I am attempting to build a cheap Minecraft server and NAS for sub 150$, but prefer sub 80$.

• 2-4 Players
• 100 mods at most, nothing too intensive besides create.
• Will pregenerate the world to help the server
• Linux
• Some NAS capacity
• Probably won't be on 24/7
• I would like to know about power efficiency.

I have...

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Option A

HP EliteDesk 705 G2 - 67.99$

• 240 GB SSD.
• 8GB DDR3 Ram (I can't find info on # of ram slots).
• CPU is 3.2ghz, 4mb cache, 4 core, 4 thread.
• No LAN port which sucks.
• 280 watts PSU (I think?).
• 2015

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Option B

Dell OptiPlex 9020 Small Form Factor - 130$

• 1tb hard drive. (I would need to buy a SSD).
• 8gb DDR3 Ram (4 slots).
• CPU is 3.6ghz, 2mb, 8mb cache, 4 core, 8 threads.
• LAN Port.
• 255 watts PSU.
• 2013

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I will be upgrading the ram to 16 GBs, possibly 32 GBs. Noise doesn't matter.

I've read a lot of people complaining about older PCs being used as servers but I don't see the issue for someone like me who won't do much but upgrade the ram. I've priced out building a server on the AM4 platform and its not worth the extra cost. NUCs are either worse or 300$ afaik. I am new to servers but not new to the basics of Linux.

Also if anyone has a link to anything about how to safely shut off and turn on servers, especially Minecraft servers I would appreciate that.