Looking for the perfect machine for my home usage server

[luxela]

Hello everyone,

I've decided that this year I'd like to set up a small server for my home. One that's powerful enough and economical to use.

I'd like the community to help me find the ideal machine.
I'd like to have a rather compact machine, to put in a 10" rack in the cellar.
This machine shouldn't consume a lot of power, but still have a bit to spare.

I'm thinking of starting with Proxmox.
The idea would be to have an OpenWRT or Opensense firewall. (2.5 Gbps LAN x2 or more)
Plus a few other things, like versioning server, database, web server (tomcat). Nothing serious, just for my own tinkering and testing, as I'm a dev.
If there's any power left, a game server like minecraft. The kids will be old enough soon.
Network disk for the house for all sorts of content, documents, administrative paperwork, photos. Why not Jellyfin too.
Edit: And Home assistant or similar.

I've seen some pretty good machines, like CWWT, TOPTON and so on.
But what I'm looking for is a machine like that, but with the capacity to host hard drives as well. The marriage of a mini firewall machine and a Nas.

Do you know if it exists? Or do I have no choice but to turn to two different machines? Which means duplication of components and power consumption.
Or set up my own server piece by piece.


Also. Processor-wise, from what I've currently seen in terms of perf per watt I've seen these as processors:
- AMD Ryzen 7 7730U
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800U / 5825U
- Intel Core i5-1230U
- Intel Core i3-N300 / N200 / N100

What do you think?
We look forward to hearing from you

 

[luxela]

Hi, guys,

Well, after some research, I don't have the impression that what I'm looking for actually exists.
In the near future there will be the zimacube (Intel N100) and the Aoostar NAS (AMD Ryzen 7 5800U). (Both not yet released).
Provided we can put proxmox, unraid, etc. on it.

So, I'm wondering whether I won't go for a Jonsbo n3 case.
All I have to do now is find a motherboard with a nice cpu (like the ones on the list above) and put it all together.
Any suggestions ?

 

[alaricljs]

I went a completely other direction. I'm getting an i7-11700 and a Z590 motherboard that can do 2 PCIe x8 cards, one for 10Gb NIC and one for an HBA. I'll be tuning it for idle power draw since that's where a good chunk of my wattage is going with my current gear.

 

[luxela]

Hi.
I currently have a 1Gbps network. I'm thinking of changing the switch to 2.5 in the near future. I'm also thinking of upgrading my old wifi, included with the ISP box, to 6E mesh.

So a priori the 10Gbps I'll pass.

But after a bit more thought, I'm wondering if I'm not about to make quite a U-turn.
I think I'll take this one in the end:

12th Gen Intel Firewall Mini PC Alder Lake i3 N305 8 Core N200 N100 Fanless Soft Router Proxmox DDR5 4800MHz 4xi226-V 2.5G

Product Information Features: 1. Upgrade two USB3.0 devices, with two USB3.0+ six USB2.0 devices on panel 102. Add SATA3.0 seat cell and WiFi seat cell signal to choose one of the two, and the signal will automatically pull.3. Add a DIP key embedded in the call self-starter to enable the call...

cwwk.net

N305 CWWK Appliance, with the M.2 x4 NVMe plate.
I agree that it's going to cost me a fortune in ssd, but today you can find 4Tb NVMe on special offer <= 200 €. With that, a RAID5 system would still have a nice capacity.

The other advantages are, no need to buy a case, an MB+CPU, (even if at CWWK you can just buy the MB N305).
No need for disks.
No need for a PSU with enough connectors to feed SATA disks, etc.

What's more, a hard disk I think is like 12W, where an NVMe is 3-4W.
Fewer mechanical parts, etc.

We're at a crossroads and there are lots of possibilities and toys on offer, and I'm still weighing up which route to take.