So, this open computer has been my homelab for a good while now, but I desperately want to upgrade it, so please recommend any hardware/upgrades.
Edit: I will use this server primarily as a media server! (shock) Edit2: I’m based in Norther Europe, so Amazon is not an option for me.
Current hardware: /What you see on the picture
- Motherboard: B250M Performance
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 (defect, runs like an airport as soon as it needs to do ‘a heavier task’)
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-7500 CPU @ 3.40GHz
- CPU Cooler: Some cheap XILENCE fan
- RAM: 16 GB
- PSU: WPM600 Bronze
- Case: Custom company (defo want to replace)
- Storage: 1TB HDD + (2TB HDD but dead)
What I have to spare from previous build;
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060
- CPU Cooler: AMD Stock fan (doesn’t fit this motherboard)
My recommendation is that you not put a large number of hard drives in this machine. Instead, buy or build a separate NAS for data storage, and put fast networking into the machine instead. You will thank yourself a few years down the line when a single drive has a fault, or you decide to add additional storage, because you won’t have to take your server offline and slice your hands to ribbons accessing the drives. Probably the best decision I ever made in my homelab was to get a Synology NAS with hot-swappable drive bays. They are compact and easy to maintain. (I do wish they had faster networking built in, but you can get expansion cards to enable 10G if you have it.)
If I were rebuilding my media server today, here’s what I would do:
- Newest possible Intel i5 processor with onboard graphics
- 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro NVME (or SSD)
- Any good Noctua-branded CPU fan
- Any good gold power supply
- Any compatible motherboard
- 64 GB RAM (Your media server won’t need this much, but if you ever want to install any other VMs or containers on the server, it’s nice to have a large pool of RAM available to make that happen.)
- A two-port 1gbe network card (for link aggregation)
I would not put a discrete graphics card or any spinning platter hard drives in the machine. For the OS, I would install Proxmox and then create a virtual machine or container for your media server. Since you are using the graphics on the CPU, pass-through of the graphics will be much easier this way.
I would direct any additional funds to an external NAS and a UPS that can tell the server (and NAS) to shut down when power is interrupted.
That cpu supports quick sync so it might be enough for your needs even without GPU. It would use less power and produce less noise. I wouod probably sell GPUs and buy SSD + HDDs
For us Europeans, we have to consider efficiency a lot.
My server with a b450 + 2700X + Arc A380 + 2 HDDs idles at 60W with no power tuning.
With a 0.30€ per kwh assuming always idle, that is 160€ per year.
You might be better buying an Intel NUC.
You van get a nuc13 with an i5-1240p that has decent transcoding power and idles at 8W. That is a ton of power savings per year vs consumer desktop hardware. I would do that if I had to make my server over again. Essentially the same cost with much lower power costs.
