2017 Beginners Home Server

[RemixTime]

So, I'm looking to set up a comprehensive home server on the cheap, we're talking starving student budget. What we are looking at is limited at best, a 4 Down 1 Up ADSL Internet connection. Yeah, I know. And the only available computer at my disposal is Raspberry Pi 3 + 16GB SD Card & 1TB Usb HDD. Now what I'm looking to do with this pile of dreggs is:

 

• Email Hosting
• Web Hosting
• NAS Functionality
• Media Streaming
• Print Server

 

Now that we have a shopping list, what do I need to know and study to achieve this? And any tips from seasoned vets to the server markets.

 

Cheers!

[NTDaws]

Idk if Raspberry Pi is the best route to go, especially since its not the fastest thing for NAS Functionality. Might be better off with a built server

[NTDaws]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RpzgCy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RpzgCy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core Processor  ($185.40 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($46.95 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B250M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($41.99 @ Jet) 
Storage: PNY CS1311 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.49 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.49 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.49 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 710 1GB Video Card  ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Snow Edition (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($90.49 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($78.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $734.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-13 10:32 EST-0500'

 

Then you can use FreeNas

 

http://www.freenas.org/

[manikyath]

might i just add that especially on those connection speeds, i better hope none of this is meant to be publicly accessible.

[NTDaws]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

might i just add that especially on those connection speeds, i better hope none of this is meant to be publicly accessible.

Maybe he downloads movies when hes busy, probably in standard quality so its a small file @ like 480MB, imagine how long a bluray would take.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Dawson Wehage said:

Maybe he downloads movies when hes busy, probably in standard quality so its a small file @ like 480MB, imagine how long a bluray would take.

i was rather referring towards the stuff like the web hosting to be a problem.

 

and it's not so much the "dude pullling in our pushing out stuff" that i'd see as an issue, but rather that connection being an extremely weak link when someone has bad ideas.

 

for all the joking how bad my mobile data is, my phone could kill this guy's connection.

[RemixTime]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

for all the joking how bad my mobile data is, my phone could kill this guy's connection.

That's Australia for you.  

9 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i better hope none of this is meant to be publicly accessible.

Yep, basically locked down to three key users: Me, Myself and I.

 

10 minutes ago, Dawson Wehage said:

Maybe he downloads movies 

Good luck without a VPN here (Damned expensive stuff here, plus decreases speed further)

 

13 minutes ago, Dawson Wehage said:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RpzgCy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RpzgCy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core Processor  ($185.40 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($46.95 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B250M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($41.99 @ Jet) 
Storage: PNY CS1311 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.49 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.49 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.49 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 710 1GB Video Card  ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Snow Edition (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($90.49 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($78.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $734.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-13 10:32 EST-0500'

 

Then you can use FreeNas

 

http://www.freenas.org/

And that is great!.... but remember that budget... just ran the numbers on that in AUD +$1100 (at that price I could sell my car and not have enough money) 

 

 

SO is there any hope for this dreggs case?

 

[RemixTime]

Just Thinking, I recently blew a tonne of money on a gaming rig.... Any thoughts on dual purposing it? 

[NTDaws]

1 minute ago, RemixTime said:

Just Thinking, I recently blew a tonne of money on a gaming rig.... Any thoughts on dual purposing it? 

Well you could, and it would work fine.

[NTDaws]

8 minutes ago, RemixTime said:

That's Australia for you.  

Yep, basically locked down to three key users: Me, Myself and I.

 

Good luck without a VPN here (Damned expensive stuff here, plus decreases speed further)

 

And that is great!.... but remember that budget... just ran the numbers on that in AUD +$1100 (at that price I could sell my car and not have enough money) 

 

 

SO is there any hope for this dreggs case?

 

what kind of price range in AUS?

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, RemixTime said:

That's Australia for you.  

Yep, basically locked down to three key users: Me, Myself and I.

 

Good luck without a VPN here (Damned expensive stuff here, plus decreases speed further)

 

And that is great!.... but remember that budget... just ran the numbers on that in AUD +$1100 (at that price I could sell my car and not have enough money) 

 

 

SO is there any hope for this dreggs case?

 

if you're really at a painful budget look at asrock's Q1900m and Q1900-itx boards, they're rather on the slow side, but they are essentially an "x86 raspberry pi" in terms of what they come with out the box, and actually, they're not priced too far off from a pi.

 

all you need is to slot in some sort of disk to boot off, some ram, *a* power supply (literally anything from a non-chinesium brand will do, mine's running happily off a 250 watt HP power supply), and an OS.

--

i really dont recommend you to do these things with a pi, because however powerful it may seem, the moment you ask any calculation power from it, it bogs down, and you're limited to a single usb 2.0 link for both the hard drive and ethernet *combined*.

 

my Q1900 is doing great as a media center build, with performance to spare for some other things, i'd see it as a "two birds with one stone", as you can essentially plug these in the back of your TV, and it's got the performance to do all what you are hoping for in the background (guessing there's no budget for raid anyways) with a TV friendly UI on top, allowing you to directly interface with that content as well, with essentially zero bog.

 

on top of which, if you add in a DVD drive, you can make copies for personal use from store bought DVDs because on this forum we do all these things in a legal manner , and it would save you the headache of trying to download media trough IP Over Avian Carrier.

[RemixTime]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

if you're really at a painful budget look at asrock's Q1900m and Q1900-itx boards, they're rather on the slow side, but they are essentially an "x86 raspberry pi" in terms of what they come with out the box, and actually, they're not priced too far off from a pi.

 

all you need is to slot in some sort of disk to boot off, some ram, *a* power supply (literally anything from a non-chinesium brand will do, mine's running happily off a 250 watt HP power supply), and an OS.

