Hardware What kind of "home server" should I buy for PMS

Noctosphere

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Hello
Recently, I've been considering changing of PC, but good PCs are expensive right?
The main reason of why I want to do that is because my CPU is VERY old, and I'd have to change most of my computer to upgrade it
Why do I want to change of CPU? Because I run a Plex Media Server on my computer 24/7 and now, the cpu seems to get a bit slow
Plus, my CPU can only support 2 Plex Client. When it runs 3, everyone start getting lag, both all clients and my games on my computer...

So, as I said, PCs are expensive and I don't have the funds to buy one right now
However, I heard about Home Server that might be cheaper

Here I am, I'd like to learn more about those Home Server, what do I need exactly for my usage?
Here's what I'd like to do with it
  • Run PMS and support more than only 2 clients
  • Run Bittorrent since most of the files that'll be on it will be linked to torrents
  • I'd like to be able to configure it from my main computer, without the need to plug screen, mouse and keyboard on it at first
  • Have a usb port or a bay for my 6TB External hard drive
If anyone can teach me a bit about home servers, it will be very appreciated
thanks


PS : I knoe we mustn't talk about warez, but PMS and Bittorrent aren't to my eyes. It's more like what you do with it that can cause trouble
I hope mentionning them won't get me banned
Thanks :)
 

Sicklyboy

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I built a NAS with the core components being the cheapest I could find at Microcenter. A clearance, open-box microATX motherboard (idr what model but pretty sure it was Gigabyte B450M DS3H) for $48, cheapest Ryzen cpu, a Ryzen 3 2200G for like $60, $16GB of DDR4 RAM (eventually upgraded to 48GB), an actually decent but not overkill Coolermaster PSU, and a 240GB store-brand SSD (eventually also got an NVME SSD to do RAID1 for the boot disk). All of the core components cost me under $300. A 2U rackmount case cost me another ~$150.

And then I threw in the storage. 8x 8TB drives in a RAID-Z2 (ZFS RAID6). 64TB total, 48TB usable. Those cost me about $130 a piece, plus a few bucks extra for SATA cables, SATA power splitters, and PCIe SATA HBAs.

OS-wise, I run Freenas on it, and have multiple iocage jails set up for things such as Sonarr, Radarr, Qbittorrent, PMS, etc etc etc. I've thrown 3 simultaneous live transcodes at it, all off-network, while downloading and importing other media, and it's held up fine, even with 4k content.

Once I get some time I'm gonna migrate all of the iocage jails off of this and run them as individual lxc containers or VMs on my Proxmox virtualization rig, which has a LOT more horsepower behind it, and will also have an old GPU dedicated for Plex hardware transcoding. That said, while it has been reliable and seemingly powerful enough for me and my friends to use with no hiccups, I don't have any hard benchmarks to give you.

As far as...

  • Run PMS and support more than only 2 clients
  • Run Bittorrent since most of the files that'll be on it will be linked to torrents
  • I'd like to be able to configure it from my main computer, without the need to plug screen, mouse and keyboard on it at first
  • Have a usb port or a bay for my 6TB External hard drive

1) You won't need to go overkill with it. Something that'd qualify as a "budget gaming computer" is likely going to be perfect. Not including your case or storage, IMO you shouldn't need to spend more than around $400 to have something that's going to be quite serviceable (mine cost me under $300 not including my case and storage). Note that Plex -hardware- transcoding only works on Intel and Nvidia GPUs currently. So if you get an Intel CPU with integrated graphics, or a standalone Nvidia GPU, you'll be good as long as you pay for Plex Pass. AMD GPU, including onboard Ryzen graphics, can't currently be utilized, so you'll be doing all CPU-based transcoding. Another thing to keep in mind is OS overhead. The more crap your OS has to run is going to take valuable resources away from actually getting stuff done. Windows isn't going to be great for this. Something CLI-based with a web UI is going to be much better. Freenas (built on FreeBSD) is pretty lightweight and I had a good time learning how to use it. Proxmox (built on Debian Linux), if you want an actual dedicated virtualization environment, also good. Ubuntu Server, if you wanted to choose your own virtualization suite, also good. The latter 3 are all free.

