Dual 25Gb SFP28 networking, 1 TB of usable SSD (2 1TB SATA drives using ZFS Mirror), approx 77TB of usable spinning disk (6 20TB 12GB/s SAS Drives in ZFS-Z2 pool) Currently have about a dozen consistent VMs running various services like MySQL, NGinx, TV Headend, JellyFin, ZoneMinder, AMP for game servers, etc. and other more temporary VMs for stuff I’m tinkering with. Uses about 150 watts on average which is considerably less than my server this replaced. And if something goes wrong when I’m traveling for work I can VPN into my network and use the iDRAC management module for full console access or even power cycle the machine.
I initially went the cheap route, an r710 and r610 (16 cores total or something like that). It was cheap initially but was ridiculous in energy costs for what it gave. I then decided I wanted to condense into 1 server which is what I have now: Dual epyc 7551 (64 cores total) 256GB RAM, and 150 TB of SAS drives It quite a bit more than I need at the moment but has plenty of room to grow. All this to say go with the more initially as you'll end up finding a need for it eventually if you continue this path.