Thanks for replying Tom
After watching your video here on xcp-ng and using the script in there i managed to make my server boot in the order needed(almost wife proof when it goes down!!! turn off and back on again when i,m not there lol).
Thanks regarding the info on freenas was wondering if i could do that or not? might need to make that a separate box for storage?
I was thinking amd rizan 1700 or 2700 because of the core count but low wattage?
Is there any gotcha’s using amd as i’m used to intel for gaming?
I purchased a Dell R410 from eBay and it’s been working great.
It’s strictly my FreeNAS server for my office, but it came with 2x2TB HGST drives, 32GB of RAM, dual quad core/8 thread CPUs. I paid $190 with shipping for it.
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I agree with Tom that if you’re going to have a FreeNAS it really needs to be on bare metal. I have a virtualized Server 2012 that I use for media stuff that I really don’t care about loosing. For anything that I don’t want to loose, I have it on the Windows Server, FreeNAS and the cloud. If you want to keep everything in one box you do have the option to run zfs as the local storage for xcp-ng.
Personally, I find the Xeon v2 servers on eBay and what not to be the sweet spot at the moment. For example this past summer I found a 2 node, 2U server with dual Xeon E5-2660v2s for about $570, 40 total cores plus hyperthreading. Once I added 64GB ram per node I was at $840. To me it’s a steal. I have more processing power than I know what to do with, without breaking the bank.
Each node pulls between 75 and 100w depending on the load. I usually only have them both on when I’m applying patches to the hypervisor so that I don’t have to shutdown any of the VMs. I average about 17 VMs running at any given time.
Thanks Guys for your responses
You opened a can of worms (lol)
I see where you are coming from with buying ex server equipment make sense? bang for buck.
WOW!!! been looking at stuff on ebay for hours and my brain has exploded 
to the possibilities
Only thing is i would not no what was a good deal or not?
I’m in the same boat. I hear about killer deals (or I assume they’re killer deals), but I can’t find anything even close and I don’t know enough about this hardware to know if what I can find is worth it.
One of the best ways I find to know if something is a good deal or not is to look at the price of sold items. Click on advanced to the right of the search bar you can then click on sold listings to search them. This gives you a good picture of market prices. 
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For my pfsense router I use this QOTOM-Q355G4 Factory Price Pfsense Firewall Router Fanless Intel core I5 5200U 4Intel LAN Firewall Multi-Function Router Firewall Appliance AES-NI PC(8G RAM,32G SSD,NO WiFi) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XNWLR3J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_EjOtCbMDXF8VV
And like it.
My question is (and I still don’t have an answer to it) - do I want to consolidate or actually decentralize home servers.
My current opinion is dedicated router, dedicated storage if it’s freenas, and everything else in single focus VMs. I have a propensity for breaking things as I learn. It’s really nice to only break one thing instead of everything.
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Here are some servers I found that look decent. These are probably only SATA II, but would be fine with HDDs for local VM storage.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1U-Supermicro-Server-2x-Intel-Xeon-E5-2650-V2-64GB-RAM-2x-PCI-E-2x-PS-X9DRW-IF/132838985922?hash=item1eedd210c2:g:B8UAAOSwYj9b2jHl:rk:19:pf:0
If you want DDR4 and don’t care about having IPMI these looks decent. They can be upgraded to Xeon v4’s if desired.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-GS5A-7-Mid-Tower-Server-2-4GHz-Xeon-E5-2630v3-16GB-RAM-PNY-750ti/283340538127?hash=item41f869810f:g:OD0AAOSwFlJcPnea:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true
This is an interesting beast if you want separate hosts in one case.
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Here are some options for FreeNAS. They should all be SATA III.
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Thanks for your comments
so as im from the uk ive seen this not sure what you all think ? Am i on the right track?
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Dear Brianh,
My advice is the following.
As Tom said, run FreeNAS on a separate Hardware as its not recommended to run in a VM. Your PfSense if its for testing ok, run in in a VM, if its for production, please consider a separate physical hardware.
As for your requirements.
