granted, but for the OP's needs (text console), anything more than onboard video would be shal we say.. overkill.

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If you want some good machine you can make Intel Itanium 4x/8 Web server.
Processor: 9320 4-core, 1.33* GHz, 16 MB cache, 4.8 GT/s, Power (TDB) 155 W
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* Have in mind that the increase of the clock frequency increases the energy consumption of the system, the power dissipation requirements, etc.

Buy the processor first!
Look at the socket - PAC611; PAC418 (original Itanium); LGA1248 (Itanium 9300 series) - and find appropriate mother board.

When you assemble the machine try it with OS supporting Itanium 64: Fedora 14 or 15; Centos 6 or Ubuntu 10 or s.th. ONE-BY-ONE with ONLY ONE OS installed at a time on the HDD (not on USB or DVD), and measure:
10 times the switch-on time;
10x the switch off time;
10x opening of a browser with Web pages (for example Google);
10x opening of the browser of public mail servers (Yahoo for example), etc.

ADDIE - Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation

After having the results for the selected OSs take a decision which will be the OS.
__________________
N.B.: Test the web at one and the same time of the day, otherwise the results will be invalidated.

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For use over a network, any video at all is overkill in many ways.

Dear gods no, not itanium......

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why not itanium?

Pretty much all the itanium systems you will find are prebuilt, big brand servers.

Itanium is expensive, hard to find, doesnt use x86 (its got its own architecture, IA64) and runs x86 code much slower than x86 native CPUs.

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I think that itanium was a misplaced post or a so-so joke. ? I'd prefer a sparc myself.

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RE: 'Pretty much all the Itanium systems you will find are prebuilt'
In the general case-yes, but this is an advantage rather than drawback. You can find Itanium modules from any manufacturer (if found from appropriate OEM no hardware dedicated to a particular company). I know guys succeeded to assemble Itanium servers from manufacturers of the five continents. BTW the processors of this series are sold freely in the computer stores ... and widely on Internet.

RE: 'too expensive'
The older systems are not so expensive. Compaq (2001) - ProLiant 590; IBM (2003) - x455; Dell (2005) - PowerEdge 7250; Hitachi (2007) - Blade Symphony 1000; Fujitsu (2011) - Primequest

Motherboards with Itanium socket (but you should know beforehand which one) can be found all over the distribution chains of computer assembling.
The OEM prices are about 15-20% lower.

RE: 'Itanium doesn't use x86'
All 'priceless' APPs x86 have the corresponding IA-64 developments. Your computer doesn't use BASIC and DOS as well-so what.

RE: 'the video card'
Just for the record - what are you going to use this video card on a web server for? You can put 2x NVIDIA Tesla Cards on the PCI (a joke).

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Go on, find an itanium CPU or motherboard at newegg, bestbuy, etc.. They are avaible, but only at a small number of outlets.

Itanium stuff IS expensive. Sure, you can find old system 2nd hand for less money, but then you are buying older tech, and have all the issues with 2nd hand stuff as well..and x86 hardware of the same age would be cheaper.

Even if itanium was a decent deal (they arent IMO) that doesnt help that itanium was really designed and performs best with very specific tasks.

Dont know, but it looks like a True Believer In Itanium to me.....

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I recommend going with the quad-core Core i5 2400 due to all your VM usage. As for the motherboard, I'd go with a Z68 or H67 motherboard in your case.

Assembling a computer system is an elementary optimisation problem.
You have the parameters:
- Processing power = max
- Saving electricity = max
- Reliability = max
- Flawless operation = max
- Performance = max
- 1/Maintenance = max (minimisation of the maintenance costs)
And you have to solve this problem for a web server within a budget constraint.
It makes no sense buying superfast processor with 'wooden' motherboard or 'stumble' HDD, or whatever. The priorities of a server are fast memory (processor cash), fast memory (on the motherboard) and fast memory (of the HDD exchange, if there are some websites hosted on it).
It is natural for the solution of this optimisation problem to be different for the different budget constraints (of USD 500, 2500 or 5500 for example).
It all depends where you intend to put your money - in the computer system, or in maintenance costs and in the phone calls (lost time ... and nerves), and missed profit of unsatisfied customers (having taken off their websites or blogs or ads).