2) See #1

3) See #1. These lighter-weight OSes like Freenas and Proxmox are, outside of the initial OS install and any post-install troubleshooting you have to do, entirely controlled via web UI and/or SSH command-line. You do not need a monitor hooked up outside of seeing what you're doing while installing the OS, and any troubleshooting you have to do like if your system doesn't boot for some reason. Shove it under a desk or a bed or something, my servers are all in a closet in my living room.

4) To be blunt, any system you build is going to have a USB port to plug the drive into, and you'd be pressed to find something today without USB 3.0 if that's a concern. Many motherboards/desktop cases are also coming with a USB type C port nowadays too. That said, I'd suggest you look into shucking the HDD (removing it from the case) and installing it in the computer as just a bare HDD if you're not planning to have it be portable anymore. Those external HDD shells tend to have shit airflow which can lead to the untimely death of your HDD.

upload_2020-7-12_19-27-29.png


upload_2020-7-12_19-28-12.png


upload_2020-7-12_19-29-58.png

Those WD white label drives in my NAS were all helium-filled WD Easystore/Elements/MyBook external drives that I ordered online and pulled the case apart on so I could just use the internal drive inside it. WAY cheaper than buying standalone bare drives of the same capacity, though the spec sheets for these are kind of a mystery since they're not "intended" to be used this way. I still have the enclosures so I can warranty them if needed.
 
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Noctosphere

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thanks for the explanation
But are there any model pre-built?
Or do I have to build it myself?

Because I never manipulated MB and I don't know how they work with cases
I mean, are there specific MB for specific cases? like is a MB with entry for USB and ethernet gonna have them set to the right place in the case?
 

Sicklyboy

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Pre built, you could look on ebay and find a used, pre-built server. Or go to your local office supply or electronics big box store and just buy a pre-built desktop computer from them. But you're going to be paying a premium that way, particularly with the pre-built desktop computer. If you buy a server you'd want to be looking at something that's a few years old and is probably retired from an enterprise environment.

IMO building it yourself is the way to go, but if you've never built a computer before it can be a bit of a daunting proposal. As far as cases, most motherboards will fit in any case, with the exception of a case that's specifically only for a mini-ITX motherboard not accepting micro/full ATX (larger board). All motherboards have a panel on the back with a cluster of ports (called your IO Panel) that's going to have things like audio ports, USB ports, VGA/DVI/HDMI/Displayport, Ethernet, possibly wireless antenna connectors, etc, and then the motherboard will also almost always have a connector on it for you to plug in the front-panel USB header from your case onto the motherboard so that works as well.

If you're curious about building your own computer I'd recommend to check out Linus Tech Tips on youtube (who is sometimes helpful) and reddit.com/r/buildapc
 

Noctosphere

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Pre built, you could look on ebay and find a used, pre-built server. Or go to your local office supply or electronics big box store and just buy a pre-built desktop computer from them. But you're going to be paying a premium that way, particularly with the pre-built desktop computer. If you buy a server you'd want to be looking at something that's a few years old and is probably retired from an enterprise environment.

IMO building it yourself is the way to go, but if you've never built a computer before it can be a bit of a daunting proposal. As far as cases, most motherboards will fit in any case, with the exception of a case that's specifically only for a mini-ITX motherboard not accepting micro/full ATX (larger board). All motherboards have a panel on the back with a cluster of ports (called your IO Panel) that's going to have things like audio ports, USB ports, VGA/DVI/HDMI/Displayport, Ethernet, possibly wireless antenna connectors, etc, and then the motherboard will also almost always have a connector on it for you to plug in the front-panel USB header from your case onto the motherboard so that works as well.

If you're curious about building your own computer I'd recommend to check out Linus Tech Tips on youtube (who is sometimes helpful) and reddit.com/r/buildapc
alright so you tell me that nowaday, i can get pretty much any MB and any case and theyll both fit together?
 

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Have you considered asking in the Plex forums? There is a lot more institutional knowledge of the subject over there.

And no, not every motherboard will fit every case. In fact all kinds of PC parts are completely incompatible with one another. That was true in 1985 (when I built my first PC), and is actually even more true today.
 

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Have you considered asking in the Plex forums? There is a lot more institutional knowledge of the subject over there.

And no, not every motherboard will fit every case. In fact all kinds of PC parts are completely incompatible with one another. That was true in 1985 (when I built my first PC), and is actually even more true today.
Alright, then how do i know if all the pc ill buy are compatible togheter before i buy them?
 

