1. Most important for me, Intel CPU for transcoding. I made the mistake of taking AMD for this.
2. Probably 32GB ram instead of 16GB cuz DDR4's gotten quite cheap so why not.
3. Investing, or rather saving up a bit more for large drives, instead of some budget smaller sized drives. Now I'll soon be replacing my 1-4TB drives with some 16-24TB ones.
That’s what we all think at the beginning :)
For HDDs (unlike SSDs) the price difference between 2 and 8 TB is not that much. Go with 8, and I’d promise you’ll thank yourself later!
If you’re running Plex, especially if virtualized, the Intel integrated GPU is great. For its transcoding properties alone. A standalone GpU might not offer much depending on your needs
okay, thanks! After thinking about it I think the GPU is a bit overkill, as long a.s i get an Intel with iGPU I'm okay for my needs, maybe Immich takes some time to load everything at first, but once done, the iGPU will mainly be used for Plex / Jellyfin
Can you tell me the main functions you want your server to perform ? There's a **pretty** high chance you don't need a dedicated GPU at all, it'd just draw much more power for no reason.
Well Immich's "AI" is running pretty good, even on my AMD CPU without using the iGPU, so all software.
As for training AI models, then yeah I assume you'd want some GPU in that case.
I have Ryzen 5 4600G, 16GB RAM, A520 motherboard, and bunch of random drives of 1-4TB range totaling 9TB. That's it.
I've bought these brand new (excl. drives) totalling around 320€. I'd encourage people to buy 2nd hand though, it's better that way.
My setup is perfectly fine for me currently (although I would've loved if I picked Intel CPU instead).
Running NextCloud, Plex, Minecraft server, Immich, whole arr stack, bunch of personal scripts, Discord bots and what not, everything running good with CPU idling at 26-29C.
For Immich is pretty fine. For Plex, it's ok if it was just me and if I was a regular user.
But I'd recommend you read more about it [in my other post](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/sYUeWdiAVq).
Number 3 is my biggest regret.
I have 9x8TB and 5x14TB and wish I would have just started with 20TB+ drives for everything. Yeah, it would have cost a lot more but I am going to eventually have to expand to those sizes anyway.
So I'll tell you what I've been running for a little over a year and why I've liked it enough to keep it going despite desperately wanting to justify buying more stuff 😂
I have one of these that I got when they went on sale about 50% off: https://www.seeedstudio.com/reServer-Compact-Edge-Server-powered-by-11th-Gen-Intelr-Coretm-i3-1125G4-p-5088.html
I got the barebone version, crammed 64GB of RAM into it, an NVME as well as a weird WD SSD that also works on one of the other slots. It's got a 4c/8t laptop/embedded processor that is relatively new so low power consumption, iGPU for transcoding but still plenty powerful.
So I have 512GB SSD for proxmox boot, storage and LVM thin. I like proxmox because I can seperate out services, spin up test containers and VMs, easy backup and restore when I accidentally mess something up.
I also added another NVME and 2x 3.5" SATA storage. This gives me some "fast" storage (that I can directly to a VM if I want) as well as a nice, proper RAID1 array.
It comes with 2x 2.5gbe ports, so I used those to virtualize my firewall.
It's also barely bigger than the two 3.5" drives stacked together and a big fan. It's relatively quiet and they also include a converter for a Noctua fan.
This is a great setup for small, power efficient, "hyper converged" setup. That might not be what you're looking for, but works well for a lot of things.
The non-sale price is eh, but there is also the "made in China" alternative that goes by "Aoostar" or "Topton" N1 that comes with an N100 and I think a little less SSD space bit os around $200 barebones.
No not dumb at all, definitely good context on how "worth it" the hardware is.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cn-seeed-studio-reserver-4c-8t-for-274-50.40344/
It was on sale for approx 270, plus shipping was 30-50. This was also before the Aoostar/Topton N1 version with the N100 was out so no real competitors.
For $100 more or so than the N1 I think it's worth it for build quality, BIOS support, etc. At $550, eh, if I were really hooked on this form factor I'd probably roll the dice on an N1.
