How to Build a Budget Home Server and WHY You Should!
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2024
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In today's video I’m showing you exactly how I built this ultra budget home server, and I’m also explaining to you why I think you should build one as well. I give multiple examples of things to do with a home server including building a NAS, setting up a home media/Plex server, and even how to experiement with Linux with a virtualization platform.
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im wondering if you can bit-lock a separate storage hard drive, even within the same case
Hey @Zach’s Tech Turf can you set up a minecraft Java server on this?
Can you do a build guide?
Hi, what other video? I didn't see any other link to it.
It's finally here
czcams.com/users/shortsMkS0BIE9n1U?feature=share
For domestic use - I strongly recommend splitting your server into two systems. One that's always-on and the other that's an archival tank. If you're only serving media at home (especially if you live alone which is increasingly common now) this makes more sense as the tank can be put into suspend or turned off much of the time reducing wear (to an extent) but also reducing power consumption and heat output. I've been using this configuration for over 20 years and it's extremely successful. The main always-on server will store newer stuff, etc. - and I find I wake the storage tanks up only once or twice a month usually.
For the small low powered always on system - a raspberry Pi with an external USB spinner drive (usual ones you buy from Amazon, etc.) is remarkably good if it's running from a USB3 port. A Pi 4 is pretty much ideal - well known, well supported, low power consumption, etc. but insanely hard to get due to supply issues with components; there are other equivalents but you won't have quite the same level of community support for configuration.
Personally I find Debian 11 ideal for both, I can run extremely old hardware yet enjoy very high spare processing capacity left as Debian 11 with LXDE as a desktop is so lightweight. One example is an HP Microserver (N40L) from 2012 - has an old AMD twin core processor but with just 2gig of ram it's remarkably responsive and moving files around, serving files, etc. isn't CPU intensive. I don't transcode video on the fly though - that's less necessary if your video player is good (look for a variation on Kodi called "xbian" from xbian.org/ - they also make a build for a raspberry pi (takes over the whole machine) which is EXTREMELY well done, in fact you could probably get away with making that your always-on server and configure it to blank the screen it's plugged into (e.g. TV) when not in use.
For the storage tank server - I also configure WoL (Wake on Lan) which is already built in to pretty much all systems these days as it's used in corporate networks a lot. It lets you wake up or turn on remote systems over the network (I use a scripting system), I have a similar method to run a script on the machine to put it to standby or turn it off as well.
Another trick - if your tank is running Windows install "Everything" from voidtools.com - freeware search system which can instantly find files on the entire machine if they have NTFS drives. It can also be used to export a flat file list of all the files on the server - you can search through this listing as a text file to see what you have without powering it on. I wrote a batch file for windows systems (I connect to them with Windows Remote Desktop RDP) and the script exports the full list of files as a text file to my Pi and then issues a "hibernate" command to suspend the machine and write memory to a file on disk. Waking it later on (even with WoL) restores it to its former state. it's not "fast" but it works.
Sure, this configuration may be a little more technical for some people bu the jump is certainly worth it - the auxiliary skills you pick up are REALLY valuable now. The Pi is unique in that it has a very good introductory community around it and it's technically simple - it's like learning to maintain a car by buying a simple mechanical vehicle with few complications, the Pi is more like that than even a PC.
For costs - drives are your main cost but for the tank you can get away with remarkably old and/or basic hardware, an old PC that you no longer use may do the job.
100%
Can I hire (ie pay} you to consult for / help me with my home set up?
I'm a complete noob to this kind of set up but tend to learn quickly
Brooo I just wanted to watch some Gundam downstairs instead of upstairs all the time... lol jk You seem to really know your stuff. You have a job offer in the comments here 😁
@@zerocal76 job offer? I have been doing this a little while, I'm far from a world authority but I have found a few things that worked for me reasonably well. Trick is to start with your information management requirements first and work back from there - whatever you bolt into place invariably serves that purpose if you stick to it at all times.
