Hey everyone!
I created a post in the Technology community regarding my home server and I got some fantastic advice from @CurbsTickle@lemmy.world which led me to installing Proxmox on an older Apple Mac Mini (“Core i7” 2.3 Late 2012 model) that I’ve been trying to keep alive.
My previous setup involved OMV and Docker. Plex and Haugene OVPN Transmission app running in containers. Then I manually copied from the Transmission SMB share to the Plex media folder. All of which resides on an external 2TB hard drive. I’d run into a really irritating network issue, usually when I was watching something in Plex. In the original post, I thought OMV was the issue and was looking for a new configuration to test. This led to me setting up Proxmox and installing Plex in a LXC container. Unfortunately the network issue is persistent and based on my limited knowledge it looks like the NIC is having an issue (Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57766), specifically transmit queue timeouts and then the NIC resets. I am unable to ping the server during this time and it happens randomly per the logs, but more frequent when I used Plex. I compared an old OMV syslog to the Proxmox ones and I suspect the hardware is failing and it’s time for something new!
My wife and I are trying to minimize our streaming services, but we’re also not huge media watchers. Occasionally we want to watch a movie or I download an obscure British show, I’ll go find it, download it and then copy via my Mac Studio with a SMB share. I will eventually look at the *arrs, but the priority is a functioning Plex server and a Haugene setup that doesn’t impact my Plex functionality. I’d like to be able to direct play 4K content on my LG CX and 4K Apple TV, download to my iPad quicker than right now and maybe have someone remotely play something and it not melt the CPU (least important). I’m watching more anime, so transcoding might crop up on occasion with subtitles.
I need advice on hardware and here are some key points
- Form Factor: Compactness is key, aiming for a Small Form Factor (SFF) to save space.
- Cost Efficient: I bought and installed a 1.0TB Mercury Electra 6G SSD not that long ago and also just bought (this week) 16GB of RAM which is now likely useless. I doubt I can repurpose these parts (drive maybe), so I’d like to be a bit budget conscious. But I’d also like to save myself headaches and willing to invest a little to have the performance and reliability I want.
- CPU Preferences: I’m leaning more towards an Intel CPU, especially for their Quick Sync video transcoding, but I’m open to exploring AMD alternatives if they fit my requirements for 4K direct play and efficient transcoding.
- Proxmox Compatibility: This will remain my primary OS for container and VM management.
- Ease of Setup: I prefer a straightforward deployment/build process to get up and running without extensive tinkering.
With these considerations, do you have any hardware recommendations?
Whether it’s a specific model of a mini PC, a custom SFF build, or particular components that fit the bill, I’d greatly appreciate your suggestions.
If you think there is any chance of reviving this old Mini and have suggestions on how to avoid the NIC problems, I’m open to hearing them, but I’d hate to throw more money at this thing right now if getting something new would be less stressful.
Personally, I’d say anything 6-8th gen will work well. 7th/8th gen get some improvements, but you won’t see a huge swing until 10th+ gen.
Which is where the value of something like an n100 comes in, though you won’t be getting all your services on there like you can with an i5/7 6th-8th gen for comparable price.
Which is why I’ve got a bunch of 6th-8th gen stuff running everything myself.
Solid choice, cheap, easy to cluster, fairly low power, and small.
I’m surprised at just how capable it is for the money. All in I spent more buying a Raspberry Pi during Covid to run my Home Assistant. I mean of course that was my learning device so I had more idea what to buy this time and already had a ZigBee usb stick for example. But this didn’t require me to buy an extra SSD to run off, and so far it’s running my Home Assistant on a couple of cores with 6gb ram (which is doesn’t use all of, it was set up with 4 but was regularly hitting that so I added a couple extra) and I have plenty of room to play with other things.
Wish I’d bought it many moons ago
I actually moved everything over to those little boxes during the pandemic too. There were a few things running on them, and my piholes (3b’s) I wanted to repurpose, but it was hard to get a pi for a reasonable price…
And then I realized I could be doing this smarter and moved everything to those machines lol
Just now spinning up an additional Jellyfin LXC for family - this way I can simplify access, each LXC has read only access to my media, no ssh access, etc, etc.
Almost all of them are 6th, 7th, and 8th gen, with one 4th Gen i5 running just a bunch of lightweight LXCs. All in a 14ru rack next to Aruba 2960s, a DS1520+ and 1515+, etc, etc. Every bit of tech I run here in a small rack!
Fell down a hole looking at the Optiplex machines last night. My desk is tiny and I’m already rocking this Mac Mini, a Mac Studio, work laptop and a pi3B running PiHole. So I’m leaning towards a micro, although I might be able to get away with a small form factor instead. I also have a MBP (“Core i7” 2.8 15" Early 2013) that I could wipe and use as a temporary measure while I save for something new. Also bought a pi4B with 4GB of RAM laying around and not used, so I could always split up services, whack Plex on the Studio and use what I’ve got for a while longer.
Right now I might go with @phanto@lemmy.ca suggestion to find a USB NIC adapter to keep this beast running or at least determine if it’s just the NIC and not the board. Any suggestions for a Debian friendly USB to ethernet adapter appreciated. I also have the Apple thunderbolt to ethernet adapter, might keep trying to get that working. Not seen a single dropped ping overnight with the builtin NIC, so it appears to be super intermittent or when I start to watch something on Plex.
I’m putting some money aside for an 10th or 11th gen i7 at minimum, I feel like I’d like the option for 4K transcoding if needed. Looks like I can put a 2.5" SATA in a micro (7090?), which would be awesome seeing as I have a SATA 1TB SSD in the mini right now I’d like to cannibalize.
My wife and I have had some bad experiences with Ebay in the past, but I’m willing to go back if I can find a good deal on an off lease Optiplex. Any other suggestions on places to look for off lease options that I can hopefully trust (US)?
Also please be brutally honest if you think I should just get a 6-8th gen Optiplex and not bother with the newer CPU. Outside of Plex and torrents, I’d like to eventually run Node.js, VSC Code Server, Pi-hole, home assistant, some storage or cloud access and a Screeps Server. Also playing with Blender, but I doubt I’ll be able to do much with rendering with any of these machines.
I’ve had pretty good luck with www.era.ca. I’m in their city though, so I can pick up locally, and I can return anything that doesn’t work for me. They have an eBay store www.ebay.ca/str/calgarycomputerwholesale. They do sell “for parts” and “as is” though, so read the listing.
This is awesome, thank you.