First Server build

[Dibble93]

Hey guys,

 

I am wanting to build a server for use in the home, it would be used as a NAS, plex media server with 1 transcoded stream mostly for devices that don't like the subtitles format, and a minecraft server (people will be connecting from outside my network, there will be a max of 5), I'm looking at the AMD Ryzen 2400G with a B450 motherboard, I am wanting as small a system as possible with as low power draw as possible, this is in part why I have been looking at the APUs so I wouldn't need a discreet graphics card. I am planning to use 8GB of RAM possible 16 if that would be of benefit.

I would appreciate any advice anyone could give me on either the hardware or the OS as im thinking of using a Linux distribution as this would be the first home server I have done.

Thanks in advance.

[AngryBeaver]

4 hours ago, Dibble93 said:

Hey guys,

 

I am wanting to build a server for use in the home, it would be used as a NAS, plex media server with 1 transcoded stream mostly for devices that don't like the subtitles format, and a minecraft server (people will be connecting from outside my network, there will be a max of 5), I'm looking at the AMD Ryzen 2400G with a B450 motherboard, I am wanting as small a system as possible with as low power draw as possible, this is in part why I have been looking at the APUs so I wouldn't need a discreet graphics card. I am planning to use 8GB of RAM possible 16 if that would be of benefit.

I would appreciate any advice anyone could give me on either the hardware or the OS as im thinking of using a Linux distribution as this would be the first home server I have done.

Thanks in advance.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-SFF-Intel-Core-i7-4790-8GB-500GB-HDD-No-OS-K818989/383118266139?hash=item5933a0cf1b:g:eZ4AAOSwezVdTHEo:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!55442!US!-1

 

$150

Toss in a 512gb SSD for 45 bucks. Toss in another 8gb of ram for 30bucks.  You now have everything you need for MUCH cheaper than you could have built one. The ram isn't even a requirement. Lastly, the SFF is the Small Form Factor model. So it will be pretty thin and can be hidden behind or under a lot of things.

[Dibble93]

Thanks for the response AngryBeaver,

I'm sorry I forgot to mention I am in the UK, my bad that actually isn't bad if I can find a comparable one that I dont need to import but would the power draw off something like that be comparable to the APUs?

 

[AngryBeaver]

27 minutes ago, Dibble93 said:

Thanks for the response AngryBeaver,

I'm sorry I forgot to mention I am in the UK, my bad that actually isn't bad if I can find a comparable one that I dont need to import but would the power draw off something like that be comparable to the APUs?

 

It would be in the ballpark. Being a elite series it should have really good idle consumption which you will spend a good amount of time in. I think the stat for stat is about 19watts of TDP difference. In the 2400g's favor.

 

An online calculator for the UK shows the difference in price at max 100% 24/7/365 usage is = £19.9728 for a year. So next to nothing IMO.

[jake9000]

That desktop is a common corporate model.  You should be able to find someone local that is trying to liquidate them refurbished, on ebay or elsewhere. Look for 'HP SFF' and you'll see lots of other sellers with them. 

That said you can only put one drive in them and you don't have expandability. If you think your needs will grow you might look at the desktop formfactor proliant or poweredge devices. 

If you want to go custom the parts you posted are pretty OK and there are consumer cases with lots of drive bays like the fractal design R5/6. Personally I would recommend going this route if noise is a factor because server makers don't really consider it. 

[AngryBeaver]

33 minutes ago, jake9000 said:

That desktop is a common corporate model.  You should be able to find someone local that is trying to liquidate them refurbished, on ebay or elsewhere. Look for 'HP SFF' and you'll see lots of other sellers with them. 

That said you can only put one drive in them and you don't have expandability. If you think your needs will grow you might look at the desktop formfactor proliant or poweredge devices. 

If you want to go custom the parts you posted are pretty OK and there are consumer cases with lots of drive bays like the fractal design R5/6. Personally I would recommend going this route if noise is a factor because server makers don't really consider it. 

You can only add ONE drive, but they can hold 2. 3 if you get creative with some double sided tape and pull the cd drive. That being said the drives need to be 2.5". Alternatively depending on the storage you want you can pickup a USB 3.0 2+ hard-drive enclosure. Being USB 3.0 it won't be your bottleneck you would just be limited to the speed of your drives which if mechanical will be around 125-200MBps. USB 3.0 can hit 640MBps maximum. So easily support 3 or 4 drives without issue.

[Wadzinsky]

On 8/24/2019 at 8:52 AM, Dibble93 said:

Hey guys,

 

I am wanting to build a server for use in the home, it would be used as a NAS, plex media server with 1 transcoded stream mostly for devices that don't like the subtitles format, and a minecraft server (people will be connecting from outside my network, there will be a max of 5), I'm looking at the AMD Ryzen 2400G with a B450 motherboard, I am wanting as small a system as possible with as low power draw as possible, this is in part why I have been looking at the APUs so I wouldn't need a discreet graphics card. I am planning to use 8GB of RAM possible 16 if that would be of benefit.

