"Recommended System Requirements" for buying a used PC for selfhosting
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I could get by with 2 HD bays -- it is more because I would like to use RAID if possible, and have an easier time to upgrade to larger capabilities as time goes on.
I've also just appreciated larger cases with more room -- with small cases sometimes it's hard to work in there.
Internal redundancy would be nice to have with a file server, but probably not necessary if I can have redundancy with regular backups instead.
Thanks for the ideas!
Oh, I hear ya on the space issue - there's almost no space in this SFF, but I like it's form factor so I'm willing to compromise.
Anymore I don't find RAID very useful, except for mirroring a drive. As I say this, I do have a NAS with 5 drives, but it's used as one of my replicators as it's too slow for anything else. I did run Proxmox with RAID for a while, that was pretty cool, I just don't need all it's capability.
These days I can get a large enough single drive for a box - I considered getting a 12TB but the price on the 8 was hard to beat and I won't be filling it anytime soon.
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If you're ok buying used, I'd go for a first Gen Ryzen 8 core. They're cheap as chips since they don't support Windows 11, but the cpu is upgradable so you can upgrade if you need more power or want to run Windows 11. Also it's a ddr4 platform so the ram is under $100 for 64gb.
A GTX 1050 would be fine for Plex, and discrete graphics would be required if you go with the Ryzen recommendation. I think rtx 3060 is probably the sweet spot for a 12gb vram card, but you won't need that much unless your streaming to 5+ Plex users simultaneously.
If I'm going for Ryzen 8 core first Gen, can I find that in a dell optiplex or Lenovo thinkstation? Or should I search something else?
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Oh, I hear ya on the space issue - there's almost no space in this SFF, but I like it's form factor so I'm willing to compromise.
Anymore I don't find RAID very useful, except for mirroring a drive. As I say this, I do have a NAS with 5 drives, but it's used as one of my replicators as it's too slow for anything else. I did run Proxmox with RAID for a while, that was pretty cool, I just don't need all it's capability.
These days I can get a large enough single drive for a box - I considered getting a 12TB but the price on the 8 was hard to beat and I won't be filling it anytime soon.
transitioning away from raid but I do love zfs for flexibility. A lot of the data I have is important for someone or somebody, so zfs and a decent backup solution is in use just to make sure. I went bananas and picked up a used Supermicro 4-node server that takes dual E5 Zeons (V1 or V2) with 2xE5-2620s and 49 gig ram in each node for £80 (I'm in the UK). Plenty of power and next is to upgrade the cpus to slightly better cpus to reduce power as it currently uses 2 nodes and I am pulling around 300 watts most of the time. Backup solution is an old Ryzen 3200G with 32 gig ram that runs truenas and has 5x3tb spinny drives in it
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If I'm going for Ryzen 8 core first Gen, can I find that in a dell optiplex or Lenovo thinkstation? Or should I search something else?
It's not impossible, but first Gen Ryzen was surprisingly good after AMD shit the bed for a few years. Most major manufacturers weren't willing to take a chance, though you can find some 2nd Gen available on the used market.
If it were me, I'd look for a motherboard/CPU combo and assemble it into your case of choice. That way you aren't stuck with the weird form-factors of pre-built office computers.
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lol, I assume he means 1000 Mbps aka 1 Gbps which is reasonable. Maybe even a little low as transferring files around fast is nice.
I moved to 10Gbps and 5Gbps on some of my devices and it's been glorious. Future-proof by having either built-in.
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It's not impossible, but first Gen Ryzen was surprisingly good after AMD shit the bed for a few years. Most major manufacturers weren't willing to take a chance, though you can find some 2nd Gen available on the used market.
If it were me, I'd look for a motherboard/CPU combo and assemble it into your case of choice. That way you aren't stuck with the weird form-factors of pre-built office computers.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]If OP need compactness, maybe micro atx or mini itx could help.
Although I've been thinking about doing like that I haven't found a good cheap compact case for mass HDD storage, pcie expansion for network upgrades and GPU installs...
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If OP need compactness, maybe micro atx or mini itx could help.
Although I've been thinking about doing like that I haven't found a good cheap compact case for mass HDD storage, pcie expansion for network upgrades and GPU installs...
