Hi, I’m looking to buy a small computer to upgrade my setup for selfhosted servers. Right now I’m running containers directly on my qnap nas but I would like to migrate most of them on a dedicated server. I’m looking for something that could run docker with stuff like plex, arrr apps, Torrenring, wireguard, vault garden and more. I would like for that server to be very power efficient, something running with as low as 65w TDP or less and also I would like it to be a small computer, something like beelink or Lenovo tiny form factor for example . I looked some small pc from Lenovo, Dell, hp and as I understood it is a bit messy with the power usage depending of the cpu. So I was wondering what would me options be here? Is there other people here who also wanted to run power efficient servers if yes what did you found?

  • Faceman🇦🇺English
    5•1 year ago

    I just grabbed a Beelink S12 with N95 on amazon for pretty cheap with a coupon.

    According to PassMark it is roughly equivalent in raw performance to the venerable old i7-2600 but with the better modern IGPU for video transcode tasks and it should be able to chug away at what I want it to do with less than 20w total system power.

    Hopefully it means I can further downsize my main server to an i3 or pentium class CPU (went from dual Xeons, to a 6700k and looking to downsize further), and I’ll be able to decommission a couple of RPIs. to further clean up the rack.

    There are also tons of Lenovo, Dell and HP mini PCs with 4th - 7th gen intel chips available on the used market for very little money, they are excellent homelab units too as they are reliable and spare parts are common on ebay if needed.

    • ScrubblesEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      +1 for beelink. Little PCs are powerful. Call me paranoid but direct windows install shipped from China skeevs me out, but wiping it and putting linux on it makes it a great little server

      • Faceman🇦🇺English
        4•1 year ago

        yep Proxmox + VMs is the way I’m setting this new one up to replace a few PIs.

        Should end up running HomeAssistant, a security dashboard (with HDMI output to my video distribution rig) and whatever horsepower is left will be on demand for a video compression server node running Fileflows or Unmanic. if I can get GVT-G working properly, otherwise the dashboard and video encoder will share a VM with the full gpu. I just want to play with GVT-G.

        • slymOPEnglish
          0•1 year ago

          Why would I go with proxmox rather than only a ubuntu server with docker and portainer as front end?

          • Faceman🇦🇺English
            2•1 year ago

            No reason one way or the other. I just like trying different things pretty often.

          • @[email protected]English
            2•1 year ago

            If you have no need for a nice UI for VMs/Containers then there’s no reason. You can do everything proxmox does with CLI but with a lot more effort.

            • slymOPEnglish
              1•1 year ago

              If I’m not mistaken, proxmox does not support container right?

                • slymOPEnglish
                  1•1 year ago

                  I have to learn about lxc container, I’m use to docker container but lxc is a mystery for me haha. Thanks

                  • @[email protected]English
                    1•1 year ago

                    LXC is a lot more like a VM, where you just get an OS and you have to set up things inside. Whereas docker is pre-made images that are already set up and ready to go.

    • @ZikejiEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      +1 for a used Lenovo. I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q I used to run as a server I got for ~$50 with an i7-7700. Only thing it was missing was an A/C adapter which set me back ~$30 IIRC.

      When I’m looking, I’ll browse eBay’s desktop category sorted by ending soonest auction only and occasionally something will pop up that is worth it.