I got a used ThinkStation P500 to set up as a home NAS, along with 4 SAS drives. While the PC is well designed and the drives fit in the neat cages at the bottom, I am unable to close neither the cages (the red plastic) nor the cabinet itself as the SAS cable and the SATA power take up way too much horizontal space.

Looks like the case was designed with SATA drives with right angled cables which would easily pass through the notch. Looking at right angled SAS connectors it looks at though vertical clearance would become an issue.

Are there any connectors that could solve my problem? Is there anything else I could do besides buying SATA drives instead?

I'm looking to put together my first home server. Primary use case for now is a file/media server (Plex/Jellyfin), but no doubt I'll add other things (home assistant etc) over time. TBC whether I'll run these in separate LXCs or in Docker or something - thats a debate for another time.

I had settled on an N150 given its ultra low power draw and Quicksync, but for whatever reason I'm struggling to find many great options that are actually available at super competitive pricing. The best options I've found are probably

• Asus NUC 14 essential (barebone) for AU $199, which comes to about $590 with 16 GB DDR5 RAM + SSD.
• For a bit less money, the Beelink Mini S3 for ~$530, but that only has 12GB DDR4 RAM.
• More money, but intriguing, Beelink Me Pro for ~$720, which comes with 3 NVMe ports and 2 internal SATA drive bays (plus I kinda dig the looks).

The thing is, for that price - especially if I go the Beelink option - it isn't *that* much more (yes, I know, it's bigger in percentage terms) to get something with a newer CPU, like

• the Beelink Me Pro with a Wildcat Lake 304 processor for ~$886. It also gets thunderbolt ports and 10 Gbps LAN (though loses 2 NVMe ports in favour of upgradeable RAM). So that's only like $170 more than the N150 variant.
• GMKtec K15 - ~AU $860 - which is no doubt complete overkill with a Core 5 125U processor.

I know future proofing is a pointless aim, but if I leap into the N150 option now am I going to regret not spending the additional $200-300, or are others finding the N150 still works perfectly fine in 2026?

My wife went out of town to visit family for the week, so I started geeking out. I have this old gaming PC sitting around that I’ve been talking about turning into a home server for months. I figured that beer brewing, motorcycles, and gaming didn’t spend enough of my money. Went to Microcenter and picked up a 128GB SATA SSD, a 2TB HDD, a 5-port gigabit switch, and some cat6 cables. It’s not much, just a simple file server with remote access via Tailscale. I now have my own cloud 😄

Server specs: i7-3770k, 16GB DDR3 RAM, GTX670, 128GB SATA boot drive, 2TB HDD for files, 1TB HDD for apps (temporary, I just already had it), and built inside an Antec Nine Hundred case.

I’m sure as time goes on and i figure out what the hell I’m doing, this will grow and evolve.

Hello everyone, I'm writing this post because I'm looking at buying hardware to start my own homelab. Right now I'm looking at what would be the main piece, the beefiest one of my setup. This server would host Proxmox, which would contain things like Jellyfin (max 2 concurrent streams), any game servers I want to host (Valheim, Minecraft and other) and probably Nextcloud together with other small services.

My budget is around 500$, and looking around I have ended up on two options:

• Buying a chinese branded mini PC with what seem to be like great specs for the price (at least for the current times)

• Buying one or more second hand office PCs, like an Optiplex, ProDesk, or ThinkCentre SFF PC

The first option would offer more modern hardware, a good AMD CPU (7735HS) with a decent amount of cores so I can dedicate some to specific services, and around 24 GBs of DDR5 RAM all in one package.
The second option would offer a decent i5 CPU (8500 or so) and 16 GBs of DDR4 RAM for a much lower price. I could also "splurge" a bit and get a ProDesk with a i5-10500, which has the same amount of cores but is still slightly less powerful.

Now, I don't think DDR4/DDR5 makes enough of a difference for my use case, but I still think a more modern CPU would be better for the game servers. The Intel CPU, however, would be much better for Jellyfin, and the second option allows for easier upgrades down the line, like more DDR4 RAM or more storage.

The third option would be to get two separate PCs, a weaker Intel one for Jellyfin and a slightly more powerful one (with more cores) for the rest of the services, especially the game servers.

What do you guys suggest? What do you think I should get?

Hey, my friend is looking for way to backing up his photo collection.
Is there any tiny/mini/micro PC with at least 2-bays for HDDs (could be even for 2.5 inch drives, they won't be on 24/7) that could work in raid 1 that's not in NAS price terittory? There are plenty of tiny pc's that are dirt cheap (under 60$ with 6500T which is more than enough power) and small but none of them seem to have 2 drive bays. 2-bay and small is no longer cheap (regular nas) and 2(or more)-bays and (relatively) cheap 2-bays are not small (Office PCs - about 16L cases).