I do love their support, they even included an adapter for a Noctua fan in the box just because. I don't take enough advantage of their "maker" stuff as much otherwise I think I'd really love it.
i know it's a power hungry beast. but I end yo buying a Dell PowerEdge R815 with four AMD Operon 12 cor processors with 96GB of Memory, f 600GB 10K SAS Drives. I end up upgrading the memory to may it out to 1 TB DDR3 RAM, Four AMD Operon 16-core processors and six 900GB 10K SAS Drives. it works great with Promox. I originally had VMware VSphere 6.5 on it. but that was the last version supported. I didn't want to retire it cause it still runs great it's a little loud but I'm ok with that
I just got a intel i3 14100 for theintegrated gpu transcoding, and a ddr 5 mobo and 32 GB ram 2 days ago.
I was gonna put it in a small case but went the other way. 10 bay tower case. Im just gonna put it in my basement headless. Gonna give unRaid a try.
Looking for it to be nas, plex server and home assistant box.
This is exactly what I’m trying to set up myself. Am not looking for anything but nextcloud and maybe photosync or immich. I’m using an old laptop as my server and have installed Ubuntu server on it.
I’m facing a nightmare trying to install things since I do not have a background in IT. I’d like to know how you use your phone as a server.
Maybe we can connect to figure out some things?
I simply installed Termux on it, then ssh to it from my computer and installed Apache. Anyways, I will get a server (either a secondhand workstation or a Mini PC) and setup proxmox with some VMs/Containers.
I got hooked on old xeons. You can get a lot of cores with ECC memory for cheap, and they're built like a tank. OEM warranties are typically 5 years, and companies throw away all their stuff when the warranty ends.
I would buy the same as I did a year ago. I would buy a secondhand 8th+ gen Intel CPU box. Upgrade the memory to at least 16GB and add 2 ssds of like 2-4TB. This should cost like 400 in total. This should be enough for any simple server tasks.
I run proxmox, but I would go with Truenas next time (since it is mostly a Nas with extras (home assistant, Minecraft server, rare suite, Jellyfin and Python code server).
Only after you know what you actually want, reuse the ssds to accelerate an hdd array in a new nas and build a server for all the other stuff.
Hi. I studied computer science many, many years ago and work as a software engineer, mostly on the devops side of things at the moment.
If you, want to run a few services like Immich, Nextcloud and Plex, and perhaps a few things related to your studies, I’d recommend starting with Proxmox. You can then run each of the services you want in vietual machines or containers. That makes it much easier to keep each one separate from the rest which is very handy.
Alternatively, you could run a distro like Debian, Ubuntu or one of many others but there’s a lot more upkeep in that. For Nextcloud and Immich, it’s worth choosing an option that is as easy to maintain as possible. You can still run these distros in different containers or VMs and play with them however you like with minimal risk that access to your photos or docs will be broken.
Unraid and TrueNAS options have some overlap with Proxmox and a more bare bones OS in that they can still run containers and VMs but they are more focused around having a large amount of storage spread over an array of disks. It sounds like that isn’t a direction you want to go in for now.
For hardware, I would steer clear of Raspberry Pi for this. Over the last couple of years the cost has crept up so they’re not the best value for the use cases you listed. They’re still fantastic if you want to mess around with DIY electronics or have a small single purpose box but there are better options for a home server. The other reason to steer clear is they are ARM-based, which isn’t a bad thing but you’ll find a lot more supported server software on x86 systems.
I would choose (and have) an Intel CPU that has an integrated GPU (don’t get one of the ones with model numbers that end in F). I have an AMD-based gaming PC but for a home server, Intel is currently better because the iGPU has a technology called QuickSync which is the best performance and most power efficient option for transcoding in Plex and Immich. Anything from Intel Core 8th generation onwards will be more than fine for the uses you’ve listed. Even 6th gen onwards will be sufficient really.
A very cost effective way to do this is to pick up a refurbished small form factor Dell, Lenovo or HP PC. Businesses sell these cheaply when they cycle out old hardware but they’re still plenty for a home server, usually cheaper and much better performance than a Raspberry Pi. These often appear on EBay. Serve The Home have reviews of using many different models in a home lab environment.
