Home webserver, smart home, VPN and storage server.

RaddyKewl · April 13, 2021

Budget (including currency): $600 USD (besides storage drives)

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for:

I currently run four websites on paid hosting, and use Cloudflare cacheing. Right now, I get very little traffic on those sites, to justify a paid hosting service. I would like to move them to my own server so I can eliminate the hosting bill.

I also want to use this as a storage server for other computers on my network, as well as over a VPN when I'm away from home, or for remote users if and when I contract out services. This storage would be used for holding 1080p video and photos that are being edited in realtime. (hopefully my gigabit ethernet won't create bottlenecks)

I'm currently in the Apple ecosystem, including for some smart home. I plan to expand this down the line, and will likely need HomeBridge. Not sure if I'd put this on the main build or use a Raspberry Pi, for security purposes. Open to suggestions.

Sometime down the line, I want to invest in six Ubiquiti cameras for my home. Not sure if I'd want this on the same build, or if I'd use a second build for security purposes. Open to suggestions.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

My whole home is hardwired for Gigabit ethernet. I have a 16 port switch and a Netgear Nighthawk C7800 Modem/Router. I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi with Pi-Hole DNS network-wide. I will have a static public IP address once all of this is setup.

The computer will be running Linux (probably a flavor of Ubuntu or Debian). Once setup, server would be running headless.

Would like to have redundant and expandable RAID storage. Will start with a few drives, and add more storage as needed.

Would like a relatively small case... MicroATX if it has enough I/O for multiple hard drives. A NAS case could work. Wouldn't mind a bit of RGB, but it's not necessary.

Henry2026 · April 13, 2021

Ok, I think Ryzen is the best option due to the multithreaded tasks that you will be doing. I also think 32GB of ram would be the norm for the build. I made this build for you. I think it is best suited to your tasks.

Since this isn't urgent, I think you should wait until everything is lower priced. It is a little overpriced, you can downgrade your GPU to a 1060 and a smaller PSU.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$319.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B450 Steel Legend ATX AM4 Motherboard	$107.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$89.99 @ Amazon
Storage	ADATA XPG SPECTRIX S40G RGB 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$46.95 @ Amazon
Video Card	Asus Radeon RX 580 4 GB DUAL Video Card	$679.99 @ Amazon
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P360A ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.98 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$124.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1439.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-04-12 23:32 EDT-0400

RaddyKewl · April 13, 2021

Thank you, I appreciate the recommendation.

Is there any reason I would need dedicated graphics, as it would be running headless, and I don't have any plans to run a render farm for video at this time?