Raspberry Pi's are expensive. A thin client is better and more powerful. None of what you promoted is enterprise. If you keep using non enterprise software you will never learn how to use enterprise software like Active Directory.
Zach's a homelabber.... ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
Sure am. Need to start sharing this more with you guys haha
@@ZachsTechTurf Proxmox for the win.
This is the way!
Definitely do more of these home networking videos if possible. I'm about to reconfigure my whole home network so these will come in handy. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear it. Good luck with your big project!
@@ZachsTechTurf can you do a full build and setup video as well I’m just straight up incompetent
@@ZachsTechTurf Do a home network tour!
Seconded
Thirded
Interesting video and definitely some food for thought.
I upgraded my cpu, motherboard, ram, drives and chasis a while ago. Now while my system is still capable a x79 platform with 6cores/12 threads & 32gb of quad channel memory I don't think it'll sell too well in a flip due to its age. Making it the home server may be a good idea. It would also save having the family minecraft server on my PC, meaning I wouldn't have to turn my PC on when the kids want to play minecraft.
I have several older computers under consideration for this project.
I've wanted to have a server so I can hose an online game for a friend.
I also want to have one linux based computer set up as my Internet Gateway.
Thanks for all the great information. I'm just beginning to study networking; and you've been a great help making it easier to learn.
I love your style how u explain things,Zach! I am interested in learning more in your server videos so keep making those lovley informative videos
Love the video Zach! I am interested in learning more in your server videos. Keep up the good work
Glad to hear it!
Recommending using Windows for a server is a crime. Your server is your sacred temple, allowing spyware system to run it is not smart.
Though I'm a Windows user since birth I cannot disagree. Even I, with no Linux experience, would NEVER run it on Windows.
There’s nothing wrong with ws. You look like a child trying to act different
What would you recommend?
I mean, safe? Not compared to Other operating systems. Easy to manage? Extremely
@@BeamNGLynx I wouldn't say that's the case. With modern systems designed specifically to run on NAS or general purpose servers, most setup is as easy as clicking a few things and everything is done for you. TrueNAS is quite simple to use.
Loved it. I was just searching building a home server, perfect timing. Let's see more content like this!
Haha perfect!
Nice video! I am planing to build a home server in the next few years to run all my house applications such as internet, storage and adblocking (planning to use pfsense, truenas and pihole) and this video gave me some ideas! Keep doing this videos man, I loved it!
I got super excited finding this channel only to find this is basically the only video in the series... Hope you pick it back up. I really enjoy the way you broke it down.
I'm a fairly techy person, but my home server build has been a rabbit hole. I'm interested in videos like this to see what others have done with theirs.
You should make a full tutorial video on this subject, I’m sure a lot of people would appreciate that.
That's what I'm thinking as well :)
very useful video, honestly really dumbs down and simplifies the entire concept of a server. I used to be daunted at the idea of setting up all these numerous complicated apps through bios and sideloaded OSs, but in reality it's as simple as installing a few programs and you're off to the races!! tysm for this, definitely will be using my old gaming rig as a media server!
When using a used drive I recommend putting it in a raid with another drive, as you never know what condition it’s in and it might fail at any moment. In a raid (as you probably know), if one (or more, depending on your configuration) fails, you can reconstruct your data with the remaining drives.
Exactly what I was gonna say🤌
@@pci_ethan (:
or just keep in mind to not store ANY important data in there. I think that's fair deal for a 4tb HDD for 43€. Of course it depends on the user. In my case it would be server just to share some games and videos between PC and laptop - basically redownloadable content
Backup is better than a RAID
raid is to much trouble just get one drive
Appreciate the video, been wanting to move beyond just a NAS and this is helpful! Want to note, used workstations with Xeon CPUs are available on the used market for a decent price. Even possible to get ECC ddr4 memory for them, even if it isn't necessary to get started. Might be able to build out an 8-core Xeon W series for an affordable price and have room to grow.