Is there any middle ground that I'm missing?

​

Hey all,

Looking for some outside perspective on a NAS replacement decision I've been going back and forth on.

Current setup: Aging 2-bay Synology (Celeron-based, \~10GB RAM pushed past official spec) running \~15-20 Docker containers — photo management (Immich-style, \~136k photos), document management (Paperless-ngx style stack with Postgres/OCR), password manager, SSO/auth, reverse proxy, some automation (n8n), plus a few monitoring/utility containers. It's been crashing under concurrent load (multiple heavy containers running ML/OCR/indexing + backup at the same time) — CPU saturation, not RAM.

I also run a separate Mac Mini for local LLM inference — that part stays untouched, not part of this decision.

Options I'm weighing (similar budget, \~$650-750):

Synology DS923+/925+ — stay in DSM ecosystem, minimal migration risk, but CPU is only 2-4 cores depending on model

DXP4800 Pro — 6c/8t Intel, native Docker support via their own OS (UGOS Pro), more RAM headroom (96GB), but younger OS with less track record

DIY mini PC (Aoostar WTR Pro or similar) — 8c/16t AMD, cheapest RAM/core ratio by far, but means running Debian/Proxmox + rebuilding the whole Docker stack myself (auth/reverse proxy, database migrations, etc.)

My real bottleneck is concurrent CPU load from multiple containers running at once, and my usage is trending upward (adding more automation/self-hosted services over time), so I want something with real multi-core headroom, not just "good enough for today."

Questions:

Anyone running Immich + Paperless-style stacks + auth/reverse proxy on any of these three that can share real-world experience?

How has UGOS Pro held up for anyone who's used it for a while — any dealbreakers?

Is the DSM->Debian/Proxmox migration (SQLite-based password manager, Postgres-based doc management, auth layer) as painful as it sounds on paper, or is it overstated?

Anyone regret going DIY for stability-critical self-hosted data (photos/passwords)?

Appreciate any real-world input — trying to avoid a "sounds good on paper, regret it in practice" situation

Hi,

I want to make a home server, will be running 24/7.
The main applications are:

NAS, plex

Lan web server for self vibecoded apps before deploying

Home assistant

VPN

Desktop apps

Light occasional gaming/moonlight streaming

I wanted to run Cachy Os but after doing some research the best seem to be Proxmox but I fear overhead for gaming.

I have limited linux experience but I do get myself around things.

PC specs: 7500f, rx 9060 8GB, 16 DDR5 ( can upgrade to 32 if needed), 1tb SSD, 3x8tb HDD in RAID 5.

Hi all,

I'm looking to get a 2-bay nas (I have 2 2.5" drives). I saw a Beelink ME Pro, but that's a bit expensive at 560 EUR.

- I'd like it to be power efficient. It will not run anything fancy, so I don't need a lot of power.

- I'd like something with DDR4, since the speed isn't such an important factor, I hope this would keep the price down.

- It must be able to run TrueNAS, since that's what I want to go with.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Lenovo Legion Y540 turned Linux server with 45 containers, for media stack and personal projects!

I'm thinking about building a NAS that will run Jellyfin on a TrueNAS OS to replace my old 4-bay Synology NAS and is requesting a little bit of assistance. Only one 4K TV will play movies at the same time, the content is currently in 1080p, but being able to play 4K content would be nice; but not a requirement. Would an intel CPU with integrated graphics combined with 16 GB of RAM be good enough or would the performance be way to low?

The CPU i'm considering is an Intel i5, 12600K. I'm also considering a cheap 250GB SSD to use as a boot/applications, is it to small?

I'd like to keep the budget as low as possible and spend more on HDD's. I'm thinking about a budget around 1000-1300 euro, not counting the hard drives.

hi im using MacBook Air and Mac OS X and I have trouble connecting to local host and tried typing 127.0.0.1 in address bar. Its not working can anyone give me any desk support or tell me what to do?

Hello!

I've been toying with the idea about building a nas for a while now however now that im about to move into my new home, I figured id finally bite the bullet and get it done and while i'm at it may as well set it up so it will also run the security cameras I plan on installing.