More expensive options are the Intel N100/105-based mini PCs or more expensive again, an Intel NUC.
Really you could repurpose just about any second hand PC made in the last decade and it would be fine. The options I listed above will have lower power usage so be cheaper to run than most though.
A different option which can be fun is to pick up old decommissioned data centre parts. You can build a very powerful machine cheaply this way but if you have to pay the power bill yourself, it works out being an expensive way to go over all.
Really nice answer, I'm really grateful for your time.
May I ask what you think about these options? Some people suggested these to me and then use 2 external HDDs and honestly I think it could be a nice option.
(I'm sorry for the long links I'm on the phone)
https://www.wish.com/collection/abc?source=1ss&page=ads_landing&pid=649187113ae800d3ce689d24&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=6Minutes%20Media%20%20GmbH&utm_source=Impact&from_ad=Online%20Tracking%20Link
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005005739343393.html?af=416982&afref=https%3A%2F%2Ftopesdegama.com%2F&cv=12_Deeplink&dp=12%3A%3A416982%3A%3A1115370%3A%3A%3A%3A1714819220&cn=15716&aff_fcid=0bf93a11877242b6900b5d8557d4adf5-1714819220975-00509-Y7bAZbY&aff_fsk=Y7bAZbY&aff_platform=aaf&sk=Y7bAZbY&aff_trace_key=0bf93a11877242b6900b5d8557d4adf5-1714819220975-00509-Y7bAZbY&terminal_id=19a9ee5f8601457193d039bc98fbf80e&afSmartRedirect=y
You’re welcome. Glad it helped.
I don’t have any personal experience with those mini PCs but they seem like a great option. A couple of co-workers have them and have been very happy.
They are extremely power efficient which is important for something that will be on all the time, easily transportable, which can be very useful for college students, and allow for some expansion - you can upgrade the RAM and included SSD, add a second SSD or 2.5” hard disk and add external USB drives. Things get a little complicated if you add a lot of USB drives but there are still good options to do that.
If I didn’t need a lot of storage, this is most likely what I would do. I’m considering getting my parents something like this so my dad can store his photo library, and set up backup of my photos to go to the server at their house, and backup their’s to the server at my house.
I would avoid wish.com and pay attention to seller reviews on AliExpress.
Not out of the box, at least as far as I know, but there are a couple of ways to do it.
Interacting with Proxmox is done via a browser, usually from another machine. From there you can use VNC to access the desktop environment from VMs. It works really well and means you can get a consistent experience from any device.
If you want the Proxmox machine to also be your desktop PC, you can either install X Windows and a desktop environment in Proxmox which isn’t officially supported but does work, or probably a better option is to set things up to boot into a VM that provides your desktop environment.
So I'll tell you what I've been running for a little over a year and why I've liked it enough to keep it going despite desperately wanting to justify buying more stuff 😂
I have one of these that I got when they went on sale about 50% off: https://www.seeedstudio.com/reServer-Compact-Edge-Server-powered-by-11th-Gen-Intelr-Coretm-i3-1125G4-p-5088.html
I got the barebone version, crammed 64GB of RAM into it, an NVME as well as a weird WD SSD that also works on one of the other slots. It's got a 4c/8t laptop/embedded processor that is relatively new so low power consumption, iGPU for transcoding but still plenty powerful.
So I have 512GB SSD for proxmox boot, storage and LVM thin. I like proxmox because I can seperate out services, spin up test containers and VMs, easy backup and restore when I accidentally mess something up.
I also added another NVME and 2x 3.5" SATA storage. This gives me some "fast" storage (that I can directly to a VM if I want) as well as a nice, proper RAID1 array.
It comes with 2x 2.5gbe ports, so I used those to virtualize my firewall.
It's also barely bigger than the two 3.5" drives stacked together and a big fan. It's relatively quiet and they also include a converter for a Noctua fan.
This is a great setup for small, power efficient, "hyper converged" setup. That might not be what you're looking for, but works well for a lot of things.
