Building a Hyperion Home Lab: Putting It All Together

Before we get started, here’s the entire series in case you need to look back (or ahead):

Now that we’ve made it through all of the different components, let’s summarize everything so that we can get a clear view of the total budget and what exactly it is that we get for the money we are spending.

Our final selections are summarized in a table below each of budget options, so I’ll try to just re-cap each option.

Desktop High Buget

For our high budget option, we are looking at higher end of consumer hardware.  We have a high end desktop Intel processor (4 cores and 8 threads), a feature-filled motherboard, 64 GB of RAM, 1 TB of SATA SSD storage, 512 GB of NVMe SSD storage, and 4 TB of back-up storage.  All of this leaves us with a total of $1,927.18.  Here are the details:

Intel Core i7 6700k$414.991$414.99Link
ASRock Z170M Extreme4$124.991$124.99Link
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 64GB$394.991$394.99Link
Fractal Design Define Mini$95.991$95.99Link
SeaSonic S12G S12G-550$79.991$79.99Link
Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB$329.991$329.99Link
Samsung 950 Pro 512 GB$326.251$326.25Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 4 TB$159.991$159.99Link
Total Desktop High Budget $1,927.18

Desktop Medium Budget

We have two options for our medium budget.  They both provide a upper-end Intel processor (4 cores, 4 threads), the same mid-range motherboard, 1 TB of SATA SSD storage, 256 GB of NVMe SSD storage, and 3 TB of back-up storage.  The difference between the two is memory.  Both offer up 32 GB of RAM, but the more expensive option two chooses to use two 16 GB modules instead of four 8 GB modules.  The price difference is relatively low with option one coming in at $1,248.91 and option two (which is again expandable to 64 GB in the future) coming in at $1,298.92.

Details for option 1:

Intel Core i7 6700$349.991$349.99Link
ASRock H170M Pro4$84.991$84.99Link
Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB)$64.992$129.98Link
Cooler Master N200$46.991$46.99Link
SeaSonic S12G S12G-550$79.991$79.99Link
SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB$249.991$249.99Link
Samsung 950 Pro 256 GB$181.991$181.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Desktop Medium Budget Option 1 $1,248.91

Details for option 2:

Intel Core i7 6700$349.991$349.99Link
ASRock H170M Pro4$84.991$84.99Link
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB)$179.991$179.99Link
Cooler Master N200$46.991$46.99Link
SeaSonic S12G S12G-550$79.991$79.99Link
SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB$249.991$249.99Link
Samsung 950 Pro 256 GB$181.991$181.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Desktop Medium Budget Option 2 $1,298.92

Desktop Low Budget

For our low budget desktop, we’ll stick with a single option.  This option provides a lower-end but still quad core processor, a lower-end motherboard, only 16 GB of RAM, and a single 3 TB hard drive.  The upside is that this can easily support an SSD and an upgrade to 32 GB of RAM for a moderate increase in price.  But, as optioned, we’re looking at $499.94.  I didn’t even plan on that being under $500…

Intel Core i5 6400$189.991$189.99Link
ASRock H110M-HDS$51.991$51.99Link
Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB)$64.991$64.99Link
Rosewill FBM-01$27.991$27.99Link
EVGA 100-W1-0430-KR 430W$39.991$39.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Desktop Low Budget$499.94

Server High Budget

Now on to the fun stuff…servers.  Our high end server was intended for the audience that wants brand new hard ware on the latest server technology.  This gives us a pair of six-core processors (with 12 threads), 128 GB of DDR4 RAM, a fancy hot-swap case that supports 24 drives, 1 TB of SATA SSD storage, 400 GB of Enterprise-class NVMe SSD storage, and 4 TB of back-up storage.  All for the low, low price of $3,769.90.  The parts list in all of its glory:

Intel Xeon E5-2620 V3$429.992$859.98Link
Supermicro MBD-X10DAI-O$389.991$389.99Link
Crucial 64GB (4 x 16GB) Registered ECC DDR4$449.992$899.98Link
NORCO RPC-4224$429.991$429.99Link
SeaSonic G-750 SSR-750RM$119.991$119.99Link
Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB$329.991$329.99Link
Intel P3600 400 GB$579.991$579.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 4 TB$159.991$159.99Link
Total Server High Budget $3,769.90

Server Medium Budget

Ok…now that we have the insanely expensive option of the way, we can go back to reasonable.  So how do we get the performance of insanely expensive but the price of a desktop machine?  Head to Ebay for processors and RAM, and then get all new hardware for everything else.  What we end up with are two options.  Both options include a pair of eight-core processors (with 16 threads), a nice dual processor motherboard with quad-gigabit lan, 1 TB of SATA SSD storage, 400 GB of NVMe SSD storage, and 3 TB of back-up storage.

