I want to get into self-hosting. I’ve done a bit of self-hosting before using a Raspberry Pi (pi-hole and Discord bots) but I really want to start self-hosting almost everything I can like I’ve seen many people here doing.
However, I’m not sure what kind of machine I should build which would be suitable for these purposes. I’ve never even built a PC before though my fiancee has and he will be able to help me…
Here are some services I’m thinking of self-hosting to start with:
- AdGuard
- OpenMediaVault
- Bitwarden
- Mastodon
- Matrix
Eventually I would also like to host PeerTube, Kbin, Plex, and many other things…
What are the most important things I’ll need to consider with a self-hosting machine, and what I will need to upgrade over time as I self-host more services? Ideally I’d like a machine which is as energy efficient as possible too.
Also, is it a good idea to host so many services, both publically-accessible websites as well as services only available on my home network, from the same machine? What are the security considerations when self-hosting?
Any links/articles for me to read would be appreciated too!
I personally use Dell SFF 7040/7050’s. They can have up to 64 GB of ram, use NVME, and have PCIe slots for expansion while still being lower power and profile.
That said, for a lot of public stuff, like this very instance, I use Linode.
+1 for SFF/USFF computers. £100 will get you a compact and reliable refurbished machine that is easy to upgrade too, and if you use software like Proxmox and outgrow the box it’s easy to slide over to something bigger.