Hardware Looking to upgrade Servers

[tech3475]

Hi,
I'm currently thinking about upgrading my current server setups and I'm wondering if this would be a worthwhile plan?

Current Setup:

Server 1 (file server/docker):
HP Gen 8 Microserver
Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.3Ghz
16GB DDR3 ECC RAM
Storage: 4x10TB (1 used for Parity) 2x4TB
OS: UNRAID

Server 2 (Virtual Machines):
Custom Build using old/cheap parts
Intel 3770K
12GB RAM (non-ECC)
OS: ESXi running PfSense (I use it as my router) and Windows 10

I'm currently considering moving from my current solution, trying to consolidate the two servers, improve performance and potential upgrades (e.g. more HDDs, RAM, PCIE slots, etc.).

Unfortunately Rack mounting isn't an option but tower desktops are.

I have an old case, PSU and GPU lying around so it's only the Motherboard, CPU and RAM I would need and I'm wondering whether something Ryzen based would work since I've read that certain Ryzen motherboards would work with ECC RAM.

I'm considering either buying something like a Ryzen 3600 if I go this route or taking the 3700X out of my gaming desktop and upgrading the gaming rig to a better CPU when 4000 comes out since my x570 motherboard should support it, if it's worthwhile of course.

I know that going this route would be less 'enterprise' and mean losing Lights Out Management, but so far it seems to be the most viable upgrade path, unless I'm missing something or there's a better option I've missed.

Thank you.

 

[FAST6191]

What do you plan to do with then and what is the bottleneck you are facing? Storage and virtualisation is a massively variable field.

 

[tech3475]

What do you plan to do with then and what is the bottleneck you are facing? Storage and virtualisation is a massively variable field.

For storage, the HP is basically maxed out in terms of the amount of HDDs it can handle, so I'm hoping to shift to a system which can handle more HDDs long term should I need to expand.

I've also had issues related to e.g. RAM usage, which is maxed out on the HP and I'm hoping to increase general performance for VMs with the newer CPU. The single PCI-E slot is also already used by a SATA card.

In terms of usage within the VMs, PFSense shouldn't be too demanding but Windows will be handling things like video conversions/transcoding and I'd like to be able to pass through a GPU in the long term.