35
Old PC as Server (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by LazerDickMcCheese@sh.itjust.works to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have an early 2000s PC (pre-SATA) with 512MB RAM (I'd love to tell you about the CPU, but its under a cooler that isn't going anywhere) that's been sitting in closets for about 15 years. Assuming I'm willing to buy into it, can something like that reasonably host the following simultaneously on a 40GB boot drive:

Nextcloud Actual Photoprism KitchenOwl SearXNG Katvia Paperless-ngx

Or should I just get new hardware? Regardless, I'd like to do something with this trusty ol business server.

Edit: Lenovo or Dell as the most cost-effective, reliable self-host server in your opinion?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] glue_snorter@lemmy.sdfeu.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's OK, but I'd suggest:

Atom > arm64 > arm32

I ran on a Pi 4, but switched to a PC for jellyfin. The pi can't transcode for shit. It was slow to boot and slow over SSH.

Look for a NUC - they're designed for desktop use, so they have more poke than a Pi. The N6005 CPU is a good choice, the N5105 is ok. These are x64, so you'll have the widest range of packages. 4GB will do, if its upgradeable later. NUCs usually take SODIMMs, which you can pick up on ebay for peanuts.

Bear in mind that network chipset will be your bottleneck in some use cases. If it has a "gigabit port" but only a cheap chipset, and you use it as a router, you might max out at ADSL speeds... in that case you'll wish you'd gone for a box designed for soft routing, which are a fair bit pricier.

[-] solberg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

It was slow to boot and slow over ssh.

I found that booting and connecting over SSH went way faster once I got a better SD card. Running an install script that took half an hour was down to just a couple minutes

[-] glue_snorter@lemmy.sdfeu.org 1 points 1 year ago

Hmm. I run mine off a usb3 ssd and it's faster, but still slow.

this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
35 points (87.2% liked)

Selfhosted

40133 readers
540 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
HybridSarcasm@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
HybridSarcasm@lemmy.hybridsarcasm.xyz