The original post: /r/homelab by /u/killjoygrr on 2024-06-23 02:37:40.

I have been looking at getting an older server and noticed that a lot of workstations seem to be virtually the same thing, but cost quite a bit less.

When a workstation is dual socket with 12/16 dimm slots, would I really be losing out on much that a traditional server would have?

The only think I can think of would be power failover capabilities, which for my purposes wouldn’t matter.

The ones I have been looking at are something like an early Lenovo p720 or p920 which barebones can be picked up for $3-500. Equivalent spec servers seem to be about double that.

What am I planning to use it for? Not really sure yet. Playing with different OSes. Maybe a NAS or media server. Looking for something that I can dabble with. I have no interest with getting a rack or rack based hardware as I don’t need to start down the server hardware accumulation road in addition to all my other hobbies/habits.