Tom Bombadildo

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The biggest questions glossed over:

What's your budget?
What are your specs now?

If your PC is like...real old and you're on a tight budget chances are you can pickup the highest end CPU for your PC for super cheapo, max your RAM out for cheapo, and possibly get better performance for super cheapo.

If you have a decent enough budget (ie $300+ USD) and you don't want to build it yourself, pick up like a cheap Dell Optiplex and you'll probably be good to go with just that. These days you can get like a 4th gen i7, 16GB of DDR3, and a 128GB SSD+1TB HDD for like $300 or so. As Sickly mentioned, shove Proxmox or Freenas on it so you have little overhead and then you should be able to do 5+ users at once easy.

If you want to build it yourself (which, like Sickly, I would strongly suggest), you could pickup some cheapo B450 motherboard (around $100), a Ryzen 3 3200g (around $100), 16GB of DDR4 (around $60), a decent 500W PSU (around $50, but shortages are causing supply issues :(), and you should be fine. If you need a case, anything that supports a micro ATX case will work just fine. 99% of the time any ATX case you buy will support both ATX and Micro ATX, but I would avoid full sized ATX cases just because they're fucking huge and unwieldy.
 

Noctosphere

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The biggest questions glossed over:

What's your budget?
What are your specs now?

If your PC is like...real old and you're on a tight budget chances are you can pickup the highest end CPU for your PC for super cheapo, max your RAM out for cheapo, and possibly get better performance for super cheapo.

If you have a decent enough budget (ie $300+ USD) and you don't want to build it yourself, pick up like a cheap Dell Optiplex and you'll probably be good to go with just that. These days you can get like a 4th gen i7, 16GB of DDR3, and a 128GB SSD+1TB HDD for like $300 or so. As Sickly mentioned, shove Proxmox or Freenas on it so you have little overhead and then you should be able to do 5+ users at once easy.

If you want to build it yourself (which, like Sickly, I would strongly suggest), you could pickup some cheapo B450 motherboard (around $100), a Ryzen 3 3200g (around $100), 16GB of DDR4 (around $60), a decent 500W PSU (around $50, but shortages are causing supply issues :(), and you should be fine. If you need a case, anything that supports a micro ATX case will work just fine. 99% of the time any ATX case you buy will support both ATX and Micro ATX, but I would avoid full sized ATX cases just because they're fucking huge and unwieldy.
thanks for the details
my budget is around 300-400CAD
Also, do you think this one could be ok?
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/QNAP-TS-431...309931&hash=item3da6adbc28:g:YIUAAOSwyodfBdjZ
 

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Noctosphere

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That's a low spec NAS, it has a very low-end ARM SoC for it's CPU and would run infinitely worse than whatever PC hardware you're running now. It's only expensive because of the HDDs.
okok
well, as you can see in my signature, my current cpuis an old Intel i7-2600 3.4ghz 4core
I'd like to change it, but I'd first need to change my motherboard
And to change my motherboard, I don't know if I'd need to change of case since I have no idea if the MB will be compatible :(
 

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If you want like an actual server chassis, try looking for some old Dell or HP server. I recently decked out a Dell Poweredge R710 myself for like $400 USD, you can probably find some decent ones around for $400 CAD no problem that should do the job.
Like this, after a quick 5 second eBay.ca search: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dell-PowerE...065842?hash=item2ae5cd5632:g:HA4AAOSwJUdeYDuO


As for upgrading your current machine, chances are it's using an ATX or micro ATX motherboard. Run https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html < CPU-Z and go to the "Mainboard" tab and tell us what it is
 

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If you want like an actual server chassis, try looking for some old Dell or HP server. I recently decked out a Dell Poweredge R710 myself for like $400 USD, you can probably find some decent ones around for $400 CAD no problem that should do the job.
Like this, after a quick 5 second eBay.ca search: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dell-PowerE...065842?hash=item2ae5cd5632:g:HA4AAOSwJUdeYDuO


As for upgrading your current machine, chances are it's using an ATX or micro ATX motherboard. Run https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html < CPU-Z and go to the "Mainboard" tab and tell us what it is
what do i need to install exactly? the Setup under Classic version?
 

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