What would you recommend for an ESXi server?

Question

VMware

Good afternoon, I would like to hear an expert opinion on the selection of components in order to install an ESXi server on it.
I decided to take AMD FX-8300 (3.3 GHz) as the processor. according to the NYX rating, its counterparts from Intel i5 are much more expensive:

47 - CPU Intel Core i5-4430S 2.7 GHz/4core/SVGA HD Graphics4600/1+6Mb/65W/5 GT/s LGA1150  - 14339p
48 - CPU Intel Core i5-4590S 3.0 GHz/4core/SVGA HD Graphics 4600/1+6Mb/65W/5 GT/s LGA1150 - 14528p
49 - CPU AMD FX-8300 (FD8300W) 3.3 GHz/8core/ 8+8Mb/95W/5200 МГц Socket AM3+                   - 7422p
50 - CPU AMD FX-8370E (FD837EW) 3.3 GHz/8core/ 8+8Mb/95W/5200 MHz Socket AM3+                - 12327p

Several operating systems will be running on the server, the tasks are not particularly difficult - somewhere processing data from user visits sensors, somewhere a Zentyal server (I will use it to limit the Internet), well, I’ll raise a couple more servers for testing.

I would like to hear recommendations on how to deal with the choice of motherboard, whether to do RAID, if so - which one to choose, and regarding the PSU - which one to choose (so that it is not expensive and reliable)
I think to use 16 or even 32 gigs of RAM.

Regarding the budget - it is certainly not rubber, I would like to meet 50 thousand (if this is possible, of course, in modern realities)

Answer 1

Not sure if esxi will work on amd. See the compatibility sheet. Raid on esxi can be either in the form of a controller or fake (there is nothing worse than it). You need as many operatives as you plan virtual machines.
I recommend to look at xenserver 6.5. Prots eats everything that supports virtualization. You can make a software raid. And you can put xen itself on a USB flash drive (sandisk extrime 3.0 at least 16 gigs). We have 2 test servers running on amd.
Comparing esxi and xenserver, I understand that I can do anything with xen, but only what is allowed with vmvar.

Answer 2

Intel 5 is certainly more expensive than AMD FX, but it is also more powerful, although the advantage that AMD has more cores is that you can scatter them among virtual machines.
For AMD FX, there are relatively cheap motherboards with ECC and IOMMU support, for example,
market.yandex.ru/product/8332298
but if you take AMD, there may be difficulties with the incompatibility of Intel RAID controllers, though I was told here that it’s not figs on them look.
And if you take Intel and a mother with ECC, then most likely the network one will be Intel, and not one and will work out of the box, if you take AMD, then the network will be one, Realtek 8111, in principle, it’s easy to make it work by assembling a custom installer image ESXi.
I think, if there is a desire to make it cheaper, then take AMD of course.

Answer 3

ESXi is picky about hardware. If you want everything to work guaranteed and out of the box (without any ESXi-Customizer there), then choose equipment from the official HCL.
I assembled the following configuration for VMware ESXi 5.1:
- Intel S1200BTL
- Intel Xeon E3-1230 BOX
- Kingston ValueRAM ECC
- Kingston ValueRAM ECC
- Procase EB410-B-0
Whether to do RAID - think for yourself, based on the tasks. My host was intended for test benches, so the controller was not there. The controller must also be selected from HCL.