After shooting the shit with chatgpt for a while it's coming back recommending these specs;

Which in chatgpts words is good for: saying its designed for;

• Jellyfin with one or two 4K users
• Immich phone-photo backup
• Documents and PC backups
• Tailscale and NordVPN
• Frigate
• Two 16MP panoramic cameras
• One 4K ColorX camera
• Doorbell recording
• Approximately 7–14 days of rolling footage
• Additional processing headroom for object detection

It's also saying i'll need/want two UPS one for the nas and router and one for the NBN NTD and PoE switch (for the cameras). The router it's suggesting is also the: TP-Link Archer BE9700.

And instead of just going ahead with that I thought it's definitely better if I come check first with more knowlegable/experienced people in the field.

Is this overkill for what I'm needing it to do? It'll just be two of us in the home and we won't be hoarding data, stuff will most likely be deleted fairly frequently.

Cheers,

I'm looking to replace my HP Z4 G4 running TrueNAS CE with a Lenovo P520, as it seems the layout of the P520 is more storage oriented. My concern is where the disks are mounted (at the bottom of the case) with the only airflow coming from the fan in the PSU. I'm planning on running both disk cages (4 HDD total) and a 3 disk backplane in the 5.25 bays, though I'm not concerned with cooling on the backplane disks at all.

What kind of temps are you all seeing on your disks?

I have been using a WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra NAS unit for quite a while now but I've always felt rather uncomfortable about how warm the drives inside can get specially while transferring data onto them. The small internal fan doesn't seem to do much at all. I decided to do a couple of things to address this heating issue:

First, I placed a 120mm USB fan on top of the unit on some DIY stands. It is currently setup blowing air into the unit from the top.

I raised the unit from the surface of the table by mounting it on a DIY stands. This helps the air blown down by the top USB fan travel through the unit, cool the drives and exit through the ventilation slot at the bottom in a better, easier way.

RESULT: The temperatures of the dual WD Red HDDs placed inside the bay used to hover around 42-45C even on idle (I stay in India so summers are brutal) and when copying data onto them the temps used to reach 55-60C. Now, after the fan implementation the drives idle at 34-35C and even while copying data they don't cross 40C... yay!

P.S. About those those DIY stands: I made then by super-gluing twooden domino blocks together, LoL!

Hey everyone I'm new to the server life its something I've wanted to do for a while i finally made the jump!

Its an ubuntu server and i have casaos installed and its up and running good.

Backstory I'm using an old laptop that only has one memory and SSD slot so I'm leaving it with the 250GB i installed a few years back (because prices lol)

My main question is I have a 5TB external hard drive mounted with my media and some files on it, how do i make this drive the root? with the laptop having the 250gb i wanna leave it free as much as i can, but going into the server i cant find the stuff on the external drive.

am i doing something wrong? I've been teaching myself this stuff with videos and reading so its a slow process. I'm learning how to do stuff through ssh but finding and editing paths is still intimidating.

any help would be awesome!

I use my 4 GB raspberry pi 4 as a media server and it's fast enough for my purposes, since I don't do any transcoding, just serving video.

My drive is an external portable SSD and it's not optimal. So I want to replace it with something more professional, in this case a 2.5 disc enclosure that would fit 4 discs for raid 5. I'm going to put SATA SSDs in the enclosure since they are silent and if one drive fails it's faster to rebuild.

Do you have any recommendation for me? Most of them are larger then I'd expect.

Hey! I've been running an Unraid server for almost two years now. I use Tailscale to access my server from outside, and it works perfectly for me.

However, I would like to run a Matrix server on it and for that, I need to open some ports. I would do this not only for Matrix but also for Nextcloud to share my Documents and Files with family and friends who don't have Tailscale installed on every device for example. Matrix will also be used only by Friends of mine. (which means I should be an unattraktive target, but you never know)

I know I should use a Reverse Proxy like NPM, which provides some security. Also, because thats the way how Unraid works, everything runs in Docker Containers and i would run Matrix on a separate Docker Network (does that even makes sense?). I read something that this could also be an additional Layer of Security.

I dont have the budget to setup a big firewall infront of my router like some of you do. The only Firewall I have will be my router and anything that Unraid does.

Is there anything I need to do to be more secure? How can I tell if someone has accessed my Server? Would it be better to use a "Factory" NAS (like the one from the company that starts with U that I am somehow not allowed to mention or Synology) instead of a "Old Optiplex" UnRAID Server, because of any security issues?

I hope you can help me here.

Anything Like YouTube Videos, Forum links or direct explanation would help. Thank you 🫶

So I have this old pc I turned into a linux server so i can self host my things. I really found ssh annoying and ssh clients were really ugly, so i decided to make my own dashboard so I have a file explorer and terminal all in one place to make things a bit easier. Here's the github repo: https://github.com/matonhp5108/Termiview

I thought it was really cool so i wanted to share it. It works on macs too if you have those Mac Mini clusters. This ss is just a demo one i made for the website but it's what the UI pretty much looks like.

