I do a lot of VMWare work but I’d like to tinker with proxmox at home- I just don’t want to bring an awful old HPE server/etc home to try it out on-
Anyone have any reccomendations for a quiet, small homelab server with a solid (12-16 thread) core count?
Older used 1st/2nd gen Ryzen can be fairly inexpensive as people upgraded to 3rd gen or newer for better gaming performance.
If you happen to go down the used route and buy separate CPU and motherboard just make sure they are compatible. Some early AM4 motherboards (x370/x350) can be a bit limited in what Ryzen CPUs they support because of small BIOS flash chips so ideally get a board with USB flashback.