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[LUG]Re: Building a home server

 

Thanks. Eion Ma
cDonald

On Thu, 23 Feb 2023 at 20:48, Michael Everitt <michael@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 23/02/2023 08:12, Richard Brown wrote:
> > Hi All
> >
> > I am about to commence building a home server. I am hoping to run it using low
> > powered equipment. A while ago David Bell sent me a AMD Ryzen 5 2400G GPU and I 
> > am
> > hoping to build using this. He suggested getting a Gigabyte B450 series
> > motherboard. I am going to check on Ebay but before I do I just wanted to see if
> > anyone had one lying about (!) and wanted to sell it.
> >
> > The other question I had around this GPU is whether it is a good option for a 
> > home
> > server build. The build will run home automation and a plex server at the start. 
> > I
> > am hoping that it will draw around 20w which will be relatively cheap to run.
> >
> > Thanks for the help.
> >
> You're having a laugh if you think a standard PC setup with net you less than 
> 50-60W
> minimum total .. that CPU has a TDP of 65W - so don't expect to get much below 20W
> for that alone .. even a Gold ATX power supply won't guarantee you more than 85%
> efficiency, so factor that in. Most hard disks or even SSDs don't come to much 
> below
> a few watts Each, and that's for 2.5" drives, not 3.5"...
>
> I was intrigued however, to see watch one of the videos of "the guy with the 
> Swedish
> accent" on YouTube, who was explaining 'better' options for low-power [capable] 
> home
> automation systems than the ubiquitous Raspberry-Pi - the maker's favourite 'toy' -
> since it was becoming very scarce or expensive depending on how you 'acquire' it. 
> He
> was relaying recommendations to look at small form-factor PCs, and I just couldn't
> resist picking up one (google Lenovo ThinkCentre USFF) and really like the
> size/capacity it comes with at the ~£50 price point (check ebay - lots available). 
> Of
> course, there are other options from eg. Dell and others (links in the video 
> comments
> - https://youtu.be/rXc_zGRYhLo ). Bear in mind this is a computer with power 
> supply,
> hard disk, memory, WIFI, networking, basic graphics, lots of USB, in roughly the 
> same
> size as your average textbook. Didn't take much convincing for me!
>
> One of my Scottish friends recently deprecated his trusty HP MicroServer 
> (typically a
> modest AMD CPU) because even the power consumption of that was costing him more 
> than
> he desired, with electricity costs constantly rising... Oddly, if I can find one of
> those, I will likely still use it as a NAS box, because it has 4x 3.5" IDE slots, 
> and
> I have spare spinning-rust disks available of useful capacity...
>
> If you want a -real- server though, I bought a cheapish HP ProLiant G5 box from
> bargain-hardware (dot co dot uk), who I know Gordon on-list recommends. It has a 
> dual
> Xeon-CPU which, although old, will rip through compiling jobs pretty nicely with 16
> cores - pretty handy if you run source-distros like Gentoo like I did/do .. esp.
> making images for ARM boards with very low-power CPUs (think both computing and
> electrical low-power here).
>
> So, definitely horses for courses. I have a few ARM/Pi-type boards scattered around
> the house, all on my WiFi, for putting together a mesh home-automation network
> (combination of WiFi for networking, Zigbee for devices...) which should be
> useful/interesting for data capture and hardware control. Next step would be nice 
> to
> get some solar panels up .. and then I can switch my hot-water immersion from grid 
> to
> solar 'power'...
>
> Happy hacking and good luck! :D
> --
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-- 
regards
Eion MacDonald
--
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
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