SFF VMware ESXi Box - Looking for Recommendations

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Hi,

I currently have a Shuttle SFF box serving as my ESXi server. It has run 24/7 for years, and is currently running ESXi 8.0. It’s a Core i7-7700 with 64GB of RAM, and is still holding up, but it’s time to consider a replacement. I’m looking at a build in a NR200P. My question is, is any 13th Gen Intel or AMD 7000 stuff going to work with ESXi 8.0? Guessing a hard no on the Intel stuff because of the big/little arch. Would I be better off getting a 5950X? Ideally, I’d like to go current gen just to future proof it a bit (In a perfect world, I’d love to go with an AMD 7900 (non X), 64GB of DDR5, and some 980 Pros…).

If you have any hardware recommendations that you know would work with ESXi 8, please let me know. I want the NR200P because I have limited space in my small rack, and want something quiet and power efficient, otherwise I’d build a full ATX box.

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If you want a small and power efficient box I would lean towards the Ryzen 7900 non-X variant. Intel has better idle stats but more power hungry when it does need to work. Another option would be to undervolt a 7950X, really depends if you need those 32 threads or not.

ESXi seems to be based on a proprietary kernel architecture, which makes support dependant on what they deem fit to support. That said, seems to be some luck with Intel 12th/13th gen: ESXi on Intel NUC 12 Extreme (Dragon Canyon)

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Are you seeing any performance issues with the i7-7700? Personally I would give it another year

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