I think I have the same server rack (Navepoint). I freaking LOVE it! It's shallower than the full-sized server racks, so it doesn't take up too much space in my office. My PC, home server, UPS, switch, even a 4U drawer for all those extra bits and bobs - it's all in the rack, and I still have room to grow. Planning on adding a Pfsense firewall soon.
Can you be more specific which navepoint you had? What model? I really like the look of this one.
My work just recently expensed a bunch of Dell OptiPlex 5060's so I took 3 home and threw them alongside my Dell PowerEdge R710. People underestimate small desktop PCs being capable of being home servers, whether you want to create a Minecraft server (which is one of my OptiPlex's) or a virtualized lab environment for CyberSecurity or IT solutions, you can't go wrong with something like an OptiPlex. I utilize the 3 OptiPlex's as a Minecraft server, Windows Server 2019 forest for SysAdmin labs, and a web server.
Now you're speakin' my language #PlexGang
Glad to hear it!
Great video dude. I built a windows server 2022 build to run WDS and MDT with a custom task sequence for all my flips. I absolutely love Parsec as well, so when I’m at work and no tickets come in I can remote into my editing rig and server. Keep this content coming.
I'm gonna get my old dell optiplex out of storage tomorrow so I can start to play with this stuff. I got my first IT job recently and I've got the itch to learn more.. and MORE... AND MORE!!! Haha great intro video, dude.
Was just thinking about doing this, perfect timing.
Very nice, hopefully this helped
Watching this vid helped me understand the concept a bit better. I have been using an older Acer Aspire media PC as a Plex server for awhile now. I was previously using a budget Celeron build I did in 2020 as the server but that has since been upgraded and repurposed for photo editing. Watching this has me kicking around the idea of adding more features to the Aspire such as having it run as my NAS with an external raid enclosure.
Hey! There's a topic that really bugs me: how to properly size the computing power, or CPU power, according to the tasks you have in mind for your server... I see all kind of builds, from mITX CPU on board Celeron based mobos, up to beefy Ryzen or iCore, but I'm missing a scalability rule... like: how far can I go with a quad core celeron.. or an eight core atom... I'm currently researching building my second NAS (first one is Raspberry pi based with two USB drives attached) and I have a hard time deciding on a CPU and mobo combo as I want a low power build that has just enough muscle to handle my needs with just enough margin...
I love that you’re not afraid of branching out and trying new video ideas. This was great. Definitely interesting content. Keep up the baller vids 🏀
That is definitely a good video. I got more and more ideas, I'll be using my old desktop (4 gigs of RAM) for a more productive solutions like these:)
This channel deserves more engagement than it does now. Kudos 👏👏
I have a similar setup. Works great for moving/sharing files and streaming my dvd collection to all the TVs in the house.
I also connected some IP security cameras to my setup.
Very nice! What software are you using for the cameras?
Hell yeah, the home networking stuff is great, keep the content rolling!
Is it required to have a GPU even if the server is not for gaming? Strictly for Plex and to access files from all the pcs on the network. Tks
In that case you shouldn’t need a dedicated GPU , for convenience you may want an iGPU to help interface with your server
if your processor has onboard GPU than you do not need stand alone GPU... if your cpu doesn't have on board video you'll need gpu
My server’s motherboard did not come with a video out so a GPU was required to display the screen
You do not need a graphics card to display video. OpenGL uses the CPU to create video. There is probably some Linux alternative
For pley you might want a gpu of some kind for transcoding to other resolutions
Great video for a beginners like me. Thanks a lot!
Love your work, Zach. Great vid.
awesome stuff, waiting for more content like this
I just got an old 2U rack server from my workplace. it has 2x Xeon E5 2660 8core cpus 500gb of ram and like 8 sas drives. this video is perfect cause I thought about what to do with it and you gave me some Ideas. thank you so much
Thanks for this video. This will help me a lot!🙂
Very nice!
Thanks. This is the video I wanted to see.
Hopefully you liked it!
Nice to be here, I look forward to learn something new!
