With all this migration i’ve been inspired to start self hosting some services.
I am looking for a mini pc to ideally run linux and host a media server with radarr and sonarr, pihole and some other stuff as i start getting more into self hosting.
Any recommendations / experiences that you can give? Or some general guidelines on what i should look for or things to avoid.
Thank you!!
Maybe stating the obvious, but don’t skip over older laptops if you can get your hands on them. Especially because the CPUs are already optimised to be power efficient. They also come with a built in UPS that even in bad cases will still be good enough for 15 minutes or so, which is good enough for 99% of the power cuts. Only down-side: lack of SATA ports, but that is more or less the same with mini-PCs.
I’d be a bit wary of using a laptop. I use one (Dell XPS 13 9310) for a development DB server, and despite all the Windows power saving features being turned off, it goes to sleep after a few hours unless I keep an RDP connection open. The computer is set never to sleep and the wifi adapter’s power savings are disabled. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’ve hunted all over and not found a way to keep it on.
Obviously you would install Linux on it. Absolutely no difference to a regular server then.
Yeah that would no doubt help.
I’d also be a little concerned about laptops not being designed to be on 24/7. The fans and the heat dissipation wouldn’t be as good as in a dedicated box, so components might not last as long.
You can usually buy replacement fans pretty cheap. I run an old framework laptop motherboard as my server and if the fan ever craps out I can get a new one for 40 bucks.
I agree that other components might not last that long due to heat but if you already have the equipment sitting around and its not a production environment why not use the hardware until it fails?
My plan is whenever I upgrade the motherboard in my laptop I will add the old one to my proxmox cluster. Double upgrade! Faster laptop and more compute for the homelab :)
The Framework laptop is interesting with its removable motherboard that you can put in a separate case when you upgrade the laptop.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/23/23652939/framework-cooler-master-sff-pc-case
Have someone 3d print a custom encloser for you that can also house an independent cooling system. It could even be made temperature sensitive if you choose.
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You can usually buy replacement fans pretty cheap. I run an old framework laptop motherboard as my server and if the fan ever craps out I can get a new one for 40 bucks.
I agree that other components might not last that long due to heat but if you already have the equipment sitting around and its not a production environment why not use the hardware until it fails?
My plan is whenever I upgrade the motherboard in my laptop I will add the old one to my proxmox cluster. Double upgrade! Faster laptop and more compute for the homelab :)