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! :)
Get a NUC or one of those mini Lenovo things that show up in lots of homelab photos.
no risk of laptop battery swelling
This is wrong. Any device with a battery can swell.
Welcome to the hobby! It’ll consume your free time and (if you’re the right kind of person) deliver lots of satisfaction.
Some mini-PC’s have room for more than one SSD. Those are more future proof. You can start with one SSD, discover what kind of stuff you run, only containers, only VM’s, or a certain mix of those. You can always add a second SSD later — when your enclosure allows it.
Retired business or surveillance hardware is worth checking locally too. My two servers are repurposed NVRs running plain Ubuntu Server, and a Dell OptiPlex handles dev work. For that list, I’d start with the hardware you can get affordably and check its RAM capacity and drive connections before buying. Docker on plain Linux keeps things straightforward. With Immich, budget for a separate backup of the photos before it holds your only copy.
Which part do you want to spend the least time maintaining: photo backups, remote access, or updates? I’m designing Doomsday Box, a home-server concept, and trying to understand what should work without constant attention. Your planned setup is relevant. Would you mind giving blunt feedback on the idea? https://heyeddi.com/projects/doomsday-box
Whatever is available on your local secondhand market. Mini PCs are usually pretty good. Less standard parts though, same with brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo.
I usually get amazon renewed dell, hp Lenovo here in the States. Laptops usually just come down to specs. Though I usually see them for around $250-$300 usd so a bit over your budget but will depend on what you can find more local to you.
These mini enterprise PCs pack a big punch for their size for desktop options. Might be able to find some if a local IT company is dumping old inventory near you
If it’s just for storage, you can use a Pentium from 10 years ago without issues. My NAS currently runs on a Pentium G4560T (T suffix = 35W model), which is based on Kaby Lake (7th gen Intel). You can pick up one of these CPUs for stupid cheap, I think they go for maybe $5 or $10 here in the US. The NAS has not complained at all. That said, I am going to upgrade it to an i5-6500 I have laying around, but only because the i5 has vPro capabilities, which I utilize on my other machines.
I bought myself an HP elitedesk G3 800, they come in three skews: mini, small form factor and tower.
I bought the tower. There is so much room. Look at the Elitedesk G4 800 because there you get 8 and 9th gen intel.
But I love mine, planning to put in three large HDD in her, already have two 2.5 SSD, I have been scouting ram and got relatively cheap second hand ram deals, with 32gb in the system. I am planning on getting the 7700t (the t variant is the low power draw version).
But the thing is quiet and can be upgraded but also just plonked on a desk and left to run no worries
I have a dell optiplex micro that has been running pretty much everything in my home lab. They sell for $100ish on Amazon and eBay.
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
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.
Yeah you’re right with the currency conversion. I’ll check IMB.
If you have options and the space go for 64bit CPU and midi sized office tower for expandability. If you want hardware acceleration for playback you need the check the docs (like immich vp9 > intel 9th gen CPU). What do you mean by cloud service?
By cloud, i rn mean smth like syncthing. Like basically a storage machine
So yeah, space will be an issue if you would go small… Some SSF may be enough but you will mostly need some special cables though. I got an SSF thinkcentre and managed to put 3x 2,5" HDDs inside (needed some machining).
Basically I would recommend something like an i5-9400 with 16gb ram in an tower case. Also have the PSU in mind, because some office PCs come with really low wattage, that could limit your expandability.
If you really want to stay with your mentioned software, 8GB could be enough though.
I’m using a Google Pixel 3a - yes, it’s weaker than your desired spec, but I think it should be still enough for most of anything. I’ve never used Immich, tho, I don’t know how heavy it is.
