Repurposing a ProLiant DL360 for PCVR - Am I crazy?

Hey everyone! I’ve been a long-time VR enthusiast, but I’ve recently taken a bit of a weird detour in my tech journey. I’ve always been curious about using enterprise-grade hardware for home entertainment, so I recently picked up a refurbished ProLiant DL360. It’s rocking a 14-core 2GHz Xeon, and on paper, the multi-threaded performance for things like video encoding and server hosting is incredible for the price.

However, I’ve run into a bit of a roadblock while trying to set this up as a dedicated "headless" PCVR station for my Quest via Air Link. The specific point I’m struggling with right now is the physical constraint of the 1U chassis. While the 14-core Xeon is a beast, trying to fit a modern, VR-capable GPU into those tiny PCIe riser slots is like playing a very expensive game of Tetris. I’m finding that most cards either exceed the height limit or require more power than the internal proprietary cables can easily provide.

In my personal experience, I’ve always built standard mid-tower PCs where you just "plug and play," but this server environment is a totally different beast. The noise level alone is something I didn't fully respect until I heard those small 40mm fans ramp up to 100% duty cycle! I love the industrial reliability and the sheer core count for the money, but I’m starting to wonder if the 2GHz clock speed might be a bottleneck for some of the more physics-heavy VR titles.

Has anyone else here tried to move away from traditional towers to rack-mount servers for their high-end VR needs, or am I just setting myself up for a very loud, very complicated disappointment?