If you’re looking to get a real server you’ll probably get more for your money on /r/homelabsales. There are some amazing deals at around the $300-400 price point with much more modern hardware than that dell.

I migrated my server (mainly Plex but lots of other stuff too) from windows bare metal to windows docker to Linux docker. The main reason was to avoid docker running in a VM with the overhead and networking issues that a native Linux install avoids. In the end I’m very glad I did. Docker just makes everything so easy to setup, manage, backup and migrate if needed. My server is very stable and almost never needs to be fiddled with or restarted. Also I learned a ton which then springboarded into other homelab stuff like running a proxmox server, opnsense firewall, remote gaming server, etc.

My oldest is a Toshiba 4tb with about 60k PoH, no errors and still runs cool. The plan was to replace it with a larger disk when it died but it just refuses to.

If you’re planning on putting the mobo in the supermicro chassis you’ll want to get a front IO adapter in addition to the HBA card so you can use the front power button. This vid will walk you through everything.

The channel also has a youtube store (art of server) that sells genuine LSI and other major brands HBA cards as well as the adapter and lots of other stuff if you need it (cables etc).

• 16-pin front IO adapter
• HBA Card - LSI 9207-8i

You’ll also need an SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable to connect the backplane to the HBA card.