ML350p Gen8 - Home ESXi host - CPU upgrade

[MT-Geek]

I'm Building a home VM server and was going to build one using the E5-2670 CPU.  There is a great article on this

http://jptoto.jp/build-your-own-32-core-home-lab-server/

However, I started looking at old servers and found the ML350p Gen8 machine.  I'm very familiar with HP tower and rack mount servers, they have alwas been very reliable. I can pick one up with 2@E5-2609, 32GB RAM no disk for $305. I intend to run the free version of ESXi 6.0 or 6.5 on this. Create VM's for testing things at home.  I am a storage engineer and there are a number of simulators out their for NetApp, 3PAR, etc.

My Questions are:

1) Upgrade to E5-2670 CPU, from my research I may have to use ones from HP servers, is this true?

2) Add disk, the unit does support SATA disks, but I cannot find out if it is 6GB/s or 3GB/s

3) Version of VMware.  Do I have to use the HP version or can I use the verison from vmWare that is free for 2 CPU systems?

Any and all help is appreciated with this.  If you have done this I would appreciate your help.

Thanks,

MT-Geek

[Suvamay]

Hello 

I woud suggest you to check OS matrix and DL380P gen8 quick specs.

https://h17007.www1.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/vmware.aspx

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04123238

Thanks,