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"Recommended System Requirements" for buying a used PC for selfhosting (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 2 days ago by sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm ready to graduate from my Raspberry Pi era of selfhosting and buy hardware specifically for use as a server.

I've been recommended in the past to look for used Lenovo Thinkstations and/or Dell Optiplex, but it has been so many years since I've shopped for a computer, I don't know what kind of specs to look for. What are the types of specs I should look for to get the best value for money?

I'm hoping to spend around $300-400, get something that can be upgraded in the future to last 10+ years, and do the following things:

YUNoHost / reverse proxy
Nextcloud with a custom domain for email addresses, cloud drive, photos
Music Streaming with something like Navidrome
Serve static websites
pi-Hole
Maybe pi-VPN

And someday maybe:

Host game servers like minecraft
Jellyfin for videos
Kodi and output to TV?

So far based on my selfhosted journey, I expect to want the following:

Room for 3+ Hard Drives
External UPS (probably will go with the cheap APC at Microcenter that's always on sale).
Solid Power Supply / Cooling
probably 1000 gigabit Networking (?)

The types of questions I have for Thinkstations / Optiplex:

How is the Power Supply / Cooling?
Processor? Do I need i5? i7? Generations? AMD? Clock Speed? I'm completely lost here.
How much RAM do I need?
Do I need a discrete graphics card? Can Thinkstations / Optiplex have a graphics card added to them later?
Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks!

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[–] Cort@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Couple years ago I wouldn't have argued, but with graphics cards ballooning to 3+ slots, you have to be more careful about which slots on the motherboard have full enough lanes to support your cards. And you have to make sure your motherboard has the full x16 slot in the highest position which is less common on boards with m.2. otherwise there isn't room for expansion cards

[–] FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 18 hours ago

You're right, although I'd be considering narrower cards and maybe blowers. This is a server build, not a main rig. So I'd get a GPU that's as close as possible to a glorified encoder ad possible and pocket the power savings. I don't have ac where I live...