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!
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.
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
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…