--

i really dont recommend you to do these things with a pi, because however powerful it may seem, the moment you ask any calculation power from it, it bogs down, and you're limited to a single usb 2.0 link for both the hard drive and ethernet *combined*.

 

my Q1900 is doing great as a media center build, with performance to spare for some other things, i'd see it as a "two birds with one stone", as you can essentially plug these in the back of your TV, and it's got the performance to do all what you are hoping for in the background (guessing there's no budget for raid anyways) with a TV friendly UI on top, allowing you to directly interface with that content as well, with essentially zero bog.

 

on top of which, if you add in a DVD drive, you can make copies for personal use from store bought DVDs because on this forum we do all these things in a legal manner , and it would save you the headache of trying to download media trough IP Over Avian Carrier.

Thanks for the great reply! 

 

looks perfect for my use case.... might just be able to stretch this one out with two old 80 Gb harddrives and a 4 gig stick of ram that i have laying about (not ideal but it'll do )

[manikyath]

5 minutes ago, RemixTime said:

Thanks for the great reply! 

 

looks perfect for my use case.... might just be able to stretch this one out with two old 80 Gb harddrives and a 4 gig stick of ram that i have laying about (not ideal but it'll do )

i forgot to add a feature to the list of why it's better than a raspberry pi:

you're not limited to an OS choice of raspbian, raspbian, or raspbian. (or windows 10 ARM if you would somehow want that, or arch if you're crazy.)

[RemixTime]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i forgot to add a feature to the list of why it's better than a raspberry pi:

you're not limited to an OS choice of raspbian, raspbian, or raspbian. (or windows 10 ARM if you would somehow want that, or arch if you're crazy.)

Any preference on an x86 server Distro? I'm a linux nut using Solus, I just like to get opinions

[manikyath]

Just now, RemixTime said:

Any preference on an x86 server Distro? I'm a linux nut using Solus, I just like to get opinions

well.. my beast of a home server is currently running xubuntu, mostly because lazy and performance to spare anyways.

 

in line with my earlier suggestions and ideas, i'd go for the stability of the debian tree (arch is a bit too unpredictable for me, however much i like pacman), maybe somewhere under the *buntu's, something with a ligtweight UI, and just run kodi overtop of that if you want to use it as a media consumption advice as well.

[RemixTime]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

well.. my beast of a home server is currently running xubuntu, mostly because lazy and performance to spare anyways.

 

in line with my earlier suggestions and ideas, i'd go for the stability of the debian tree (arch is a bit too unpredictable for me, however much i like pacman), maybe somewhere under the *buntu's, something with a ligtweight UI, and just run kodi overtop of that if you want to use it as a media consumption advice as well.

Any idea on just headless debian SSH'ed?

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, RemixTime said:

Any idea on just headless debian SSH'ed?

that's what i'd run if i wasnt lazy, and wasnt cursed by the debian gods.

 

xubuntu is the only distro in the debian tree (along with raspbian i guess) that doesnt randomly die on me.

[RemixTime]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

that's what i'd run if i wasnt lazy, and wasnt cursed by the debian gods.

 

xubuntu is the only distro in the debian tree (along with raspbian i guess) that doesnt randomly die on me.

Weird, what hardware are you operating? just the  Q1900m?

[manikyath]

Just now, RemixTime said:

Weird, what hardware are you operating?

i have put linux on about everything under the sun by now. debian just really hates me

 

i've even had debian VMs randomly crap out on me

[RemixTime]

Quote

15 minutes ago, RemixTime said:

i have put linux on about everything under the sun by now. debian just really hates me 

 

i've even had debian VMs randomly crap out on me 

Well Debian is not really the most friendly when it comes to install process.... Ubuntu server Maybe?

[Mikensan]

Look up local auctions / classified for used dell servers - R610 / R710 / R510 / C2100. $200us goes a long way for those.

 

Honestly you could throw vbox on your personal gaming rig and go nuts. Only issue is power consumption, but certainly cheaper than running it + a separate/dedicated box.

 

Have a friend around Brisbane, can also vouch for slow DSL speeds.

[RemixTime]

1 minute ago, Mikensan said:

Honestly you could throw vbox on your personal gaming rig and go nuts. Only issue is power consumption, but certainly cheaper than running it + a separate/dedicated box.

Been thinking about virtualization only limiting factor is memory.... 8GB is just squeezing it

 

2 minutes ago, Mikensan said:

Have a friend around Brisbane, can also vouch for slow DSL speeds.

Aye I could'a sent an Armarda to the west coast in the time it took to download Civ VI 

[Phate.exe]

1 hour ago, Dawson Wehage said:

<snip>

This is pretty much what I was going to build before I just got a prebuilt tower server for $100.  The CPU/mobo combo is pretty pricey, but you end up with a super-low power server with very solid performance, 8 processor cores, room for more memory if you'd like, and space for another 3.5in hdd before you start hacking things up and wedging drives wherever they'll physically fit.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:  Integrated with Motherboard
Motherboard: ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Atom C2750 Motherboard  ($379.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($50.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: SK hynix SL308 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.00 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.00 @ Amazon) 
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $666.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-13 12:08 EST-0500

[NTDaws]

oh yeah i forgot, you could look at used 1U servers but I would keep that in a area that you don't go to, they sound like A380's taking off.

[Mikensan]

1 hour ago, RemixTime said:

Been thinking about virtualization only limiting factor is memory.... 8GB is just squeezing it

 

Aye I could'a sent an Armarda to the west coast in the time it took to download Civ VI 

Buying more ram is cheaper than a whole new system. If you're running linux, 2gb would go a long way. Run the NAS/streaming from your main O/S, and just the other server side (web/email/print) in the linux box.