I have never homelabbed, and this is going to be my first experience. I want to set up a home server. My current goals are to set up a gallery using Immich, an ad blocker/DNS using Pi-hole, and a cloud service.
I want you to suggest what second-hand PC or laptop I should get. I researched a bit and found out that a PC is better because of 24/7 reliability, better cooling, no risk of laptop battery swelling, easy RAM and storage expandability, and low idle power consumption.
What I think the specs should be for me is 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. And my budget is 10k INR.
I want to hear your thoughts. Thank you! :)
IMHO RAM>CPU. Anything released in the past decade will kick ass if it has a good amount of RAM. I still game on a 2016 desktop PC.
EDIT: Please correct me if I am wrong, but 10,000k INR =~ $100. If that’s the budget, then I highly suggest an IBM ThinkCentre Tiny. They use to sell for ~$100 (used or refurbished). They have no moving parts and make for great headless units.
How much RAM would you recommend ? I only find ones with 8Go (DDR3 mostly) in the ~100€ price range which seems a bit low
$100 usd is going to get you something pretty dire unless you luck out. It doesn’t take too much more to go from >15 years old to something <8 with a MUCH better CPU and ram options.
Ugh. You could get the 16gb 256GB I5 model, refurbished, for $159 not so long ago. 8 is not awful if you run a minimal Debian 13 server, but 12+ is ideal.
The key is searching local IT clearance shops. Also, if you are entrepreneurial, ping your local banks to see if they are willing to sell their old ones. The prize is in the units that aren’t certified for Win11 as they are essentially e-waste.
With the recent bs, I have noticed that most all of the off-lease usff boxes get stripped of ram and nvme disks before posting. 8gb is more common now.
Yeah you’re right with the currency conversion. I’ll check IMB.