With option one, we have chosen to go with lower cost 8 GB modules for a total of 128 GB of RAM and a desktop case.  The total price for this option is $1,849.94.  For option two, we swap out the 8 GB modules for 16 GB modules and throw it into a 4U rackmount case.  The total price for this option is $2,721.94.

Details for option 1:

Intel Xeon E5-2670$150.002$300.00Link
ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16$309.991$309.99Link
Ebay 16 x 8GB DDR3$20.0016$320.00Link
Phanteks PH-ES614PC_BK$94.991$94.99Link
SeaSonic G-750 SSR-750RM$119.991$119.99Link
SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB$249.991$249.99Link
Intel 750 400 GB$329.991$329.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Server Medium Budget Option 1 $1,849.94

Details for option 2:

Intel Xeon E5-2670$150.002$300.00Link
ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16$309.991$309.99Link
Ebay 16 x 16GB DDR3$75.0016 $1,200.00 Link
NORCO RPC-470$86.991$86.99Link
SeaSonic G-750 SSR-750RM$119.991$119.99Link
SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB$249.991$249.99Link
Intel 750 400 GB$329.991$329.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Server Medium Budget Option 2 $2,721.94

Compared to the high server budget, either option is practically a steal.  For almost $2,000 less, we get the same memory capacity (albeit DDR3) and more processor cores (albeit a little slower and a little hotter).  So the question is…do you really need new an shiny that much?  Only you can decide.  I’ve built both (new and shiny, and Ebay Frankenstein), so I get it.  I have both sitting in my home lab and I can say I’m actually very happy with both systems.  With the options available now..I’m going with Ebay Frankenstein.

Server Low Budget

For our low budget server, we get a quad core single socket Xeon processor (with 4 threads), 32 GB of RAM (expandable to 64 GB for $229.98), 1 TB of SATA SSD storage, and 3 TB of back-up storage.  Not bad for $1,180.41.  The parts list:

Intel Xeon E3-1220 V5$218.481$218.48Link
Supermicro X11SSH-F-O$229.991$229.99Link
Samsung DDR4-2133 16GB$114.992$229.98Link
Cooler Master N200$46.991$46.99Link
SeaSonic S12G S12G-550$79.991$79.99Link
SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB$249.991$249.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Server Low Budget $1,180.41

Tiny Server

Finally, and most tiny, we have our tiny sever option.  This server packs a huge punch in a little package and a decent cost.  We get a quad core processor (with 8 threads), 64 GB of RAM (expandable to 128 GB for $479), 1 TB of SATA SSD storage, and 3 TB of back-up storage.  Again, not bad for $1,504.94.  Check out the tiny parts list:

Intel Xeon D-1520$489.991$489.99Link
Supermicro MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN2F-O$0.001$-Link
Supermicro 32GB DDR4$239.992$479.98Link
Supermicro CSE-721TQ-250B$159.991$159.99Link
SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB$249.991$249.99Link
HGST Deskstar NAS 3 TB$124.991$124.99Link
Total Tiny Server Budget $1,504.94

So which server will you build?

I hope this series has been helpful for those of you really interested in a Hyperion Home Lab.  Now we can get back to Powershell and some of the great things I have planned for my home lab.

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Comments

  1. sometimes funny caller
    February 29, 2016 - 7:44 pm

    So the real question – are you going to build a new machine?! If you do you should keep going, and write it up. What do you run personally?

    Also – one option – if you have a reasonably high-end router – you can setup an always on VPN to AWS and spin up your environment over there but have it look local to your network.

    • I’m actually working on a new box now. I’m finally out of capacity on my main box, so I’m spinning up a new box. You can click on the lab link at the top to see my setup.

      As to AWS…my biggest problem is that I work on my systems all the time, any time. And since they charge by the minute, I couldn’t afford to run what I run all the time and I really don’t want to wait or even have time to wait for the environment to start up each time.

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