As I don't like to pay big tech companies for services that are stealing my data, some time ago I decided to change something in my life and set up a home server. I mainly wanted to create a solution to sync files from many devices, organize my movie collection as well as having my own instance of some password manager. I knew what software I need, but I wasn't sure about the hardware. And that's how I started spending more and more time on the [r/selfhosted][selfhosted] and [r/HomeServer][homeserver] subreddits.
Oh man 💀, it was long hours of reading and making difficult decisions, after all, I did not have an infinite amount of money, but I also wanted it to be equipment that would last me a good couple of years and which will be easy upgradable. It was also important to me that the server be quiet, and small so it wouldn't draw attention in a home environment.
End of the day, I did it! I put together a server that has been running smoothly for a year now and runs services I need in about 30 [docker containers][docker-containers]. If you are interested in what services I selfhost and what software I use to manage the server, you can read about it [here][homeserver-repo].
Since I didn't want to buy a separate graphics card, it had to be a processor with an integrated GPU which will handle video transcoding with Jellyfin. The whole server was to use the Proxmox platform, (I ended up with Ubuntu on bare-metal) so I wanted it to have at least 4 cores.
Many people on Reddit say that the only option for server usage is RAM with ECC (Error Correction Code), to maximally protect the server from data loss. However, I did not opt for such because of the price and the fact that the likelihood of an accident in which data will be corrupted by a RAM error is very low, and I keep several backups offsite anyway.
Well... I planned to use HDD drives, but found they were too noisy for the server which is located in my living room where I spend a lot of time, so I had to get SSDs. Note that the best option for server are SSDs with PLP (Power Loss Protection) but they are more expensive. 🤨
