PC for Proxmox / Backups

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storageNator

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Aug 6, 2023
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Hi,

I would like to buy / build a PC to store backups from different smartphones / PCs.
I will also install Proxmox on this PC, first of all to install the software that I will use to create the backups: Seafile.

If the performance is sufficient, I will also create further VMs for e.g. Windows, HomeAssistant, etc.

The computer should run 24/7 so that the backups / synchronization can be created as quickly as possible, therefore the power consumption should not be too high.
I would like to stay at 10-15W in idle.

I will install an SSD with 1TB or 2TB as data storage.

I was thinking of a price of around 500$, but if it's cheaper I won't say no :)
This PC is currently on my list of favorites, but it doesn't necessarily have to be this small.
I would prefer a slightly larger PC with a 120mm fan, as you can set it to rotate very slowly and thus get almost silent and even then probably have no temperature problems, unless you are at full load for a long time, which probably won't be the case in my case.
This PC is on my list because it is very cheap and has a 2.5GB network, and you can even install 3 SSDs there, even if I will probably only use one slot



Many thanks in advance for your help
 
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SlowmoDK

Active Member
Oct 4, 2023
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That should work just fine, but know it can be found alot cheaper on aliexpress or directly from CWWK (OEM for most brands of these type boxes)

cwwk.net

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
 
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storageNator

New Member
Aug 6, 2023
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Thanks for the link.
But to get better warranty support, I'm willing to pay the extra on Amazon.

I also have an old case with space for a micro ATX mainboard.
It currently has an approx. 10-year-old AMD mainboard installed, but this PC requires approx. 40W in idle mode.
Proxmox is installed there, but even when all VMs are switched off, this PC still consumes 40W

I don't really need this PC, respectively I could move the VMs to the new PC.
Does that make more sense than buying a new mini PC?
 
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SlowmoDK

Active Member
Oct 4, 2023
146
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New box runs at about 10w idle so most time old pc is using 4x the power, but electricity prices could speak for keeping old pc running

that's a daily running cost of 1kwh for old pc or 0.25kwh for new so 0.75 kwh saved daily

Depending on pricing it could take years to recover the cost for new pc even in high priced area like germany
 
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louie1961

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May 15, 2023
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Personally I would try running it on a Raspberry Pi. I have a very nice Openmediavault instance running on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4gb of memory. I have two SSDs connected via USB to SATA adapter cables, and the entire device consumes about 7 watts. I don't use RAID (not ppossible with OMV and USB drives). I wouldn't bother with Proxmox on a Pi and just install seafile directly on the Raspberry OS which is based on Debian. My understanding is Seafile will run on Debian. If you think you need more horsepower, you could go Raspbery Pi 5 or one of the other higher power SBCs like an Orange Pi or a Rock Pi. Some of those now come with 2.5gbe ethernet connections.
 
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WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
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New York, NY
storageNator said:
Hi,

I would like to buy / build a PC to store backups from different smartphones / PCs.
I will also install Proxmox on this PC, first of all to install the software that I will use to create the backups: Seafile.

If the performance is sufficient, I will also create further VMs for e.g. Windows, HomeAssistant, etc.

The computer should run 24/7 so that the backups / synchronization can be created as quickly as possible, therefore the power consumption should not be too high.
I would like to stay at 10-15W in idle.

I will install an SSD with 1TB or 2TB as data storage.

I was thinking of a price of around 500$, but if it's cheaper I won't say no :)
This PC is currently on my list of favorites, but it doesn't necessarily have to be this small.
I would prefer a slightly larger PC with a 120mm fan, as you can set it to rotate very slowly and thus get almost silent and even then probably have no temperature problems, unless you are at full load for a long time, which probably won't be the case in my case.
This PC is on my list because it is very cheap and has a 2.5GB network, and you can even install 3 SSDs there, even if I will probably only use one slot



Many thanks in advance for your help
Click to expand...
It's basically the same as the CWWK that @Patrick reviewed in Q3 '23 - it's 8 Alder Lake (Gracemount) e-Cores, a single DDR4 SODIMM slot maxing out at 32GB (single channel bandwidth though) and whatever SSD(s) you cram into the system. As a backup server it's probably overkill, and for Virtualization it's...probably fine. I mean, if all you need is cheap and cheerful you can probably get a Wyse 5070 and it’ll do just fine as well.
 
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storageNator

New Member
Aug 6, 2023
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1
SlowmoDK said:
New box runs at about 10w idle so most time old pc is using 4x the power, but electricity prices could speak for keeping old pc running
Click to expand...
It's not a question of whether to get rid of the old PC or not, but whether to buy a new mainboard / CPU / RAM and install it in the old case, or buy a new Mini PC

I actually come from Germany and 40W is definitely too expensive here.
We currently pay around 0.33$/kWh, so that's 350kWh per year -> 115$

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@louie1961

I have also thought about ARM devices.
But at the end of the day, they're not that much cheaper, but you have a lot more limitations than with amd64 CPUs
 
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