Objectives:
1. To build white box for running ESXi
2. Support up to 64GB DDR4
3. Total power consumption below 30 watt on idle
4. Expandable, with PCI expansion slots and multiple SATA ports
5. Cheap as possible
Part lists (as of October 2017)
Intel – Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor RM 320.00 (Lazada)
-poor-man’s Core i7 CPU, price vs performance, when it introduced it cannibalized the i3 sales. Intel realized this and slow down the production. Low TDP.
Asus – PRIME B250M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard RM 415.00 (Lazada)
-4 DIMM slots and support up to 64GB DDR4. Alternatively, you may consider Gigabyte GA-B250M-D3H.
Avexir Core Series DDR4/2400Mhz/16GB/LED RAM RM 569.00 (Lazada)
Avexir Core Series DDR4/2400Mhz/16GB/LED RAM RM 519.00 (Lazada)
-simply because it is the cheapest. 2x16GB is cheaper than 4X8GB RAM. Furthermore, I have 2 more free DIMMs slots with this configuration.
Corsair – VS 450W ATX Power Supply RM 148.00 (Lelong)
-better than stock PSU
Tecware Quad Mini Cube ATX Case RM 180.00 (Lazada)
-cheap and affordable, importantly it perfectly fit my IKEA rack for space-saving purpose. The size and dimension are resemble the infamous HP Microserver Gen8 (bought it for a year ago then sold it because underutilized, now feeling regretted :P)
Western Digital – Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5″ 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Re-Use)
I bought mostly from Lazada due to stock availability and abusing their 10% voucher (price listed above before 10% discount). Price for CPU and RAM is higher due to scarcity and exchange rate.
Power Consumption
Average on 29 watts!!
ESXi running VMs
