I use my desktop PC for Jellyfin and torrenting, but I’m looking for something that I can keep on 24/7 that draws less power and run other self-hosted services on Linux. I would like to have at least 2x 14 TB 3.5" hard drives in or attached to it with the possibility of expanding in the future.

From my research, these seem to be some good options:

  1. Mini PC like this Beelink S12 Pro + USB hard drive enclosure. The price seems reasonable for the specs and low power consumption. Not sure if USB will limit transfer speeds.
  2. ODROID HC-4 or similar SBCs. I feel like these have much lower performance for not much price savings, and it’s harder to get software running up because of ARM. But it seems like they don’t use too much power.
  3. Used enterprise PCs/servers. I know they can be found cheap used, but I’m a little lost at comparing the performance and power draw to other options.
  4. DIY build. I’m interested in getting a Mini-ITX case like this Jonsbo N2 and getting parts for it, but it seems like it will be the most expensive option. It does seem like the most modular and upgradable.
  5. Classic NAS products like Synology. It seems like these are falling out of favor because they are pretty under powered for the price.

What does selfhosted think about these options, and what would you recommend?

  • teuto@lemmy.teuto.icuEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I have a used 2016 super micro server. It was $600, has 2 18 core/36 thread cpus and 256 GB of DDR4 and 12 HDD hot swap trays. It also idles at 180 watts. Way over kill but I have cheap electricity and it’s nice being able to spin up a vm with just about any specs I could want. If I got some more normal cpus it would probably burn a good bit less power.

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzBEnglish
    82·
    1 year ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    DNS Domain Name Service/System
    NAS Network-Attached Storage
    NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
    NVMe Non-Volatile Memory Express interface for mass storage
    PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
    PiHole Network-wide ad-blocker (DNS sinkhole)
    Plex Brand of media server package
    RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
    SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage
    SBC Single-Board Computer
    SSD Solid State Drive mass storage

    [Thread #77 for this sub, first seen 24th Aug 2023, 01:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

  • bartolomeo@suppo.fiEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    I feel like a loser after reading some of these awesome setups, but i just use an rpi4 4gb. It’s enough for 1-2 ppl casual use as NAS, media server, nextcloud, pihole, and a few other things here and there. I have USB hub with it’s own power supply because if not the hard drives lose power occasionally. All in all it’s like 20W max but usually under 10. Best of all it’s completely silent.

    • tinysalamander@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Same. I’m using a 2012 Mac mini running Proxmox attached to an OWC Thunderbay 4. It’s old but does everything I need it to do.

    • Anafroj@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I assume it’s a x86 CPU, being an intel processor? How does it manage to be as energy efficient as an ARM CPU? Or maybe it’s only when it’s idle?

    • brilokuloj@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      I just got into selfhosting with a used thin client (Dell Wyse 3040), only $30 on eBay. I don’t know what I’m doing at all and it’s still working out great for me so far, so I think that’s a good enough endorsement.

  • Krtek@feddit.deEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I had a 10Gb USB Icy Box enclosure, speeds were ok but cooling was simply inadequate. Now I just build a pc with an Asus B550-Plus and a 5600G, idles at 19W with the drives in standby but with three Fans active. I though about going with a mini pc and a better external enclosure, but that would’ve been much more expensive and I doubt that I would’ve saved that much power with that anyway

  • qaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    I set myself a budget of ~€150 and eventually settled on a Lenovo Mini PC with an i5 and 8 GB of ram for €160 including shipping. In retrospective, one of those Beelink mini PC’s would have been a better option, they use significantly less energy and have a better performance/price ratio.

    I recommend going with option 1.

  • BoofStroke@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I run proxmox on a System76 Thelio. ZFS mirror, 16 cores, 64GB. Synology NAS for data storage and backup. Dual NICs bonded with ovs for the VMs. The onboard NIC for connecting to proxmox itself. One of the VMs then rclones the backup share to rsync.net

    One of the VMs is Plex/Sonarr/Radarr/Transmission. Media is stored via NFS to the NAS.

    • tehnomad@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      The Thelio looks awesome, but it seems overkill for what to do and spend. I would probably do DIY if I wanted something with the specs of the Thelio.

  • noja@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    1 year ago

    As I always say, have a look through https://forums.serverbuilds.net They have tons of guides on building whatever you need at whatever price point you can afford. The NAS Killer 5.0 is pretty great and I went with a second box for transcoding. Both low power and pretty cheap.

  • vatw@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ve tried a few of the things you mention over the years.

    However, I’ve lately gotten into the used business PCs. The performance of even a 6th get Intel CPU more than double an RPI4 or the ATOM in my NAS, depending on how you count. Sure, it’s quite a bit more power, and they have their place (RPI in the garage), but I’ve gotten a few SFFs that have room for multiple HDs for like $50-$60 shipped, as long as i’m patient, since I don’t care for the windows license.

    The CPU benchmark sites are what convinced me that more SBCs was not the solution for me.

    I also tell myself that i’m recycling what could have been ewaste otherwise. I am afraid to calculate the energy cost.

    • Kolgeirr@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I also try and ignore energy costs and prevent ewaste: my home server is my three builds back gaming PC with a lower power GPU shoved into it. Whenever I build a new main gaming PC my old one becomes my wife’s gaming PC, and her old PC is rebuilt into the home server.

  • Moonwalk@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I recently got the Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I’m completely impressed with its capabilities, especially for that price. I got the 16GB Ram N100 version. Great piece of hardware.

    I’m running 27 different services, including the *Arrs, Jellyfin, paperless-ngx, home assistant, and even stuff like Kasm workspaces and emulatorjs.

    • drudoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m seriously thinking of getting this. Maybe the Firebat brand though as it has two Ethernet ports and it’s cheaper for me.

      Have you had Pi’s? I’m currently using a pi4 4gb and wondering how it compares.

      I’m also frustrated with arm as a lot of docker images aren’t working. Recently had issues with Hugo and Jekyll which needs node.js that doesn’t support arm at this version.

      Have to tried Immich on it?

      • Moonwalk@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yes, I have a Pi4 2GB, it’s still working as a second pi hole node. That’s what got me into the world of self-hosting, but 2GB is not enough for a lot of things. I went from that to a N100 with 16GB of RAM, so the difference is huge and I think it’s totally worth the money.

        I haven’t tried Immich, but I probably will once I have a better solution for storage.

  • mint_tamas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It’s up to you how much you want to pay vs. how much time you are willing to sink into it. A synology is overpriced and underpowered, but you get a nice plug and play solution eith sane defaults. I went with that, fully knowing that price-wise, it’s not optimal. But I don’t enjoy tinkering as much as I used to.

  • DARbarian@artemis.camp
    1·
    1 year ago

    Same question here. I’m about ready to upgrade from my 8GB Pi 4B, but I’m overwhelmed by options and lost as to where to go next.

  • llii@feddit.deEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Is there some low-power hardware that takes ECC RAM? I want something to replace my Atom mini-ITX board, but I also want ECC.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been getting pretty excited about RISC-V devices. They are quite efficient and outstrip similiar SOCs in many ways.

    The Lichee Pi4A has better benchmarks than a Raspberry Pi 4 at a TDP of 4W and includes a NPU. They are coming out with a cluster board as well.

    Cristopher Barnatt does a review of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1apoFXZ9ad8

    Since Debian has added RISC-V as a supported architecture, we should start seeing most major software like Docker and KVM being packaged for it. If not, it can be compiled too.