Thinkpads Forum

it's long overdue for me to get a server! I'm currently backing up my files to multiple flash drives but that's not safe as I tend to loose them and find them again more often than not and I also would love to do some video editing on it since it takes too long to render files with my 2015 MacBook Pro 13" but what thinkstation or thinkserver do I get? I need to get one that can do RAID (doesn't need to have quick remove drives) and can support a graphics card (or 2) for GPU rendering as I want to run VMware ESXI to be able to install multiple operating systems and access them remotely from any other computer plus be quiet enough that an average person can sleep with the computer running.... it would need to be able to support windows 7/10 pro first and not only be restricted to windows server 2008 R2/windows server 2016 so 1 or 2 cpu max... this thing won't have anything plugged into it except for power and network as I will be remotely accessing it

My budget is $150 starting price and can always upgrade when money becomes available

any suggestions would be helpful.... I am quit serious about this machine!

Bump

Bump one last time!

Trying to think of a computer for $150 that would be able to run video rendering on a virtual machine faster than video rendering on a straight 2015 Macbook Pro, but I really can't. I don't think $150 is enough (hence the lack of suggestions). For $600 you could probably scrape together an i5 Skylake or Kaby Lake with a decent video card for that task. Won't be top-of-the-line, but you could beat the pants off a Macbook.

One other thing: Workstation or server =/= quiet.

If you're looking for a workstation-grade computer, but still want it portable (probably why you want a VM so you can work anywhere), then you're probably better off hocking the Macbook and saving your pennies for a P50 and a NAS. You'll get a more competent laptop and plenty of storage without having to mess around with VMs. Why make it more complicated than it has to be? If you're serious about it, you don't want any more hurdles to performance than you have to, and if it's being used for work, downtime from messing with settings and troubleshooting bad connections to even open your project will be costly.