Low power build

I was wondering what it would be possible to build as a low power machine to use as a home server? Am I better off trying to put a custom build together or buying an off the shelf solution?

Comes down to what you want to serve.
Do you want to host 50TB of local storage, serve and transcode media or just run home assitant etc.
 
Standard PC power supplies are too inefficient for use on a low-power PC so it's not easy. However, the ASRock N100DC-ITX motherboard has a 19v DC socket so can be powered with a laptop power supply.
Some people use a PICO PSU with a normal ATX board but they don't look very good quality to me. I wouldn't want to leave it on 24/7 in case it catches fire.
Another option is to use a NAS drive but I'd be worried about how long it's kept supported with updates.
Those are options I've been looking at for my own home server. Some people use a NUC with 2.5" HDDs for storage but I would rather use a solution that can accommodate 3.5" HDDs. A solution to that would be a NUC + Direct-attached storage (DAS).
 
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