Cheap recommendations for a home server?

[Nen]

Hey there I'm suffering under this economy like the rest of us and looking for a thrifty server to do the things I need and hopefully some of the extra things I want. For context I have 0 server knowledge and I'm trying to read up on at least the software side of things but the hardware side is still alien to me.

 

Need:

Runs Grocy (A grocery organiser)

Allows me to backup family photos

Allows me to organise and cold store some files

 

Wants:

Minor to Moderate home automation (door openers/locker and timed light switches things like that)

Game server for things like Minecraft, with some mods but nothing like Real craft and Valheim

Plex server (very low priority if I'm honest but would be nice)

 

I've tried looking into hardware and I'm especially not sure what devices/components have enough juice to do what I need. I especially do not want a prebuilt unless I can hack it apart to something more expandable and under my control.

[BiotechBen]

7 minutes ago, Nen said:

Hey there I'm suffering under this economy like the rest of us and looking for a thrifty server to do the things I need and hopefully some of the extra things I want. For context I have 0 server knowledge and I'm trying to read up on at least the software side of things but the hardware side is still alien to me.

 

Need:

Runs Grocy (A grocery organiser)

Allows me to backup family photos

Allows me to organise and cold store some files

 

Wants:

Minor to Moderate home automation (door openers/locker and timed light switches things like that)

Game server for things like Minecraft, with some mods but nothing like Real craft and Valheim

Plex server (very low priority if I'm honest but would be nice)

 

I've tried looking into hardware and I'm especially not sure what devices/components have enough juice to do what I need. I especially do not want a prebuilt unless I can hack it apart to something more expandable and under my control.

Well, for the Minecraft part, depends on how many people you are going to have on it at one time. Most of the rest is pretty easy.

[Nen]

2 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

Well, for the Minecraft part, depends on how many people you are going to have on it at one time. Most of the rest is pretty easy.

I think at most it's me and 7 or 8 friends rarely on together though. And the Valheim it's largely 3 -5 people max

 

Thanks for responding btw Ben, your time is appreciated

[Bdavis]

Do you care if it's noisy? An old server can be had for pretty cheap off eBay.

[BiotechBen]

9 minutes ago, Nen said:

I think at most it's me and 7 or 8 friends rarely on together though. And the Valheim it's largely 3 -5 people max

 

Thanks for responding btw Ben, your time is appreciated

What's your budget and does it need to be rack mountable?

[Nen]

7 minutes ago, Bdavis said:

Do you care if it's noisy? An old server can be had for pretty cheap off eBay.

I'd appreciate if it was quiet and passively cooled but I understand I can't be crazy choosey

[Nen]

7 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

What's your budget and does it need to be rack mountable?

I don't have a rack at all so no idea. Something I could put in my bookshelf would be nice. Also my budget is in the 3/400 dollar range is my max in one go, although less is better. I know buying hard drives or something every couple months till I reach my ideal storage max is something I'd do.

[BiotechBen]

10 minutes ago, Nen said:

I don't have a rack at all so no idea. Something I could put in my bookshelf would be nice. Also my budget is in the 3/400 dollar range is my max in one go, although less is better. I know buying hard drives or something every couple months till I reach my ideal storage max is something I'd do.

$300-400 is a little tight, if it were the $600 range I'd say an entry level gaming laptop with expandable would work, something like 5600H and 1650, and while it would mean more expensive, high capacity SSDs, it would shit everything well. 

 

 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PkdG6r

 

Plus a used GPU like a Rx 470 would handle everything perfectly, without the GPU, the integrated graphics should be able to handle some medium quality Minecraft.

[m9x3mos]

1 hour ago, Nen said:

Hey there I'm suffering under this economy like the rest of us and looking for a thrifty server to do the things I need and hopefully some of the extra things I want. For context I have 0 server knowledge and I'm trying to read up on at least the software side of things but the hardware side is still alien to me.

 

Need:

Runs Grocy (A grocery organiser)

Allows me to backup family photos

Allows me to organise and cold store some files

 

Wants:

Minor to Moderate home automation (door openers/locker and timed light switches things like that)

Game server for things like Minecraft, with some mods but nothing like Real craft and Valheim

Plex server (very low priority if I'm honest but would be nice)

 

I've tried looking into hardware and I'm especially not sure what devices/components have enough juice to do what I need. I especially do not want a prebuilt unless I can hack it apart to something more expandable and under my control.

If you don't mind buying used stuff off ebay, I'd keep an eye out for older gaming rigs you can expand on. Something like this comes close to that price range and would handle all that very well. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234644106649?hash=item36a1e0ed99:g:6aYAAOSwNORi5rGt&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoDGYQNTyDg%2B99Hc7eH0DeIGlsLIcA8p4WZ%2F9MRSxFMlhJk4cyI05RKre27CeSXL5BLKk35bQZ6Nns76FaUl1LmCWGp5IOXwSAW1ItW%2FLSek2EkRc7dqE4lBbr7cCZBv2vxhzJCLRjpWMCqOCSZG3FyQ6OkG%2FHzdU67ZVhJsthfHTHGsglUsHu6Z7ITtfHUnknhQR7kLQzer0ro00gNJVf5I%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR679woqKYQ

[Needfuldoer]

If you don't want to go all out with a rackmount server, I recommend a single-socket 2011-3 workstation like an HP Z440 or Dell Precision 5810. They're relatively inexpensive, as quiet as any other desktop PC, and reasonably power efficient. You'll also have your pick of the Xeon E5-x6xx v3 and v4 processor families (up to 22 cores, 44 threads), and they'll take tons of relatively cheap registered ECC DDR4 RAM. You'll also get a WIndows license, so you can either just run Windows natively, or have the option of running it in a virtual machine (as an always-on remote access system, for example).

[Bersella AI]

Since Minecraft relies mostly on one-core boost, within a budget under $300-400, I would pick up:

• A Ryzen 5-5600 (or with a suffix "G" if wanna run Jellyfin -- not Plex as it can't make transcoding with Radeons -- although slightly slower than non-G);
• A cheap A520/B450 board;
• A stick of 512GB SSD (for booting, serving Home Assistant & hosting the whole Minecraft map);
• 1-2 hard drive(s) in 4TB;
• Two sticks of 16GB memory;
• Also a power unit rated 300-350W.

Other requisitions seemly wouldn't draw much resources like Minecraft, and hence would be sufficed.

[Nen]

Thanks everyone you've all been super helpful. This was just the kind of help I needed. You're all great

[BiotechBen]

10 hours ago, Bersella AI said:

Since Minecraft relies mostly on one-core boost, within a budget under $300-400, I would pick up:

• A Ryzen 5-5600 (or with a suffix "G" if wanna run Jellyfin -- not Plex as it can't make transcoding with Radeons -- although slightly slower than non-G);
• A cheap A520/B450 board;
• A stick of 512GB SSD (for booting, serving Home Assistant & hosting the whole Minecraft map);
• 1-2 hard drive(s) in 4TB;
• Two sticks of 16GB memory;
• Also a power unit rated 300-350W.

Other requisitions seemly wouldn't draw much resources like Minecraft, and hence would be sufficed.

Who told you that Radeon cannot transcode for Plex?