Help Reviewing My New Home Server PC

[Webkin32]

So I’m thinking of building a new server for my increasing needs, below are the services I’m hoping to host on the new server. This server does not need to fit into a rack but will be on 24/7.

• Nextcloud (Family use so under 5 users, but used for file backups and sync)

• PhotoPrism (Family use so under 5 users, but used for image backups and sync)

• Jellyfin (Family use so under 5 users, but almost never streaming at the same time)

• Custom apps (Apps that I make, almost no resource use, just things that need to be run on an always on server)

• Plus a little room to expand in case I want to host something new

Here is a link to what I’m thinking of getting on PC part picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CcY3p2

Nextcloud says it needs ~ 8 GB of ram and ~ 6 cores for 25 users so I expect to be using ~ 4 GB ram and ~ 3 cores. PhotoPrism says it needs ~ 4 GB of ram and ~ 2 cores but also says “Beyond these minimum requirements, the amount of RAM should match the number of cores. ” Jellyfin has people saying it works fine with ~2 GB of ram and I expect it to use less than 2 cores And my custom apps should use way less than 2 GB of ram and less than 2 cores

I didn’t think I needed a graphics card as 1) they are incredibly high in price rn and 2) I didn’t think any of my hosted apps would take advantage of it. Do you see a problem with this?

Also, I’m having a problem choosing my storage. I want fast storage but with my budget (Preferably less than $700) and my internet connection (Around 100 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up), I’m not sure that I would see a difference between an HDD vs M.2 SSD. Do you have any recommendations on this?

As a side note, I have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse laying around that I can use for this build, and am planning on putting a Linux distro on it.

Do you see any problems with my build? Thanks for all of the help in advance!

Budget (including currency): Around 700USD

Country: USA

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

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): Also mentioned above

[svmlegacy]

For the dark mode users:

Quote

So I’m thinking of building a new server for my increasing needs, below are the services I’m hoping to host on the new server. This server does not need to fit into a rack but will be on 24/7.

• Nextcloud (Family use so under 5 users, but used for file backups and sync)

• PhotoPrism (Family use so under 5 users, but used for image backups and sync)

• Jellyfin (Family use so under 5 users, but almost never streaming at the same time)

• Custom apps (Apps that I make, almost no resource use, just things that need to be run on an always on server)

• Plus a little room to expand in case I want to host something new

Here is a link to what I’m thinking of getting on PC part picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CcY3p2

Nextcloud says it needs ~ 8 GB of ram and ~ 6 cores for 25 users so I expect to be using ~ 4 GB ram and ~ 3 cores. PhotoPrism says it needs ~ 4 GB of ram and ~ 2 cores but also says “Beyond these minimum requirements, the amount of RAM should match the number of cores. ” Jellyfin has people saying it works fine with ~2 GB of ram and I expect it to use less than 2 cores And my custom apps should use way less than 2 GB of ram and less than 2 cores

I didn’t think I needed a graphics card as 1) they are incredibly high in price rn and 2) I didn’t think any of my hosted apps would take advantage of it. Do you see a problem with this?

Also, I’m having a problem choosing my storage. I want fast storage but with my budget (Preferably less than $700) and my internet connection (Around 100 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up), I’m not sure that I would see a difference between an HDD vs M.2 SSD. Do you have any recommendations on this?

As a side note, I have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse laying around that I can use for this build, and am planning on putting a Linux distro on it.

Do you see any problems with my build? Thanks for all of the help in advance!

Budget (including currency): Around 700USD

Country: USA

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

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): Also mentioned above

 

[PorkishPig]

1 hour ago, Webkin32 said:

Here is a link to what I’m thinking of getting on PC part picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CcY3p2

Is there a particular reason you're looking at a 9700K? Purchasing a CPU with a 95w TDP for a build that is essentially a storage server seems wasteful.

1 hour ago, Webkin32 said:

Also, I’m having a problem choosing my storage.

You only need 2TB of total storage..? This seems quite low. You also have no redundancy. Do you have a backup plan in place?

1 hour ago, Webkin32 said:

and my internet connection (Around 100 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up)

Is this server being used locally? 5 Mbps seems quite slow if you intend to use this as a remote storage and streaming server.

1 hour ago, Webkin32 said:

Budget (including currency): Around 700USD

I would go with something like this:

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DY3rj2

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($188.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B560M-A Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: OLOy 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory  ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Case: HEC HX200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $735.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-06-06 21:29 EDT-0400

[killswitch6000]

Hi. I went through your Pcpartpicker list. I would downgrade the ssd capacity and upgrade the quality to something like a 250GB samsung 970 pro and increase the hdd capacity to 2tb with the savings. The CPU I would prefer it being 10 cores. Also the CPU wattage for a server is very high. I would look in the XEON lineup or a non K skew( EG: core i7 9700), but if it doesn't fit in ur budget it fine. As for the graphics card, if you are planning on running VM's It would be preferable if you got a low end one. But if you dont see yourself doing anything very graphically intensive or anything, dont bother. And please use the remainder of your budget to increase the upload speed 

 

[FireAbyss111802]

1 hour ago, Webkin32 said:

 

 

So I’m thinking of building a new server for my increasing needs, below are the services I’m hoping to host on the new server. This server does not need to fit into a rack but will be on 24/7.