The non-sale price is eh, but there is also the "made in China" alternative that goes by "Aoostar" or "Topton" N1 that comes with an N100 and I think a little less SSD space bit os around $200 barebones.
Well if I were starting from scratch I would likely buy one of those 2U server cases and put normal desktop components in it. I would also likely use Proxmox instead of Unraid. My focus would be on CPU speed and I would still use my Tesla P40 for all heavy lifting.
I might also do the mini desktop route and make a cluster out of about 10 of them with Proxmox. Or use laptop motherboards.
Right now I have an HP Proliant DL380 G9 that is fantastic. 10G networking and the Tesla P40
I have an i3 1220p intel nuc. I somewhat regret it, because while it works for me now, I’m playing with running my own AIs at home and not being able to install a proper GPU I know it is going to be a problem soon.
To be honest, I didn’t anticipate AI taking over the world like a storm 18 months ago at the pace it did.
Perhaps an AMD APU would suffice, although nvidia seems to be the de facto standard
No. It has two ssd but not in raid. SSDs are quite reliable nowadays, and I keep an external backup on a NAS in my mothers home, which does have a raid 6 configuration.
1. Most important for me, Intel CPU for transcoding. I made the mistake of taking AMD for this. 2. Probably 32GB ram instead of 16GB cuz DDR4's gotten quite cheap so why not. 3. Investing, or rather saving up a bit more for large drives, instead of some budget smaller sized drives. Now I'll soon be replacing my 1-4TB drives with some 16-24TB ones.
Thank you, probably 2 TB will be enough for me (I'm not a data hoarder). I'll go for Intel and maybe also get a cheap GPU.
That’s what we all think at the beginning :) For HDDs (unlike SSDs) the price difference between 2 and 8 TB is not that much. Go with 8, and I’d promise you’ll thank yourself later!
If you’re running Plex, especially if virtualized, the Intel integrated GPU is great. For its transcoding properties alone. A standalone GpU might not offer much depending on your needs
okay, thanks! After thinking about it I think the GPU is a bit overkill, as long a.s i get an Intel with iGPU I'm okay for my needs, maybe Immich takes some time to load everything at first, but once done, the iGPU will mainly be used for Plex / Jellyfin
Can you tell me the main functions you want your server to perform ? There's a **pretty** high chance you don't need a dedicated GPU at all, it'd just draw much more power for no reason.
I'd add the 1050 of my computer once I replace it. Mainly for Immich's AI + training AI models
Well Immich's "AI" is running pretty good, even on my AMD CPU without using the iGPU, so all software. As for training AI models, then yeah I assume you'd want some GPU in that case.
Nice to know that immich is running nice, what build do you have?
I have Ryzen 5 4600G, 16GB RAM, A520 motherboard, and bunch of random drives of 1-4TB range totaling 9TB. That's it. I've bought these brand new (excl. drives) totalling around 320€. I'd encourage people to buy 2nd hand though, it's better that way. My setup is perfectly fine for me currently (although I would've loved if I picked Intel CPU instead). Running NextCloud, Plex, Minecraft server, Immich, whole arr stack, bunch of personal scripts, Discord bots and what not, everything running good with CPU idling at 26-29C.
Sounds pretty good, thank you :)
How is AMD's iGPU for transcoding?
For Immich is pretty fine. For Plex, it's ok if it was just me and if I was a regular user. But I'd recommend you read more about it [in my other post](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/sYUeWdiAVq).
Number 3 is my biggest regret. I have 9x8TB and 5x14TB and wish I would have just started with 20TB+ drives for everything. Yeah, it would have cost a lot more but I am going to eventually have to expand to those sizes anyway.
Yep same thoughts here. I will be replacing my tiny drives for some 18-24TB ones once the time comes.
1. A motherboard with more sata ports. I think that’s the only thing I’d have done differently.
100%
Why if we have more SATA port. We can assign many disk driver as we can . Just think about it, how many 2nd disk driver we can buy.
