This is a general ESXi installation process for an old Dell desktop with 4GB or RAM, 150GB hard drive, keyboard, ESXi pre loaded USB Keyfob, a hub, and some network cables.
You can pick up some amazing deals on servers that costs thousands of dollars for just a few hundred dollars here –
Step 1 Install ESXi to your host
Install the hard drive, plug in the cables, including a network cable to your network if possible. Plug in the USB Keyfob. Hit F12 to go to the boot menu, and select the USB keyfob. If you are trying this on your own system and need to create your own USB disk, create a free trial account at www.vmware.com to download the ESXi image, and then use Rufus to burn any bootable ISO to a keyfob. https://rufus.akeo.ie/ ESXi 6.5 introduced new checks that prevented the install on this machine. Check the BIOS of your machine for Virtualization option, or Hyperthreading, and turn it on. You can likely get VMWare ESX 6.0 installed.
It will automatically boot to the correct partition on the keyfob that has a pre-burned ISO of VMWare ESXi server 6.0.
This version is the latest version of VMWare server that will run on this desktop machine.
Continue with the install and select the hard drive, and then reboot.
If you system is plugged into your network you should get an IP address. It is best if you can plugin the server into your network
so you can access it from your laptop, WiFi, etc.
You can set a static IP address which is recommended. You’ll need to set the static IP to something that is not in the DHCP range of
your current internet router. I usually like lower IP address like 192.168.10.2 for the VMWare server management network.
You should be able to connect to the server IP address as shown in your web browser to continue to the next step.
Step 2 – Login to ESXi and prepare to configure
Navigate to the IP address listed on the VMWare console.
Depending on your browser the SSL certificate error may be different. In Chrome, just click advanced and continue.
Click the web client.
The client for Windows goes away in version 6.5, so you should use the web UI.
Login with the username and password you entered during install.
Click around and check things out.