I need a silent ECC server. Doesn't need to be super powerful but I'd rather have at most one fan. Any advice?
[0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/166190039675?epid=17034031881&hash=...
Supermicro did have RAM issues in the early teens.
This sort of research is the non-dollar price of finding deals on server-class hardware.
If you want to get something pre-validated, and usually with a warranty, it can be worth it to look for resellers for the major OEMs that also offer refurbished hardware. It's more expensive than the typical options available on eBay, but still much cheaper than new hardware.
The killer is the power consumption. It's better now compared to old enterprise gear of 20 years ago, but you can sometimes still pay for a brand new low-power system just in power savings alone.
Of course, if you have solar onsite that doesn't matter.
Especially putting one of these not in a rackmount chassis, you can opt for quiet cooling and fans that do not draw 10s of watts each. The idle loads can get fairly low, depending on your additional peripherals.
For very low power, I actually prefer small form factor machines, either used 1L SFF machines from the big OEMs (see STH's Project TinyMiniMicro[0]) or one of the many AliExpress mini PCs[1]. These sorts of machines tend to use low-power CPUs and a lot of the AliExpress ones are laptop parts.
As with all things, there are always tradeoffs. If you enjoy researching and bargain hunting for hardware, then this is a viable path. If you just want a machine that works, then this is onerous work.
[0] https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimic...
[1] https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-mini-pc.html?catId=0&...
The Latte Panda Sigma looks pretty amazing too if in-band ECC is sufficient.
https://www.klennet.com/notes/2022-11-25-zfs-and-ecc-rant.as...
IF you can get ECC cheap, get it, otherwise, meh.