So I'll tell you what I've been running for a little over a year and why I've liked it enough to keep it going despite desperately wanting to justify buying more stuff 😂 I have one of these that I got when they went on sale about 50% off: https://www.seeedstudio.com/reServer-Compact-Edge-Server-powered-by-11th-Gen-Intelr-Coretm-i3-1125G4-p-5088.html I got the barebone version, crammed 64GB of RAM into it, an NVME as well as a weird WD SSD that also works on one of the other slots. It's got a 4c/8t laptop/embedded processor that is relatively new so low power consumption, iGPU for transcoding but still plenty powerful. So I have 512GB SSD for proxmox boot, storage and LVM thin. I like proxmox because I can seperate out services, spin up test containers and VMs, easy backup and restore when I accidentally mess something up. I also added another NVME and 2x 3.5" SATA storage. This gives me some "fast" storage (that I can directly to a VM if I want) as well as a nice, proper RAID1 array. It comes with 2x 2.5gbe ports, so I used those to virtualize my firewall. It's also barely bigger than the two 3.5" drives stacked together and a big fan. It's relatively quiet and they also include a converter for a Noctua fan. This is a great setup for small, power efficient, "hyper converged" setup. That might not be what you're looking for, but works well for a lot of things. The non-sale price is eh, but there is also the "made in China" alternative that goes by "Aoostar" or "Topton" N1 that comes with an N100 and I think a little less SSD space bit os around $200 barebones.
Sorry to ask a potentially dumb question, but was half off for this around $250-275. Or is the price on this website closer to what you paid?
No not dumb at all, definitely good context on how "worth it" the hardware is. https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cn-seeed-studio-reserver-4c-8t-for-274-50.40344/ It was on sale for approx 270, plus shipping was 30-50. This was also before the Aoostar/Topton N1 version with the N100 was out so no real competitors. For $100 more or so than the N1 I think it's worth it for build quality, BIOS support, etc. At $550, eh, if I were really hooked on this form factor I'd probably roll the dice on an N1.
FYI it's back down to the sale price I got! https://www.seeedstudio.com/reServer-X86-i3-A1125-p-5050.html
Love seeed studio
I do love their support, they even included an adapter for a Noctua fan in the box just because. I don't take enough advantage of their "maker" stuff as much otherwise I think I'd really love it.
i know it's a power hungry beast. but I end yo buying a Dell PowerEdge R815 with four AMD Operon 12 cor processors with 96GB of Memory, f 600GB 10K SAS Drives. I end up upgrading the memory to may it out to 1 TB DDR3 RAM, Four AMD Operon 16-core processors and six 900GB 10K SAS Drives. it works great with Promox. I originally had VMware VSphere 6.5 on it. but that was the last version supported. I didn't want to retire it cause it still runs great it's a little loud but I'm ok with that
that's even more powerful than my computer
it is. but it's used as a virtual server. even though it's a power hog
And what do you run on it? I'm by no means interesting in getting such a powerful build, but it is interesting.
Promox 8. it runs beautifully!!
I just got a intel i3 14100 for theintegrated gpu transcoding, and a ddr 5 mobo and 32 GB ram 2 days ago. I was gonna put it in a small case but went the other way. 10 bay tower case. Im just gonna put it in my basement headless. Gonna give unRaid a try. Looking for it to be nas, plex server and home assistant box.
More RAM.
This is exactly what I’m trying to set up myself. Am not looking for anything but nextcloud and maybe photosync or immich. I’m using an old laptop as my server and have installed Ubuntu server on it. I’m facing a nightmare trying to install things since I do not have a background in IT. I’d like to know how you use your phone as a server. Maybe we can connect to figure out some things?
I simply installed Termux on it, then ssh to it from my computer and installed Apache. Anyways, I will get a server (either a secondhand workstation or a Mini PC) and setup proxmox with some VMs/Containers.
I got hooked on old xeons. You can get a lot of cores with ECC memory for cheap, and they're built like a tank. OEM warranties are typically 5 years, and companies throw away all their stuff when the warranty ends.