This man is so underrated
Like brooo
Just keep up the good work
Looking to buy a used server (like dl380 g8) but it seems like it's simply smarter to spec out a new server with modern parts, as the extra investment upfront will be raked in through savings in the power bill, and some workloads I plan to have (like game-servers) require good single-core performance, which an 8 year XEON just can't deliver. I hoped to upcycle something used from a 2nd hand market, but it seems it just isn't the smartest choice. Do you agree?
I learnt a lot of things thank u
Objective and Useful video! Thank you!
Subbed! Lookin' forward to seeing and hearing about that server rack! ;)
Interesting overview on what is possible thanks for that. Would be nice to have some further videos that explain the parts more in detail
Awesome video very helpful bro👍🏽
The OCD layout at 2:37 is so thoroughly satisfying.
What an eloquent vid.. very good
Yes! More of this please!
never seen a vid from this man that isn't useful. This is amazing.
Amazing to hear, thanks for watching them!
found that interesting and informative cheers.
I got an old server from work and I upgraded both the CPU's to the e5-2470's and it already had 128GB of DDR3 ram, a little overkill for what I do with it, but the CPU's were $25 a piece, I run TrueNAS as the main OS, boots from a 16GB flash drive on a internal USB port, I got all my games backed up to it, and I run a Ubuntu VM with PiHole and I did need a Windows VM for hosting another game that wasn't compatible with Linux. The only new HDD I bought for it was the 6TB HDD I threw in it, the other 7 HDD's I have in it are drives I had laying around, not the most reliable but its a work in progress. I also use a Lenovo M73 Tiny for my secondary PiHole just in case I do have to shut the server down for whatever reason.
My home "server" is an old home theater PC I built almost 10 years ago now. It has an AMD A8-7650K, 16GB ram, 240gb ssd boot, 4x4tb raid array for storage (nets around 9tb usable). Running windows 10 PrO. All of this is mounted in an Nmedia PC HTPC case that sits in my entertainment center in my living room. Out of sight, out if mind. It has been happily running 24/7 for several years now. It has had a few upgrades along the way, mostly HD space. It's a bit old, but it works perfectly fine for its purpose.
I need to add a GPU to help with PLEX transcoding. It can handle 1-2 1080p streams ok but beyond that it starts to bog down.
The biggest problem I have had is windows updates restarting the computer, even with automatic updates turned off. When this happens the system doesn't auto login on reboot, and PLEX doesn't start up until login. I'll usually get a text asking why plex isn't working...😂
im going through a server phase so thats why im watching this. i just bought a server with 2 old xeons. its cool
Great video, thank you.
Love this vid make sure to do more server builds pls even non budget once or tutorials thanks.
I have an old motherboard with alot of potential still kicking around. 8 sata 3.0 ports. Making it a server is such a good idea
Hey Zack! Great video! Quick question, when u share the drive with your network, does it have to be a wired conection? I mean, can i have a server like this running the file sharing stuff through wifi? Best regards from Argentina!
Yep, it'll work through WiFi
This is such an excellent video. I was thinking about making one just like this. One constructive criticism/critique. I would throw in a word of warning about opening anything up to the outside internet. Plex is probably fine but anyone building something like this should be leery about opening up a server to access outside of your home network. Make sure you know what you're doing so you don't open holes in your home network that anyone can waltz through and access things they shouldn't.
@@nealraulston7055 Via VPN or SSH is fine. You just don't want to open up ports to anyone and anything.
See, what sucks about that is part of why I'd want to do this in the first place is because I haaate trusting data to outside sources. Not just Google Drive, anything, really. If it isn't on a physical machine that I own I don't know what's being done with it. But setting up a real "cloud storage" solution securely is... a never-ending project, basically, and IDK how difficult it would be to have something that would know to sync with my phone whenever I entered my own network.
@@colbyboucher6391 Just route everything through a VPN. It's quite simple to do.
best video I ever stumbled across
Great video, was about to toss my old desktop, thinking I'll keep it. Thank you.
Would really like to see more home server and network videos
Glad to hear it!
