Need a New Server and Guidance

[RollingThunder]

Guys, this is my son's request for assistance. Any suggestions will be appreciated. This is beyond my expertise.

So my home server crashed a few weeks ago. That DFI Lanparty motherboard I got a long time ago, with the separate RocketRaid RAID card. It's been great, but it just won't boot any longer. I was able to restore my domain controller to VMWare Workstation from a bare metal Windows Backup image which is currently running on my desktop/gaming PC, so I"m good there and got everything back online from backups (which was tricky but I did it!). I need to buy some new hardware and am very lost!

Looking to re-use my existing case, that Cooler Master nVidia with all the green lights and stuff from ~ 12 years ago which is full AXT.

Need a new motherboard, new fans for the case (probably not a big deal but have to hook to the motherboard), CPU preferably single Intel with at least the I7 or whatever the current is, between 2 - 12 cores (no idea what's available these days!), memory - 16GB preferably, and probably a new fully modular power supply, I'm guessing ~ 750W or so. Maybe less. Want lots of SATA ports (6 at least). I don't care at all about video - onboard would suffice.

I want that onboard SSD interface for a ~ 500GB - 1TB for the OS volume, which I think will be Windows Server 2016, and plan to run HyperV or maybe stick with VMWare Workstation to support two VMs which will be Windows 2016 domain controllers (ultimately). The VMs will be stored on separate 512GB or 1TB or so SATA SSDs. No real storage needed so I don't care about onboard RAID or anything.. I might get an external NAS device or might just go with standalone spinners or maybe standalone SSDs for storage, about 1TB, manually redundant which I would replicate nightly via simple robocopy script.

Can you run this by your folks on Overclockers? Maybe just copy/paste what I described? Looking to spend hopefully ~ $600, up to $1,000 for mobo, CPU, memory, power supply NOT including storage.

 

[The_Jizzler]

For that price he could pick up up a used Dell T or R series server, something like a T/R520, T/R620, T/R720, etc. Off lease enterprise servers are soooo cheap on ebay, I'll never "build" or roll a diy server again

 

[Janus67]

For that price he could pick up up a used Dell T or R series server, something like a T/R520, T/R620, T/R720, etc. Off lease enterprise servers are soooo cheap on ebay, I'll never "build" or roll a diy server again

I'd recommend the T (tower) series as it should be quieter than the R (rackmount) series. Unless sound is not an issue. Although the towers tend to be a bit more expensive.

 

[Automata]

For that price he could pick up up a used Dell T or R series server, something like a T/R520, T/R620, T/R720, etc. Off lease enterprise servers are soooo cheap on ebay, I'll never "build" or roll a diy server again

I second this recommendation. You can get empty chassis for dirt cheap.