Do not overestimate how heavy most CRUD is. What really matters is not exposing CPU heavy hitters directly (caching) and not hitting disk (also caching). And obviously network performance. Modern "desktops" ate stronger than most older "server" hardware.

What you don't get is warranty, redundancy so you have to handle it on your own, preferably multiple machines, power supplies and network connections. Or complete collocation if you can afford it.

Intel, unlike AMD, is hiking price for server market by disabling more important features like high RAM capacity support, ECC and remote management.