Hell yeah Zach, let's see that server IT experience shineeeeee!
Gotta use it at some point lol
I understand this is for beginners but some of us don't want to use windows for both privacy and performance reasons I wish you would have also included instructions for a linux distro thats good for servers like debian
I’m no expert but Ubuntu server OS is the most user friendly Linux server district IMO
@@Spaghetti742 I never found Debian much less hostile than Ubuntu.
Great video. Can you do a video on Raid Config? I was curious if I should use the Windows Raid system or get an Raid Card. Anyway thanks for this video and keep up the great work.
This may be surprisingly useful for if I'm gonna make a mmorpg game
Just came across this, but I would recommend a dual boot of using Windows as a server for Nas and Plex but then boot to Steam OS especially if you are using AMD CPU and AMD GPU as it has great support. This is the best in Linux gaming you can currently get without jumping through hoops.
Great video. I definitely would like to know more details and build guides for your full server rack as well as software/OS/Virtualization setups. I am currently running a 12th gen Intel custom built PC Win11 for web dev and gaming as well as a second boot to Unraid for my media server, but the dual booting is starting to get annoying and I would like an always on solution. I have used Synology NAS before, but I want a custom build now so I can get into virtualizing of other OS, Plex, Gaming/Emulation from server to TV/Nvidia Shield, etc.I know quite a bit when it comes to Linux and I have dabbled in Proxmox, but had a hard time with it. If you know about Proxmox please make some videos on that!
Not really a how to but still very enjoyable
Asking as a total noob, but is there a way to share NAS space outside of your home network, like with family on a different network?
Hi. What are your racks' specs? I've historically stuck to using furnishings for my HT and server, but I've been wanting to pull the trigger to move it all to a rack and might want to add your rack product and maybe the patch panel to my list of potential cabinets to buy.
As an electrical engineer, I’m really interested in this for virtualization technology for robots
I've got an old optiplex that I need to do something with, I watched the LTT video and I am interested in possibly getting into figuring out how a NAS server works. I don't know anything about servers and could definitely benefit from further coverage if/when you release more server related videos.
Thanks for sharing, I'll definitely keep that in mind!
Exactly 180° opposite of what I did 🤣 you can hunt me with windows and hyperv on a server.
Which camera did you use to shoot this video, sir? The video quality is awesome. Good job, Dude.
Great video! Do you have a link to that wallpaper running on the laptop in your video with Pop-OS? Or is it a Pop OS wallpaper. I ran Pop OS for about a year on a laptop before switching back to Windows 11.
Great video! So i am a total noob when it comes to home servers. but am i thinking correct with using a NAS based server for with multi user projects?
For example having a NAS server for video editing and/or unreal engine projects, where multiple users can work in the project?
Very cool video. I'm just now seeing this a year later. I'm running a AMD 3900x as my main machine, thinking about upgrading and making this a server. I've played around with VMs on this machine, and even Linux Lite distro running on VMware is super slow.
Hi Zach, I have a tower that I want to make into a NAS. What motherboard do you recommend as this one is done? What else should I get to make this NAS?
6:01
I'll say another thing, they made a video about transforming old PCs into servers using windows programs.
After seeing this, I'm gonna build this. No matter what. Sounds so useful and good, that it's too good to be true. We'll see tho.
hey, i have a question. 1st time watched this and your channel, when you brought up NAS shouldn't my network be secured first before i make a NAS/server? if there is a video about that as well could you direct me to it thank you. career is cybersecurity so thats why i asked for a secure wifi network
Plex is cool but if you are going to share outside your home I suggest installing some monitoring software for it with push notifications to your phone. If you don't you are likely to end up with a netflix account type situation, where one person is sharing their account with 1 other person, and that person shares with 2 more, then the next thing you know, some person you only ever met once at a party in college is trying to use it half way across the country.
Haha yea that's certainly possible. Plex has some monitoring built right in if you have the Plex Pass
What kind of power draw on something like that running all the time? Thanks great video.
