After a few component failures on my esx hosts, i need to build a new environment.  anyone have any suggestions?  currently i have 3 asus m51bc desktops running as esx hosts with 8 core amd procs and each have 32 gb of memory.  id like something similar so i can move parts that arent borked over to keep costs down

The goto server that my guys are using for their home labs:
DL165G7 2 x 12 core CPU, 128 GB RAM, it runs silent like a notebook and doesn't break the bank.
Get a pair of them and a nice 10 Gbe switch like the Dell X1052 which gives you 4 10Gbe SFTP+ ports
I think with 1000 bucks for the whole shebang including a small NAS will get you pretty far

I have the nas part set, but those are rack mounted and i dont have a cabinet, even though i should get one. I was thinking more inline with a workstation kind of deal

Without knowing your size/scale of your lab this will be hard to answer. Currently you are running with an AMD processor, so it is best to stay with AMD. (you can migrate all VM's to a Intel based host but that requires downtime of every VM). In a lab environment that may not be difficult.

In using just desktop's as hosts you need to pay more attention to the VMWare compatibility guide to make sure your hardware will work.

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.

A lot of the cool kids have been using Intel NUCs and even doing nested labs on them. William Lam has a lot of good information on that on his blog: https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/

I already have a rack full of noisy routers and switches so I usually buy whatever full size rack server is being surplused out on eBay. Lately that has been HPE G9 ProLiant.

Yep, beat me to it.  Our TAM guys say the same thing, NUC and Lam.

My personal lab host is a Compulab Fitlet2 that I have the network expansion card in so I have (4) 1 GbE Intel i210 NICs. I don't do alot with it (mainly a linux VM, Mikrotik's CHR and DOS 6.22). My work host (as in I built it for work and it sits at the office though I'm the only one who ever uses it) is a EPYC 7272 machine. I've got a spare 1U SuperMicro chassis that I've been thinking about fitting a 10th gen i7 motherboard into though and moving my entire home network over to that...but I'm not there yet.

I'm using a Shuttle DH370 mini-PC.
Add CPU, RAM and boot storage. It has two gigabit ethernet ports.
With 1TB NVMe M.2, 64GB RAM, 3GHz i7 (9th gen) it clocked in less than $1K.
Of course, it's cheaper if you don't need the storage and as much RAM. It can also go up to the i9.
No other onboard expansion though (other than an m.2 slot for WiFi/Bluetooth), but it suited my needs really well.
It has an Intel chipset for ethernet too, so it boots VMWare with no additional drivers (I just downloaded the standard ISO and threw it on a USB stick)
The DYI DH370 was around $300 (with MB, heatsink, heat paste, etc).
The newer DH470 uses the 10th gen, but I haven't really seen them available yet.