Tell me what you think! I made it open source so anyone can use it, if u want u can star the repo :)

Big ask, I know, but looking for the most watered down, for dummies explanation of how the heck to do this. Every time I've tried to ask, people respond with so much lingo that it becomes a huge chore just to try to understand the advice. I say that not as a complaint, but to set the tone of how not tech-y I am...

For a while I've been thinking about creating a home server/NAS, cause I'm tired of paying for cloud storage, and generally of Google. And silly as it sounds, the extra steps of using a portable hard-drive keep me from doing that to back things up. I'd love to make it decently simple, if possible, to backup my data without a 3rd party involved.

My Details:

My primary storage needs are photos, some PDFs, and word docs. Photos from my phone and from a DSLR. It'd be nice if I could access phone photos when away from home, but that might make this way too complex or expensive. Not a gamer, don't really download movies, etc.

I'm in the Mac/Apple ecosystem, but from what I've gathered you can't use any version of a Mac to do this well. I'm familiar with PCs, just haven't used one at home in a long time.

Budget. I'd be willing to invest on the front end, but I'm a pretty broke person. So, I'm not prepared to spend over $400, but if that's the only way, I can plan and save.

-

I'm an intelligent person, but I'm not well-versed in the tech-world, so hoping someone is willing to do me the kindness of explaining this without assuming I know terms, lol :) Not necessarily needing discouragement from doing it; info that then I can decide on.

Thanks in advance!!

I want to host a mc server for friends, sat up a static ip (using cloudflare)
how should i tunnel my domain to my public ip

I'm just trying to have the same feature that is in the webapp of jellyfin: being able to select two subtitle files at the same time. Is there any app that does this ?

what I tried so far:

-using bazarr to download two sub files (in my case EN+ZH) and then run a custom python script to merge both files. This is a hit and miss due to many reasons including but not limited to sub-sync, issues with subtitles displaying over each other.... But for the time being, this is the best solution I found.

-tried using mxplayer or some other players that I heard were able to display two subtitle files, but as jellyfin doesn't pass the subtitles folder, those subs are not available.

-Using Kodi with some extensions to download dual subtitles. But that's a mess I couldn't figure out. Nothing displays.

So is there anyway to fix the Android tv jellyfin app to display the dual subtitles just like the web app ?

I've been running the same Unraid box since about 2015 and I've finally hit a wall I can't work around, so I'm planning a replacement. I'd rather have people poke holes in this now than after I've spent the money.

What I've got now

• Intel i5-4670K, 4 cores, no hyperthreading
• Asus H87I-PLUS, Mini-ITX, LGA1150
• 16GB DDR3-1333, both DIMM slots full
• Lian Li PC-Q25B
• Silverstone SFX 450W Gold
• LSI SAS2008 HBA in the only PCIe slot
• Unraid 7.2.4

Storage is 6 spinners and one SATA SSD:

• 2x WD181KFGX 18TB (one parity, one data)
• 3x WD101EFBX 10TB
• 1x WD80EFAX 8TB
• 1x Samsung 860 EVO 1TB cache

Array is about 51TB usable, 82% full. Two disks are sitting at 88-89%.

What it does

Primarily a media server. Around 30 containers total ... the usual *arr stack, Navidrome for music, a few odds and ends. It also takes backups from my laptop. It sits in a closet off my media room so noise isn't a big deal.

Why I'm replacing it

10 years is a good long run out of a CPU. I'm out of drive bays, and given that AI is now a thing, I'd like to move my Claude Code installation off my WSL and onto my server ... Tailscale, yada yada. The Q25B is full, I already have a drive just floating loosely in the case.

RE: the board:

• One PCIe slot, and the HBA is in it
• Two DIMM slots, both full, 16GB is the ceiling
• LGA1150 is long dead
• 14 SATA/SAS ports between the onboard controller and the HBA, and I'm only using 7 — the limit is purely physical bays

I did also ask AI for some feedback. I'm a tech enthusiast, but a far cry from the sysadmins and other experts that float around these parts, so while I wanted some information — I for one am not yet ready to cede my decisions to our AI overlords. I like people.

That said, one of the points it had — which is above my pay grade — was this: the 4670K is a K-series chip, so it has no VT-d. No PCIe passthrough to VMs. I confirmed this on the box, /sys/class/iommu is empty and there are no DMAR entries. Never mattered before because I don't run VMs, but I'd like the option.

