So after months of dealing with problems trying to get the stuff I want to host working on my Raspberry Pi and Synology, I’ve given up and decided I need a real server with an x86_64 processor and a standard Linux distro. So I don’t continue to run into problems after spending a bunch more, I want to seriously consider what I need hardware-wise. What considerations do I need to think about in this?
Initially, the main things I want to host are Nextcloud, Immich (or similar), and my own Node bot @DailyGameBot@lemmy.zip (which uses Puppeteer to take screenshots—the big issue that prevents it from running on a Pi or Synology). I’ll definitely want to expand to more things eventually, though I don’t know what. Probably all/most in Docker.
For now I’m likely to keep using Synology’s reverse proxy and built-in Let’s Encrypt certificate support, unless there are good reasons to avoid that. And as much as it’s possible, I’ll want the actual files (used by Nextcloud, Immich, etc.) to be stored on the Synology to take advantage of its large capacity and RAID 5 redundancy.
Is a second-hand Intel-based mini PC likely suitable? I read one thing saying that they can have serious thermal throttling issues because they don’t have great airflow. Is that a problem that matters for a home server, or is it more of an issue with desktops where people try to run games? Is there a particular reason to look at Intel vs AMD? Any particular things I should consider when looking at RAM, CPU power, or internal storage, etc. which might not be immediately obvious?
Bonus question: what’s a good distro to use? My experience so far has mostly been with desktop distros, primarily Kubuntu/Ubuntu, or with niche distros like Raspbian. But all Debian-based. Any reason to consider something else?
I take it ARM still not there package wise? Sucks to hear, I was really hoping we’d be further along by now
i just use a second hand laptop I got from “hock and go” down on gold coast, it has an ethernet port :O AMD stuff, I always generally stick with AMD for graphics as a lot of people complain about nvidia on linux, when I was in the store looking at them all did some pretty extensive searching on network driver compatibility, it has been a complete bitch in the past to deal with (ESPECIALLY wifi drivers), it seems to be a bit better these days
got it home, stuck a 2tb sata ssd in it, installed just regular ubuntu 24.04 lts, works well, i have the desktop version installed but 99% of the time I’m just sshing in
use it for immich and qbittorrent and a few other things
Works well enough for me, even though this might be the highest idle cpu usage I’ve ever seen (it’s not a fast cpu):
Btop: https://files.ikt.id.au/6c8kwp.png
My other servers are idling at like 0.1:
Htop: https://files.ikt.id.au/4uvrht.png
But I haven’t noticed any issues outside of immich taking longer if I go like, recheck all photos or starting up services, not a problem for me
was interested in this as well: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/934940
Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive HDD 24TB US$309.02 (~A$478.61) / 28TB US$353.02 (~A$546.76) Delivered @ B&H Photo Video
But haven’t dealt with USB attached storage before, I assume it would be fine but I’ll wait till I’m a bit closer running out of space
$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 1.8T 164G 1.6T 10% / /dev/sda1 1.1G 6.2M 1.1G 1% /boot/efiI think for a lot of use cases it might be there. Unfortunately for me specifically, I think ARM might be the cause of part of my problems with Puppeteer, which is why I’m ruling it out.
You’re based in Brissy or further north in Qld, right? What kind of thermals does your system have, and what’s the room it lives in like?
I actually have, and if you’re interested I’d say go for it, with a couple of caveats. It worked great for me for years with my MediaWiki, torrents, and a couple of other minor web services hosted on my Raspberry Pi, with data stored on the USB external drive. I think it may have been a Seagate, even. Unfortunately I made the mistake of not backing it up, and when the external drive died I lost my data. That would be the biggest thing I’d consider if you’re looking into a USB external HDD. It’s extra important since the drive is probably not designed to be always on in the way a WD Red or equivalent is.
I actually wonder if RISC-V might overtake ARM in the linux world, the chinese are throwing a lot at it and I’ve seen very little out of ARM, I expected Linux to go the way of Apple where x86 is phased out and ARM is phased in because who wouldn’t like a lower power, cheaper CPU? or like wayland overtaking X.org but I just don’t see any great leap by desktops or laptops towards it, x86 has remained solidly in place outside of Pi like devices
😢 yeah good point, I’ll look at getting it to backup my main 2tb
Logan city! Was going to take a picture but it’s just a bunch of cables running along the side of my garage, the NBN conveniently comes into it far away from everything (I assume the only other front of house option (the kitchen) was out of consideration) can’t really say what temperature, it would def be mostly ambient temperature with a bit of extra heat coming from the solar battery when it’s charging but for the most part prob ambient outside temp
The laptop itself looks to sit around 50 degrees most of the time but this is pretty low power:
afaik the temperature being hot isn’t an issue, computer components (and most components in most things) prefer a stable high temperature 24x7 over going cold then hot all the time.
I think a mini-pc is a pretty solid choice regardless, I’ve had a 1ru rack server that was loud as fuck, fkin like 10 40mm fans! absolutely not worth it, and have friends who keep their servers/even old desktop PC’s running 24x7 in their bedrooms, these things are heat generators and in brissie if you don’t have a good aircon/airflow your room will got hot as shit and the fans will increase in speed so it’ll be either noisy and hot or both
In the same vein, used thinkcentres are dead cheap and good, easy to tinker with physically, and for what I know no problems when it comes to linux (nvidia drivers are probably as on any other platform). Got a ussf m920q IIRC, added som ram, changed the CPU and swappyd out the SSD for a big one and it became my main driver (also have some 710 and a tower for more inside space, GPU, …) low power draw and “it just works”.
100%, thinkcentres are the most well supported of the major brands iirc
the battery is a nice little in built UPS feature, bit underrated if you get a second hand laptop with a working battery