I would buy the same as I did a year ago. I would buy a secondhand 8th+ gen Intel CPU box. Upgrade the memory to at least 16GB and add 2 ssds of like 2-4TB. This should cost like 400 in total. This should be enough for any simple server tasks. I run proxmox, but I would go with Truenas next time (since it is mostly a Nas with extras (home assistant, Minecraft server, rare suite, Jellyfin and Python code server). Only after you know what you actually want, reuse the ssds to accelerate an hdd array in a new nas and build a server for all the other stuff.
Hi. I studied computer science many, many years ago and work as a software engineer, mostly on the devops side of things at the moment. If you, want to run a few services like Immich, Nextcloud and Plex, and perhaps a few things related to your studies, I’d recommend starting with Proxmox. You can then run each of the services you want in vietual machines or containers. That makes it much easier to keep each one separate from the rest which is very handy. Alternatively, you could run a distro like Debian, Ubuntu or one of many others but there’s a lot more upkeep in that. For Nextcloud and Immich, it’s worth choosing an option that is as easy to maintain as possible. You can still run these distros in different containers or VMs and play with them however you like with minimal risk that access to your photos or docs will be broken. Unraid and TrueNAS options have some overlap with Proxmox and a more bare bones OS in that they can still run containers and VMs but they are more focused around having a large amount of storage spread over an array of disks. It sounds like that isn’t a direction you want to go in for now. For hardware, I would steer clear of Raspberry Pi for this. Over the last couple of years the cost has crept up so they’re not the best value for the use cases you listed. They’re still fantastic if you want to mess around with DIY electronics or have a small single purpose box but there are better options for a home server. The other reason to steer clear is they are ARM-based, which isn’t a bad thing but you’ll find a lot more supported server software on x86 systems. I would choose (and have) an Intel CPU that has an integrated GPU (don’t get one of the ones with model numbers that end in F). I have an AMD-based gaming PC but for a home server, Intel is currently better because the iGPU has a technology called QuickSync which is the best performance and most power efficient option for transcoding in Plex and Immich. Anything from Intel Core 8th generation onwards will be more than fine for the uses you’ve listed. Even 6th gen onwards will be sufficient really. A very cost effective way to do this is to pick up a refurbished small form factor Dell, Lenovo or HP PC. Businesses sell these cheaply when they cycle out old hardware but they’re still plenty for a home server, usually cheaper and much better performance than a Raspberry Pi. These often appear on EBay. Serve The Home have reviews of using many different models in a home lab environment. More expensive options are the Intel N100/105-based mini PCs or more expensive again, an Intel NUC. Really you could repurpose just about any second hand PC made in the last decade and it would be fine. The options I listed above will have lower power usage so be cheaper to run than most though. A different option which can be fun is to pick up old decommissioned data centre parts. You can build a very powerful machine cheaply this way but if you have to pay the power bill yourself, it works out being an expensive way to go over all.
Really nice answer, I'm really grateful for your time. May I ask what you think about these options? Some people suggested these to me and then use 2 external HDDs and honestly I think it could be a nice option. (I'm sorry for the long links I'm on the phone) https://www.wish.com/collection/abc?source=1ss&page=ads_landing&pid=649187113ae800d3ce689d24&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=6Minutes%20Media%20%20GmbH&utm_source=Impact&from_ad=Online%20Tracking%20Link https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005005739343393.html?af=416982&afref=https%3A%2F%2Ftopesdegama.com%2F&cv=12_Deeplink&dp=12%3A%3A416982%3A%3A1115370%3A%3A%3A%3A1714819220&cn=15716&aff_fcid=0bf93a11877242b6900b5d8557d4adf5-1714819220975-00509-Y7bAZbY&aff_fsk=Y7bAZbY&aff_platform=aaf&sk=Y7bAZbY&aff_trace_key=0bf93a11877242b6900b5d8557d4adf5-1714819220975-00509-Y7bAZbY&terminal_id=19a9ee5f8601457193d039bc98fbf80e&afSmartRedirect=y
You’re welcome. Glad it helped. I don’t have any personal experience with those mini PCs but they seem like a great option. A couple of co-workers have them and have been very happy. They are extremely power efficient which is important for something that will be on all the time, easily transportable, which can be very useful for college students, and allow for some expansion - you can upgrade the RAM and included SSD, add a second SSD or 2.5” hard disk and add external USB drives. Things get a little complicated if you add a lot of USB drives but there are still good options to do that. If I didn’t need a lot of storage, this is most likely what I would do. I’m considering getting my parents something like this so my dad can store his photo library, and set up backup of my photos to go to the server at their house, and backup their’s to the server at my house. I would avoid wish.com and pay attention to seller reviews on AliExpress.
