Looking to build a home Lab?
Here's what route I took. Facebook decommisioned a lot of HP z440 computers over the last year or two.
I paid 198 for a xeon 2.2ghz 16gigs Ram(upgradeable to 192) a 2tb hard drive.
Added a NVME card for 160 holds 4 cards
3 nvme 4tb total 12tb for 119.
Setup Proxmox and several os's that run together.
I am pretty sure this machine will last me a while.
In my mind the XEON's are better fore this maybe I'm wrong but its working for me.
nosaj
P.S. The name nosaj(jason backwards cameabout from me going backwards in technologies and getting interested in Vacuum Tubes so part of my sabbattical was I became a guitar amp Repairman.)