Jonsbo makes some decent compact nas cases with plenty of space for drives. Look at their N series N3/N4 etc.
matx would be more upgradable than itx, but nobody is making either of them with 10gb Ethernet. So I personally would be looking at full ATX boards so I could add in a nic.
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Jonsbo makes some decent compact nas cases with plenty of space for drives. Look at their N series N3/N4 etc.
matx would be more upgradable than itx, but nobody is making either of them with 10gb Ethernet. So I personally would be looking at full ATX boards so I could add in a nic.
If going m-atx, there'd be enough pcie slots to get a cheap SFP+ 10G nic or better, tho...
I'll look at the jonsbo stuff tho, thanks !
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If going m-atx, there'd be enough pcie slots to get a cheap SFP+ 10G nic or better, tho...
I'll look at the jonsbo stuff tho, thanks !
Couple years ago I wouldn't have argued, but with graphics cards ballooning to 3+ slots, you have to be more careful about which slots on the motherboard have full enough lanes to support your cards. And you have to make sure your motherboard has the full x16 slot in the highest position which is less common on boards with m.2. otherwise there isn't room for expansion cards
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I'm ready to graduate from my Raspberry Pi era of selfhosting and buy hardware specifically for use as a server.
I've been recommended in the past to look for used Lenovo Thinkstations and/or Dell Optiplex, but it has been so many years since I've shopped for a computer, I don't know what kind of specs to look for. What are the types of specs I should look for to get the best value for money?
I'm hoping to spend around $300-400, get something that can be upgraded in the future to last 10+ years, and do the following things:
- YUNoHost / reverse proxy
- Nextcloud with a custom domain for email addresses, cloud drive, photos
- Music Streaming with something like Navidrome
- Serve static websites
- pi-Hole
- Maybe pi-VPN
And someday maybe:
- Host game servers like minecraft
- Jellyfin for videos
- Kodi and output to TV?
So far based on my selfhosted journey, I expect to want the following:
- Room for 3+ Hard Drives
- External UPS (probably will go with the cheap APC at Microcenter that's always on sale).
- Solid Power Supply / Cooling
- probably 1000 gigabit Networking (?)
The types of questions I have for Thinkstations / Optiplex:
- How is the Power Supply / Cooling?
- Processor? Do I need i5? i7? Generations? AMD? Clock Speed? I'm completely lost here.
- How much RAM do I need?
- Do I need a discrete graphics card? Can Thinkstations / Optiplex have a graphics card added to them later?
- Anything else I'm missing?
Thanks!
Choosing the right hardware is complicated. If you are transcoding 4K video on jellyfin you probably want a Nvidia 1080 or higher video card.
If you're running Intel, 10th gen and higher with internal graphics has some pretty good encoding efficiency so you consume less power for a lot more work done.
I'm still rocking a 7th gen i7 with a 2070 super. It still gets the job done for me.
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Couple years ago I wouldn't have argued, but with graphics cards ballooning to 3+ slots, you have to be more careful about which slots on the motherboard have full enough lanes to support your cards. And you have to make sure your motherboard has the full x16 slot in the highest position which is less common on boards with m.2. otherwise there isn't room for expansion cards
You're right, although I'd be considering narrower cards and maybe blowers. This is a server build, not a main rig. So I'd get a GPU that's as close as possible to a glorified encoder ad possible and pocket the power savings. I don't have ac where I live...
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transitioning away from raid but I do love zfs for flexibility. A lot of the data I have is important for someone or somebody, so zfs and a decent backup solution is in use just to make sure. I went bananas and picked up a used Supermicro 4-node server that takes dual E5 Zeons (V1 or V2) with 2xE5-2620s and 49 gig ram in each node for £80 (I'm in the UK). Plenty of power and next is to upgrade the cpus to slightly better cpus to reduce power as it currently uses 2 nodes and I am pulling around 300 watts most of the time. Backup solution is an old Ryzen 3200G with 32 gig ram that runs truenas and has 5x3tb spinny drives in it
wrote on last edited by [email protected]All that power was a huge driver for me - my old desktop that I used as a server was pulling 120w constantly.
Now between the SFF and NAS it's about 35w. That's a significant difference, plus the office doesn't get as hot.
And I'd love to run ZFS again, kind of hard to beat it for redundancy and failure resistance. Maybe the next NAS I build will be Proxmox again.