I would appreciate any advice anyone could give me on either the hardware or the OS as im thinking of using a Linux distribution as this would be the first home server I have done.

Thanks in advance.

I have setup almost exactly what you are looking for, except without plex encoder.

Mine is a Ryzen 3400g on a Asus a320m-k board, 8gb RAM (could use 4gb and still be fine) 250gb ssd, 4tb NAS and 8tb NAS drvies for backups and home media server.

I am running Ubuntu 18.04 for the OS, I have a Minecraft Bedrock server running on it as well.  For the media server portion, it is running SAMBA share (windows file sharing protocols)  The TV's it serves are using Fire TV sticks running Kodi.  

 

The whole server consumes 29w at idle, about 35-40 watts nominal for the minecraft server when people are in it.

 

I tried to find  a media transcoding software for Linux, but I wasn't very successful in finding free ones.  Also, In June of this year, I knew ZERO about Linux.  It was incredibly fast and easy to learn.  Also, you can just set it and forget it.  100% stable.

[Dibble93]

On 8/24/2019 at 9:06 PM, jake9000 said:

That desktop is a common corporate model.  You should be able to find someone local that is trying to liquidate them refurbished, on ebay or elsewhere. Look for 'HP SFF' and you'll see lots of other sellers with them. 

That said you can only put one drive in them and you don't have expandability. If you think your needs will grow you might look at the desktop formfactor proliant or poweredge devices. 

If you want to go custom the parts you posted are pretty OK and there are consumer cases with lots of drive bays like the fractal design R5/6. Personally I would recommend going this route if noise is a factor because server makers don't really consider it. 

jake9000 I wouldn't want to go as big as those cases if I'm honest but i do want room for at least 2 dedicated storage drives at 3.5" and I thought of going the custom route as it gave me a little more flexibility for things such as changing the case out at a later date. But I am willing to compromise on that if its beneficial. Thanks

[Dibble93]

On 8/24/2019 at 9:38 PM, AngryBeaver said:

You can only add ONE drive, but they can hold 2. 3 if you get creative with some double sided tape and pull the cd drive. That being said the drives need to be 2.5". Alternatively depending on the storage you want you can pickup a USB 3.0 2+ hard-drive enclosure. Being USB 3.0 it won't be your bottleneck you would just be limited to the speed of your drives which if mechanical will be around 125-200MBps. USB 3.0 can hit 640MBps maximum. So easily support 3 or 4 drives without issue.

AngryBeaver, i would prefer to get 3.5" as I already have a large capacity drive of that size that I can use, personally I'd rather keep it all in one enclosure if possible just to minimise the foot print however if that cause an issue I am flexible to go for a slightly bigger option. Thanks

[Dibble93]

7 hours ago, Wadzinsky said:

I have setup almost exactly what you are looking for, except without plex encoder.

Mine is a Ryzen 3400g on a Asus a320m-k board, 8gb RAM (could use 4gb and still be fine) 250gb ssd, 4tb NAS and 8tb NAS drvies for backups and home media server.

I am running Ubuntu 18.04 for the OS, I have a Minecraft Bedrock server running on it as well.  For the media server portion, it is running SAMBA share (windows file sharing protocols)  The TV's it serves are using Fire TV sticks running Kodi.  

 

The whole server consumes 29w at idle, about 35-40 watts nominal for the minecraft server when people are in it.

 

I tried to find  a media transcoding software for Linux, but I wasn't very successful in finding free ones.  Also, In June of this year, I knew ZERO about Linux.  It was incredibly fast and easy to learn.  Also, you can just set it and forget it.  100% stable.

Wadzinsky thats good to know just out of curiosity how did you update the bios for the 3400G does the board have a built in way to do it or did you have a previous gen cpu, also how hard is the cpu hit if your doing several of the functions do you notice any slow down at all, fotunately i have experience with Linux I actually dual boot my rig as I find Linux my preferred for VMs and Programming. Thanks

[Wadzinsky]

1 hour ago, Dibble93 said:

how did you update the bios for the 3400G does the board have a built in way to do it or did you have a previous gen cpu, also how hard is the cpu hit if your doing several of the functions do you notice any slow down at all.

The 3400g is still on 12nm Zen+ architecture. It just popped in and right off it went.  However, you'll want to run a newer kernel in Ubuntu other than the one that comes with it.

 

The biggest hit the CPU takes is when the Minecraft server has a ton of mobs (600+)  <-- damn kids   and one single thread is maxed.  The only hit is in the world itself but the rest of the server which is basically a file server is left unhindered.  The 8gb of ram sits low on usage at all times, rarely ever exceeds 40%.  I had an athlon 240ge in it before which was fine for the file serving, but not good enough for the Bedrock server.