Choose hardware for private webserver

[admiral]

Hi

I am planning to run a Linux server for hosting a java spring application with Tomcat.
I need some help to choose the right server hardware to buy.

NOTE: I am a student and cannot afford any really expensive hardware. Which means that you do not need to tell me that, normal servers use ecc ram, have no graphics card(not even onboard) and so on...

I am planning to spend around 500€ for the server.
My requirements are:

is not that expensive
Can run 24/7 for months (or if this is not possible in the low-budget segment i would like something like 23/7[1 hour downtime per day should be not soo much of an problem])
can run an linux based OS
i would like CentOS or something similar
performane:
i expect therequest to be rather database heavy, as the server will mainly query some data from the database and return it.
Therefore i am planning to use ssd(128gb should be more than enough) - i would like to use a raid 1 system
i expect about 20000 requests per hour at peak, which makes about 6 requests per second at peak
During the non peak time ido not expect more than 5k requests per hour
Additional nice features would be that the server is small and doesn´t need much energy
Internet connection shouldn´t be the problem.

Hardware that i found and that looks pretty goodthough i do not not if such an hardware is appropriate for serverhosting)
1. http://www.amazon.de/Intel-NUC-Kit-...8&qid=1428159884&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+nuc+i3
I would buy 2 ssd and 2 x 4gb of ram for this

2.http://www.amazon.de/GIGABYTE-GB-BX...d=1428160085&sr=8-1&keywords=gigabyte+brix+i3
More or less the same as the intel nuc

And here is the reason why i wrote this question.
Are the linked products somehow usable as servers?
Or are there other cheap alternatives that are far supperior?
Or is there simply no way do get a realativly decent server for my budget?

Please, also note that i am not very experieced with hosting servers, so if i am planning something completely wrong, please tell me

 

[Deleted member 15972]

A server is mostly defined by software and not hardware.
The benefit of enterprise grade hardware comes to play when you have mission critical applications which must be available nearly always.
In that case ECC RAM and the like are a great investment.

In your case, well, any desktop grade hardware would do.

One problem is your budget: 2 SSDs in a raid1 setup will cost you already approximately 120-140 Euros, when chosing small SSDs with 128GB of disk space. You also need a working backup solution, if you plan not to use any data, which will add to the cost.

But putting this aside your main problem will be your connection. If you really plan to serve many requests you need a stable connection with a static IP and high upload speed which usually IS a problem as symmetric connections are extremely expensive and aimed at business users.
Also some ISPs (actually most do) will not tolerate business use of your home connection and prohibit use for servers. While this is usually a theoretical problem it might turn into a real one if you're causing huge amounts of traffic.
For this either ask your ISP or have a close look into your contract.

So you'll most likely need to place your hardware in a data center which in turn would mean that renting hardware would be most likely cheaper.