Question about choosing a server for virtualization and experiments?

Question

Iron

Good afternoon.

I decided to purchase/build a platform for experimenting with a Riak/Erlang cluster and other multi-node things.
I choose from three alternatives:

1. HP Microserver Gen8
   
2. Mac Mini 2010-2012
   
3. Self-collection in a compact package
   

I plan to use some bare metal supervisor - Xen or VMware ESX(i). The machine is exclusively for experiments, the router is separate, I do not use NAS.
For Mac Mini - compactness, silence.
For HP - the seriousness of the approach (after all, the server platform, albeit small, but still).
For self-assembly - the price, you can assemble a cheap machine on desktop components.

In general, I'm leaning towards the Mac Mini, the only question is how difficult it will be to hoist Xen or ESX there. If someone has a similar experience (or in general the experience of choosing a home server) - please share.

Answer 1

Leave makos and put parallels! Everything will be very good.
I do not advise you to install Linux instead of makosi, you are tormented. And finally, I am for KVM!

Answer 2

EsxI with a high degree of probability will not get up on the listed platforms. Look at them (vmware) on a site compatibility with iron. And yes, kvm.