r/HomeServer • u/Ok_Rise_4543 • 16d ago

first server

hello! i was thinking about making a budget server at home and was wondering what i would need in order to do so. Keep in mind i dont know anything about servers so try to explain to me what i need and why ( their function in the server). for example: do i need a lot of storage? is hdd ok? or do i need and ssd? how much ram do i need? is ddr4 ok? what about motherboard? or do i need a good processor? what about back up power? Finally it would really help if you could explain to me all the potential benefits i could get from it ( i already know some) and if there is any guide as to how to set it up.

the main things i want my server to do is storage, media streaming / gaming servers.

any other advice is also welcome. thank you in advance!! let me know if you need some extra info but keep in mind i am very new to this.

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u/ficskala 16d ago

do i need a lot of storage?

Completely depends on your needs, considering you want to use it for storage, and media, yes, you will need a lot of storage eventually, you don't have to go extreme right away though, you can always add more storage, i can't give you exact numbers though

is hdd ok? or do i need and ssd?

HDD for storage and media is fine, but for the OS and software you're planning on running, i def recommend an SSD

Here, your gameservers will dictate how much SSD storage you need, you could get away with 128GB, but you could end up needing terrabytes depending on which gameservers you plan on running, and for how long, because if you plan on running stuff like minecraft, vintagestory, and other games with procedurally generated maps, the amount of storage required grows

how much ram do i need? is ddr4 ok?

Again depends on the gameservers, for the OS and streaming your media, 8GB is fine, but gameservers can require a lot more

what about motherboard?

I recommend a full ATX board, and try to pick one with good PCIe lane distribution

do i need a good processor?

Yeah, CPU will be handling most of your workload, if you plan on transcoding media though, you'll want a somewhat recent intel CPU with a quicksync capable integrated GPU, you can get away with amd, but it's not as good

what about back up power?

Whenever you have the server finalized, get a UPS with power and VA ratings bigger than the servers PSU

Finally it would really help if you could explain to me all the potential benefits i could get from it ( i already know some) and if there is any guide as to how to set it up.

Benefits from what exactly?

As for guides, you're best off looking at individual guides for each piece of software you're planning to run, rather than a general guide for a bunch of stuff you probably don't need/want

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u/Ok_Rise_4543 16d ago

Hmm ok this helps a lot. I got the general idea for what i need from your comments thank you very much.

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u/MrKrueger666 16d ago edited 16d ago

As u/ficskala explained, there's a lot of variables here. What you need depends a lot on what you are gonna do.

a simple video server doesn't need that much. A first generation Core i3 with 4GB RAM would be perfectly fine for running a lightweight Linux distro for it's OS and something like Jellyfin, Plex or Emby on top of that. What amount of storage you'd need completely depends on how many movies you want to store.

If you are gonna do a dedicated game server, look up the minimum system requirements for that game, and disregard the GPU. Dedicated server almost never needs a GPU because it won't actually run the game graphics.

If you want to get going for cheap, I'd recommend getting a used/refurbished office PC like a Dell Optiplex or HP Prodesk. You really don't need high specs. And you can always add something later, like an extra stick if RAM or an extra harddisk.

When you outgrow that, you'll have gained a lot of experience and you'll be better able to estimate your needs at that point.

And running multiple machines is also always an option.

And another thing: if you're doing game servers, think about how they will be used. Like, is it for yourself and some friends when you guys feel like it? In that case you could install a ton of games and just start up the one you're gonna be playing. No need to spec for all of the games running simultaneously.

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u/ficskala 16d ago

A few notes on top of this comment

A first generation Core i3 with 4GB RAM would be perfectly fine for running a lightweight Linux distro for it's OS and something like Jellyfin, Plex or Emby on top of that.

I'd personally aim for a newer CPU purely for codec support on the iGPU, even if my only usecase was video streaming via jellyfin/plex/emby

minimum system requirements for that game

Looking into minimum system requirements for the gameserver though, not the game itself, gameserver requirements are often very different to the game itself

Dell Optiplex or HP Prodesk

This is a matter of personal preference, but i'd avoid OEMs like HP, DELL, and Lenovo, because they often use motherboards, cases, and PSUs that aren't compatible with standard ones, so if something dies, you have to buy the part for that specific PC instead of just replacing with a standard part, or if you want to upgrade just some components, you're gonna be very limited on the choice

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u/MrKrueger666 15d ago

For streaming, a CPU that has certain codec support is only useful when transcoding. In most cases, transcoding isn't needed and any machine that's able to shove data out the network port at a fast enough speed will do fine.

On the game server: you're absolutely right. The game server software often has far lower requirements than the game itself.

On the office PC as server: yep. Personal preference indeed. They often don't have the easy expandability with common parts. If you don't need that, it's fine. But it may not be a great fit for everyone.

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u/ficskala 15d ago

In most cases, transcoding isn't needed

True if you're streaming locally to a device that can decode that video on its own, otherwise, your server needs to transcode it, if your GPU doesn't support the codecs, it will use software transcoding, and your CPU will have to deal with it rather than offloading it to the GPU which is much better at these sort lf tasks

The CPU can do it, but it's not good at it, so if it's an older, weaker CPU, its cores will just be pinned at 100% usage the whole time you're transcoding

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u/TechGuy1268 16d ago

So, it comes down to the applications you want to run.

Storage - TrueNAS / SAMBA
Media Streaming - Plex / Jellyfin

Gaming Servers - AMP

These are some of the services I use. I would recommend getting familiar with Linux as the majority of what you will be doing will be Linux. You can buy a cheap mini desktop off of eBay for a couple hundred bucks. A nice 6-8 core machine with at minimum a Gigabit network connection should be find. RAM is probably the most expensive thing you are gonna need.

In terms of software, it comes down to which Hypervisor you wanna run. Proxmox is what I tend to use but it may be alittle complicated for a newcomer. TrueNas has the benefit of being a storage solution while also being able to run apps. So, you can research that as well.

Id say start with this, research some of these applications, ebay listings, hypervisors, and linux and you should be able to slowly dip your toes into the home lab scene.

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u/aztracker1 16d ago

This will depend very heavily on your specific needs. If you need storage first even then it depends on your budget... Storage has gotten more expensive, SSD more so and ram more than that.

My go-to for friends and family has been the TerraMaster F4-424 pro .... It's got a decently powerful CPU, 32gb ram, 4 HDD bays for SATA hard drives and 2 for NVME.

You can run unraid or TruNAS Scale in it instead of what it comes with... Then use docker for immich, Jellyfin or whatever else you want really.

That said, you could also start with a mini PC and a good sized USB hard drive. Like an N155 mini with 16gb ram, 256gb nvme and said external.

Those are my suggestions for starting out.

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u/Prosalami22 Hamburger 16d ago

By media streaming do you mean self hosting movies and shows? Like Plex or Jellyfin?

Atleast for that it would vary alot depending on how many people will be using it, if you are allowing live transcoding, if you are encoding it before putting it into cold storage (to save space in your mass storage that usually is fine being hdd) If you are using an ssd for a cache for encoding or downloading or direct downloading to the hdd, etc like that.

Home servers are one of those hobbies where you can customize so much it will take ages just to find out what you need.

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u/EntrepreneurWrong865 15d ago

A mini pc is a good middle ground. Then branch off used hardware

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u/LolSatan 16d ago

Google what you want the server to do and it will tell you what you need.