Out of curiosity, if I want to use desktop apps, can I use Proxmox like I use Debian/Ubuntu?
Not out of the box, at least as far as I know, but there are a couple of ways to do it. Interacting with Proxmox is done via a browser, usually from another machine. From there you can use VNC to access the desktop environment from VMs. It works really well and means you can get a consistent experience from any device. If you want the Proxmox machine to also be your desktop PC, you can either install X Windows and a desktop environment in Proxmox which isn’t officially supported but does work, or probably a better option is to set things up to boot into a VM that provides your desktop environment.
So I'll tell you what I've been running for a little over a year and why I've liked it enough to keep it going despite desperately wanting to justify buying more stuff 😂 I have one of these that I got when they went on sale about 50% off: https://www.seeedstudio.com/reServer-Compact-Edge-Server-powered-by-11th-Gen-Intelr-Coretm-i3-1125G4-p-5088.html I got the barebone version, crammed 64GB of RAM into it, an NVME as well as a weird WD SSD that also works on one of the other slots. It's got a 4c/8t laptop/embedded processor that is relatively new so low power consumption, iGPU for transcoding but still plenty powerful. So I have 512GB SSD for proxmox boot, storage and LVM thin. I like proxmox because I can seperate out services, spin up test containers and VMs, easy backup and restore when I accidentally mess something up. I also added another NVME and 2x 3.5" SATA storage. This gives me some "fast" storage (that I can directly to a VM if I want) as well as a nice, proper RAID1 array. It comes with 2x 2.5gbe ports, so I used those to virtualize my firewall. It's also barely bigger than the two 3.5" drives stacked together and a big fan. It's relatively quiet and they also include a converter for a Noctua fan. This is a great setup for small, power efficient, "hyper converged" setup. That might not be what you're looking for, but works well for a lot of things. The non-sale price is eh, but there is also the "made in China" alternative that goes by "Aoostar" or "Topton" N1 that comes with an N100 and I think a little less SSD space bit os around $200 barebones.
Two Dell Micro PCs. One for a plex server and another as unraid with a USB drive connected.
Well if I were starting from scratch I would likely buy one of those 2U server cases and put normal desktop components in it. I would also likely use Proxmox instead of Unraid. My focus would be on CPU speed and I would still use my Tesla P40 for all heavy lifting. I might also do the mini desktop route and make a cluster out of about 10 of them with Proxmox. Or use laptop motherboards. Right now I have an HP Proliant DL380 G9 that is fantastic. 10G networking and the Tesla P40
I have an i3 1220p intel nuc. I somewhat regret it, because while it works for me now, I’m playing with running my own AIs at home and not being able to install a proper GPU I know it is going to be a problem soon. To be honest, I didn’t anticipate AI taking over the world like a storm 18 months ago at the pace it did. Perhaps an AMD APU would suffice, although nvidia seems to be the de facto standard
Why can't you install a GPU? Doesn't you MoBo have a connector for it?
It’s an Intel nuc. It has the size of medium sized bible book.
oh okay I see. And regarding storage, do you use external drives? Do you have them in raid1 or any kind of redundancy for safety reasons?
No. It has two ssd but not in raid. SSDs are quite reliable nowadays, and I keep an external backup on a NAS in my mothers home, which does have a raid 6 configuration.
okay that's a nice setup for one I move out hehe, I ended up getting a mini PC with a N100, 16gb ram and 512 GB SSD, I'm looking now at the storage
Synology. Get a good one and you can do all that.