• Nextcloud (Family use so under 5 users, but used for file backups and sync)

• PhotoPrism (Family use so under 5 users, but used for image backups and sync)

• Jellyfin (Family use so under 5 users, but almost never streaming at the same time)

• Custom apps (Apps that I make, almost no resource use, just things that need to be run on an always on server)

• Plus a little room to expand in case I want to host something new

Here is a link to what I’m thinking of getting on PC part picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CcY3p2

Nextcloud says it needs ~ 8 GB of ram and ~ 6 cores for 25 users so I expect to be using ~ 4 GB ram and ~ 3 cores. PhotoPrism says it needs ~ 4 GB of ram and ~ 2 cores but also says “Beyond these minimum requirements, the amount of RAM should match the number of cores. ” Jellyfin has people saying it works fine with ~2 GB of ram and I expect it to use less than 2 cores And my custom apps should use way less than 2 GB of ram and less than 2 cores

I didn’t think I needed a graphics card as 1) they are incredibly high in price rn and 2) I didn’t think any of my hosted apps would take advantage of it. Do you see a problem with this?

Also, I’m having a problem choosing my storage. I want fast storage but with my budget (Preferably less than $700) and my internet connection (Around 100 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up), I’m not sure that I would see a difference between an HDD vs M.2 SSD. Do you have any recommendations on this?

As a side note, I have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse laying around that I can use for this build, and am planning on putting a Linux distro on it.

Do you see any problems with my build? Thanks for all of the help in advance!

Budget (including currency): Around 700USD

Country: USA

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

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): Also mentioned above

get a cpu with hyper threading (2 threads/core), like the 3700x, 5800x, or 10700   

[Webkin32]

20 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

Is there a particular reason you're looking at a 9700K? Purchasing a CPU with a 95w TDP for a build that is essentially a storage server seems wasteful.

No, was looking at core count and GHz for the apps, but I see your point.

10 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

You only need 2TB of total storage..? This seems quite low. You also have no redundancy. Do you have a backup plan in place?

Well currently I'm only using 130gb for Nextcloud & Jellyfin with PhotoPrism expected to take up 100-250gb more so really 1TB would be fine for a while. Yes, I am planning on getting an extra drive for offline offsite backups but no redundancy. Isn't the saying "RAID is not a backup". If I should add in some extra hard drives for redundancy, should I switch from 32 to 16gb ram to keep the price closer to my budget?

13 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

Is this server being used locally? 5 Mbps seems quite slow if you intend to use this as a remote storage and streaming server.

Yes this is being used locally? (As in it's on my network but I can access it from the outer internet) Yes I get ~ 5 Mbps up max. Jellyfin works fine on the old laptop that I'm currently running it on and NC isn't too slow I get around a 4 second load for the webpages and it's shortened with browser caching. Though I'm hoping that the new server decreases these times.

27 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($94.99 @ Amazon)

With my internet being so slow for uploads, would I really benifit from a M.2 SSD? If not, I could use that money for hard drive redundancy??

[killswitch6000]

2 hours ago, Webkin32 said:

With my internet being so slow for uploads, would I really benifit from a M.2 SSD

you shouldn't use it as your storage but as a boot drive with drivers other firmware related stuff. that's why a 1tb isn't necessary. Rather a 250gb one with good read write capacity is sufficient

[PorkishPig]

10 hours ago, Webkin32 said:

Isn't the saying "RAID is not a backup". If I should add in some extra hard drives for redundancy, should I switch from 32 to 16gb ram to keep the price closer to my budget?

Yes, though it's good to have both a backup and redundancy to reduce potential downtime.

10 hours ago, Webkin32 said:

With my internet being so slow for uploads, would I really benifit from a M.2 SSD? If not, I could use that money for hard drive redundancy??

I assumed you had a specific use for the 1TB of M.2 storage you had in your parts list. In this case, you're probably best off getting at 256gb NVMe SSD for boot as @killswitch6000 mentioned, along with two 2TB WD Red drives to put in RAID 1.

 

You can have redundancy while staying within budget, see below:

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rTvpwz

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($188.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B560M-A Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: OLOy 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory  ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($44.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Case: HEC HX200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $715.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-06-07 08:44 EDT-0400

10 hours ago, Webkin32 said:

If I should add in some extra hard drives for redundancy, should I switch from 32 to 16gb ram to keep the price closer to my budget?

If you don't need 32gb of memory, you can always get 16gb and upgrade later down the line. Going to 16gb will definitely put you under budget.

[Webkin32]

Thanks @PorkishPig, @killswitch6000, and @FireAbyss111802 for all of the help! I think this is the config I'm gonna go with for now + another 2TB drive for offline, offsite backups.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ssgs3Z

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($188.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B560M-A Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL16 Memory  ($74.09 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($44.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Case: HEC HX200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $613.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-06-10 01:23 EDT-0400