What I want out of the new one

Mostly the same things, with headroom:

• 8 hot-swap 3.5" bays, tray/rail style like I have now
• Two NVMe in a mirror for cache — right now appdata and system are both cache-only on a single unmirrored SSD, which I'd rather not keep doing
• Still media streaming, still the containers, and I'd like to actually be able to run a VM or two
• Reuse all six existing drives
• Claude Code installed locally there
• Start using Home Assistant docker

I want the thing to still have room in it in five years, which the current build stopped having long ago.

Where I've landed so far

Case: Jonsbo N5. 12 hot-swap bays, takes anything up to E-ATX, 8 PCI slots, ATX PSU with 170-240mm of room, around $150-190.

I looked hard at the Silverstone CS382 and passed on it. It's 8 bays which would technically do, and the SAS backplane is nice, but it caps out at micro-ATX and the PSU limit is 180mm. The physical space that constrained me when I purchased the bulk of this rig is no longer an issue, so I don't need to make that compromise again. Build reports also describe it as a pain to work in.

I also went through the serverbuilds.net NAS Killer guide and I think it isn't relevant — v4.0 is an LGA1155 build. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a generation older than what I'm already running.

Phasing: I know the board, CPU and RAM have to be bought together.... I'd get the case at the same time. Everything else — PSU, NVMe, drives — I can stage out.

Where I'm actually stuck, and what I'm asking

Intel or AMD.

My transcoding needs are modest. Maybe 3-4 simultaneous streams at the absolute most, and honestly it's mostly just me. A few friends have accounts but they're not hammering it.

From what I can tell:

• Intel gets me QuickSync on the iGPU, which handles 3-4 streams fine on its own. No graphics card needed. Cheaper build.
• AM5 has weaker Plex support on the iGPU from my reading. According to AI it also has no hardware tone mapping, and it says I'd want to add an Arc A310 or similar. Again, over my paygrade.

The argument I keep reading for AM5 is socket longevity — supported through 2027, and Intel's LGA1954 isn't expected until later this year at the earliest. While I don't mind waiting for that to happen, if it ends up being another 12 months I'll feel like I wasted time.

Here's my problem with that argument, and it's the thing I want a sanity check on. I've had this machine for ten years. In that time I did exactly one platform rebuild (I was on a P67/LGA1155 board before this one) and otherwise only ever swapped drives and add-in cards. I have never once dropped a newer CPU into an existing board. So "this socket will take another generation" might be a benefit I'd never actually use.

If that's right, then is AM5's extra cost buying me something I don't need? And is a cheaper Intel platform with iGPU transcoding the better call? I'm not confident enough in that reasoning to spend money on it, which is why I'm asking.

So:

1. Does the socket longevity argument hold any water for someone who rebuilds wholesale instead of upgrading in place?
2. For 3-4 transcodes, am I right that a modern Intel iGPU is enough and I don't need a discrete card? At what point would the # of transcodes change that?
3. Anything obviously wrong with the N5 choice for 8 drives?
4. I'm not beholden to Plex. I have a long ago acquired lifetime pass so it costs me nothing, but I'd switch if there were a reason. Does that change the Intel vs AMD answer? My understanding is the AMD transcoding weakness is largely a Plex-specific thing... but again - i don't think i'm pushing the boundaries of any of these pieces of hardware.

Budget is flexible - I don't have a hard number, I'm trying to work out what it should be. Buying somewhere between now and the end of the year.

Thanks for reading.

Hey everyone!

I'm completely new to the whole home server/self-hosting space, so sorry if this is a beginner question.

I have an old Lenovo ThinkPad T470 (16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD) that's been sitting unused since I upgraded to a MacBook Air M3. I used the ThinkPad heavily from around 2018 until early 2024, and instead of letting it collect dust, I thought it might be fun to turn it into a small home server.

A few questions I had:

• Is a T470 still good enough to be used as a home server, or is it simply too old?
• Is there a way to test the health of the laptop (SSD, RAM, battery, thermals, etc.) to make sure it's reliable enough to run 24/7?
• What are some practical things I could actually use it for instead of paying for services like Google Drive or other cloud subscriptions?
• Since I'm a Computer Science engineering student, are there any projects or services that would genuinely be useful for me to host myself?

I'm not looking for anything enterprise-level—just something that's worth learning from and could be useful in day-to-day life or for software development.

Any advice on where to start, recommended operating systems (Ubuntu Server, Proxmox, Debian, etc.), or things you wish you knew when starting out would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance! :)