-
Dual CPUs X5670 at 2.93Ghz (Look for a DELL R710 Refurbished for best price)
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32GB of RAM or better
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2 SSDs of at least 240GB each.
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Dual Port 10GB SPF+ to connect to your FreeNAS box using DAC (Direct Attached Copper)
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Dual 850W PSU
This is what I bought from Server Monkey here in the US and it works beautifully to follow Tom’s Videos and having VMs in which I can test and learn.
Let me know if this helps you my friend. If you need anything else. Just comment and I can help.
Take Care.
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@brianh That would make a great VM host. My personal preference is to use v2 Xeon as they are a little more power efficient, but it really comes down to price and availability. It looks like your options are a little more limited over there, but you’re on the right track.
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I’m running a DL360 G5 and have no problems with running around 9 VMs and a pfSense VM. I’m going to be building up a FreeNAS box some time soon to compliment for storage (sometime in the next few months hopefully). And then later this year get another Proliant to start building my data center. Then next year (as long as the boss lets me) Imma going to double my storage and get at least another server so that I can play around with HA.
Hi All
Just an update
Well i bit the bullet and bought the
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Proliant-DL380p-Gen8-Intel-Xeon-CPU-E5-2690-2-90GHz-64G-Ram/283350406397?epid=11027363276&hash=item41f90014fd:g:fqEAAOSwEp5cH-SZ
Wow love it?
Even better my wife loved the fluffy ear muffs i brought her 
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Well finally got the server of the floor and working like a dream after many many hours of testing esxi xnp-ng proxmox and learning so much ??
Ended up with esxi running multible vm’s
Freenas box storing the vm’s and shares
Nice and compact! I like it! Getting the servers off the floor I feel is always a home server issue. Where to put the dang things 
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I love my Dell PowerEdge T30 (I upgraded the RAM to 32GB and added two Samsung SSDs). I use Proxmox as the hypervisor and run several VMs for cybersecurity analysis (AlienVault OSSIM, separate Splunk instances in Debian VMs, Nessus Home in a Debian VM, and Parrot OS).
That’s the same one I just bought (except mine doesn’t have the Wi-Fi). I disabled the mSATA and installed a 500GB Samsung 860 Evo (plenty of room for log storage, at least for now). I considered running pfSense on my PowerEdge T30 but decided I wanted a dedicated box for routing and firewall.
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Nice setup good choice of software. Splunk is awesome but can get expensive depending on data use.
At home I run:
| Part | Product |
|---|---|
| HDD | HGST 3.5" 12TB 256MB 7200RPM HE12, SATA ULTRA 512E ISE, HUH721212ALE600 |
| MB | Supermicro X11SAE ATX E3-1200v5/v6, Gen6/7 i7/i5/i3, 4x DDR4, M.2, SATA RAID, 2x GbE, PCIe x 16, DVI-D, DP, HDMI |
| RAM | Kingston 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 UDIMM 2400MHz CL17 1.2V ECC Unbuffered ValueRAM Single Stick Server Memory ~KVR24E17D8/16I MEKV21E15D8-16I LS |
| CPU | Intel E3-1230v6 Quad Core Xeon 3.5 Ghz LGA1151 8M Cache |
| PSU | Corsair 750W RMi 80+ Gold Fully Modular w/Corsair Link 135mm FAN ATX PSU |
| GPU | Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GT 710 1GB PCIe Video Card DDR3 4K 3xDisplays HDMI DVI VGA Low Profile Heatsink Silent LS |
| Case | SilverStone Grandia GD08 |
I run ESXi with pfSense and FreeNAS in VMs. I know it is recommended not to run FreeNAS in a VM but if you do it correctly then there should be no dramas - I haven’t had any with my set up (here is post in the ixsystems blog about it).
I also run Plex Media Server on Fedora Server, I run a Windows box for my torrents and Unifi Controller.
I love my little set up and it serves my family and I well - I will just need to get some more RAM so I have a bit more to play with in the way of VMs but I’m pretty happy as is.
I know this isn’t a direct answer to OPs question but it may give OP some ideas 