Home Server Specs - advice

[Toms88]

Hi all - Just looking for some advice on hardware for a new home server.

Purpose: Virtual Host (either vmware esxi or proxmox most likely)

Hosts:

• Plex Server (NAS is hosting content)
• Unifi Controller
• Home Assistant
• MQTT Server
• General purpose VM (maybe linux or windows not sure yet)

So really not a heavy load most of the time, plex rarely has more than 2 streams going at most 4. I have graphics cards available to use in this server already.

Ideally would like this to fit in a 2u-4u short depth server case.

Idea is low cost, low power but without compromising too much on features. Looking at around £400-500. I already have plenty of HDD's so really just CPU, RAM and Motherboard/PSU.

**i should add im more than happy to look at second hand parts for this. I was looking at some PowerEdge towers or Proliant but keen for some thoughts first**

 

[Buffalo2102]

The first question I would have is whether Plex is going to be transcoding at all as that will have the greatest impact that I can see.

I have a Dell T20 with a Xeon 1225 v3 and 16GB RAM running Proxmox. I have 6 permanent VMs running including dns, serviio, tvheadend and a web/mail server. It's more than enough for my needs but all of my videos are in a format that works for all of my devices so I don't need to transcode.

 

[Avalon]

You could throw all of that on an R210-II or R620 for £100ish, the R210-II is short depth and low power/reasonably quiet. However the 210 isn’t GPU friendly and without knowing your transcoding requirements, i’d be hesitant to suggest it’s the best option. Power efficient would be something intel based with iGPU (assuming you have Plex Pass) and likely 6th or ideally 7th gen onwards, without a Plex Pass, used a Ryzen 1700/2700 and an older board is a lot of raw CPU transcoding power for not a lot of money and surprisingly power efficient (1700 is a 65w TDP chip), but you usually need a GPU which adds to the cost/power usage. AMD GPU/iGPU sucks for transcoding sadly.