I’d like to buy an inexpensive machine for purposes of installing and learning ESXi, pfSense, pi-hole, and IPS/IDS software.
Seems one of the various Dell Optiplex SFF machines on ebay would do the trick. Any recommendations in particular for model, CPU, amount of RAM? Also, suggestions for a cheap low-profile NIC to be installed in the system?
Thanks!
Glad that you are interested in learning about ESXi and all the great homelab stuff that comes with it 
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When I started with ESXi I found that getting a decommissioned or older server gear was the best bet due to compatibility issues that you can face with ‘non-server’ hardware. (network cards were a PITA)
Not only was the old gear a great bargain due to not having to build a ‘new’ system, you also got to learn more about server hardware along the way.
For starters, I would recommend checking out pretty much any Dell Poweredge server on Ebay as they have a mix of ‘older’ and ‘newer’ generation cpus, nics, storage that are still supported with the current generation of ESXi. You can get a decently configured system for only a couple hundred bucks. They also allow you to easily and cheaply expand the amount of memory and storage in the system as your demands grow over time.
I also highly recommend that you check the VMware Compatibility Guide to ensure that the cpu is supported for the version of ESXi that you plan to use.
Additionally also watch out the licensing limitations of ESXi! Because VMware likes to make lots of money from licensing you’ll be limited in some small but very critical ways like no support, no more than 8vCPUs per virtual machine, and you lose on a lot of the ‘fancy’ software features. I recommend you read more here.
If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to reach out or checkout /r/homelab for more stuff. I apologize ahead of time for your power bill in the future 
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Esxi should run fine on all older optiplex 790/990 sffs.
Only slight worry is the 16gb max memory. If it’s just a simple lab, you’ll be fine but in terms of virtualisation, memory is king.
Thanks for the warm welcome! I definitely like the idea of going with enterprise gear. My main concern is whether it would fit with my living situation. I’m in a relatively small apartment, so quietness – and to a lesser extent compactness – are key. Still relatively new to the homelab world, though, so not sure what may or may not work.
I can see outgrowing 16GB pretty quickly, yeah.
From what I’ve seen, some newer optiplexes support more, e.g. 9020 accepts up to 32GB and can still be had relatively inexpensively (~$200).
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