Will this build work?

[winter4w]

So I am looking into running a Home Server that runs VM's along with other things. I currently have VMWare Workstation however I am unsure if it will work with what I'm trying to do. I saw that ESXi 5 is free for personal use so I hope it can fit what I need.

So my plan is to have a VM for a server, a VM for gaming, and a VM for normal office stuff. Looking around I see that ESXi may work since it supports GPU Pass through to a VM. This will work for the gaming VM. However I have heard of people having issues with Nvidia cards. Before I put a lot of money into building this new machine I would like to confirm that everything it has will work. The main concern is trying to get the gaming VM to work.

Here is a PC Part Picker list I made: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wc6ZKZ

[bluefirestorm]

Short answer: Most likely not.

You should refer to the ESXi compatibility guide even to specific components such as networking chipset.

VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

Long answer:

ESXi supports GPU pass through for certain cards only (again refer to the compatibility guide). As you noted yourself, some people tried on the GeForce GTX series and never get it to work. So your main concern with gaming makes this build for ESXi using VM for gaming with GPU-passthrough makes this a no-go.

As for Ryzen, there are also some reports of Purple Screen of Death as well.

Since you chosen Windows Server 2016, you might want to consider Hyper-V instead of ESXi. I don't think the GPU passthrough is as restrictive as ESXi (i.e. you probably can find some successful GPU passthrough with the GeForce series of cards).

[winter4w]

I tried Hyper-V on my current PC and had issues. One reason why I liked VMWare was because people can remote start it.