Hi, awesome vid... Was wondering what that big server case is, and where to get one - Thanks 😃
Thanks a lot for the video! I would love to know more about setting up the game streaming service. Could i bother you to do a video on that? i myself am very interested in building a server
New to viewer and subscriber the channel but keep the home server stuff coming. I have 2 projects that I'd like to complete in the next few months, another server and a PFSense firewall with 2.5gbe capabilities for the home network.
Would definitely like to see more videos like this in the future. You've peaked my interest!
Glad to hear it Kayton
Great video.I have a spare computer with windows and a software raid of about 6gb that I want to use as storage. Would using as a server instead of just a mapped drive be significantly faster? I want to be able to use windows when necessary, I use a boot manager (Bootit) and can have two occurences of windows on the machine. Thanks
The only problem is the integrated laptop batteries are a catch 22. Mine laptop's battery died and will not operate plugged in. It basically is stuck in a boot loop. This is a great video! Is there a way for external battery backup for server racks?
So let's say I wanted to build a homelab using some similar hardware that you've shown. NAS, plex, sandboxes, whatever. If I'm not using it for gaming, I don't need a super fancy graphics card. But if I DO want to stream media for 2-3 people, do I need a more powerful GPU, or does the CPU handle most of that? Recommendations for a budget build without the need for gaming?
Hey man I was wanting to build a inexpensive server Box so I can host dedicated game servers like V rising or valheim As strictly a server host and running it with the no graphics option just to run the code. You don't need a GPU correct? And what do you think I could safely get away with for a cpu and ram to host a v rising game server that only hosts between 4 to 6 people?
I stumbled upon this while trying to figure out if I can stream media from my PC to a smart TV in a different room. I found out about DLNA / UPnP and wanted to try windows media sharing feature, which didn't work, but I assume it's because my PC is connected to the internet via a network cable, and the smart TV (and other mobile devices) through WiFi, which I assume is not considered the "same" network?
I'd like to give this a try before looking into NAS, so now the question is, can keep my PC being connected via a cable and at the same time connect it to WiFi through some dongle? Is that even possible?
just wondering, do i need to get a GPU for video encoding or should i be fine without it? What i want to make my server as in this order is data, media, and games (like a minecraft or factorio server or something like that).
interesting video. more content like this please
Bruh finally I’m trying to build this for real
I feel like you knew i wanted to build a home server. Love to see more indepth videos on how to go about doing it. Great video!
Heck yeah I wanna see more!! I have just put my old pc into an old case from work. Couldn;t gret FreeNAS to work, but windows 10 pro might be a better option! thanks!
Be aware Zach - a friend of mine fried his Logitech Z-5500 several times putting the control panel on the subwoofer like did. He eventually narrowed it down to the magnet frying the electronics in the control panel when he cranked the volume.
You can host online games, which can save you a lot of money. I'll use Minecraft as an example, since that's the game I used to play the most.
One of the most popular hosting services is Apex. They have many games that they can host, but like I said, I mostly played Minecraft. A 4GB server costs $10 for the first month, then $20 after. That's good for a vanilla server or light modded server, but when you start getting into a bunch of mods, plugins, and a high player base, it gets more expensive. You might want to upgrade to 10GB to be extra safe, which starts at $25 and goes up to $50 each month. That price builds up fast, and before you know it, you spent more money on a server than it would have cost you to make a computer and self host, including electricity costs.
This gave very minimal actual practical tutorial detail on how to go about doing this. How much $ neede for various budget/needs... what is the difference between a true server vs just a dekstop running as one?...why rack mount vs not? Exact specs needed for different needs? etc. All this video serves as is a 10min commercial on why having your own media server is good.
I noticed that you went straight to a type 2 hypervisor (a hypervisor running within a host OS). Why not consider a type 1 hypervisor or bare metal hypervisor??
Imma save this, it looks cool, sounds cool, but I don't have the capacity to build one yet.
I know this is an older video, but what sever rack do you use? Specifically the one in this video, of course! TIA!