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On the subject of under-powered hardware, this will be a minority opinion, but I don't even bother self-hosting on Pis anymore. I started using more powerful s

On the subject of under-powered hardware, this will be a minority opinion, but I don't even bother self-hosting on Pis anymore. I started using more powerful systems like NUCs and that was good, but I still kept running into hardware limits with things like Jellyfin. What I do now, and IMHO what the holy grail is (for some with a finite budget) is to build a great desktop PC and do all the self hosting on that. I built a beastly "gaming" rig that ran me about $3800 (though $2k of that was the damn GPU because it was early 2021 at the time). With a Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor and 128 GB of RAM, and a RX 6900 XT, it easily handles everything I throw at it, and occasionally when there's an intensive job like a long re-encode, it blazes through it in record time. Currently I could rebuild a similar system for about <$2k. I put Fedora on there, and I then use this rig for: 1. A normal desktop experience with multi-monitor for work during the day. 2. A remote dev workstation. I use neovim & tmux so can do development completely headless, so I SSH into this rig for doing dev work. It compiles and runs tests blazingly fast and with up to 32 threads so I rarely have to wait for compilations. It's also great to have something that's "always on" so I can SSH in from anywhere and instantly be dropped right into the last state. 3. Running all my self-hosted stuff like HA, Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf, ArchiveBox, and many more. Some run in containers on the host while others run in VMs. Even the heaviest of stuff runs very well and I never have to worry about OOM or max CPU. 4. A VM server that I can use to quickly spin up any sort of VM I want, permanent or transitive. I have a handful of different distros set up in a "freshly installed" VM snapshot and can near instantly clone and have a full install of that distro. 5. A gaming rig for the occasions I want to play a game. It works great physically (i.e. at-the-desk) and also remotely using Steam Link. I can use the Steam Link app on my Chromecast w/ Google TV to remote in and get high-res/high-fps rendering with practically no latency. My biggest complaint with that is the controllers don't often work great with the Chromecast, but I recently bought a USB-to-ethernet converter so I can plug the 8bitDo dongle in near me and have it get reliable long-range all the way back to the desktop. I've been quite happy with it! I also routinely find other ways to get utility out of this rig. I like to say that the best ideas are ones that seem obvious in hindsight, and that is definitely how I feel about this setup.

bityard 2y ago
How many watts does it pull at idle?
- freedomben 2y ago
  Between 50 to 100 watts when idle. It's rarely truly idle because I use it throughout the day and my family also uses it (via Jellyfin et al) but that could be a big downside depending on power cost and utilization.
369548684892826 2y ago
Doesn't this idle at about 100 watts though? Which would be about £25/month for me. I found a lower spec Ryzen 5700 system which idles at about 20 watts is more than enough for Jellyfin etc.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Yes great point, if power is expensive then this can be a big downside. Depending on what it's running it idles between 50 and 100 watts. I leave it on all the time so the constant draw does start to add up. My kids and extended family to some extent use it too so it is engaged in delivering content most of the time even when I'm not using it, so I think it's worth it, but the power use is definitely a consideration.
fullstop 2y ago
I have to reboot desktop PCs, especially those used for games, far more often than I do small dedicated ones. My NUC idles at around 5W, which is definitely waaaay less than a desktop PC.
baq 2y ago
It makes sense if it never crashes and you also need a small space heater. It gets rather expensive otherwise.
smitelli 2y ago
I've had some luck by misusing older hardware designed for network appliances. I picked up an older Protectli Vault used on eBay for something like $65 and it's more capable in practice than I would've thought. (Makes sense I guess, considering it was built to do packet filtering and VPN termination all day.)

bityard 2y ago

How many watts does it pull at idle?

freedomben 2y ago
Between 50 to 100 watts when idle. It's rarely truly idle because I use it throughout the day and my family also uses it (via Jellyfin et al) but that could be a big downside depending on power cost and utilization.

369548684892826 2y ago

Doesn't this idle at about 100 watts though? Which would be about £25/month for me. I found a lower spec Ryzen 5700 system which idles at about 20 watts is more than enough for Jellyfin etc.

freedomben 2y ago
Yes great point, if power is expensive then this can be a big downside. Depending on what it's running it idles between 50 and 100 watts. I leave it on all the time so the constant draw does start to add up. My kids and extended family to some extent use it too so it is engaged in delivering content most of the time even when I'm not using it, so I think it's worth it, but the power use is definitely a consideration.

fullstop 2y ago

I have to reboot desktop PCs, especially those used for games, far more often than I do small dedicated ones. My NUC idles at around 5W, which is definitely waaaay less than a desktop PC.

baq 2y ago

It makes sense if it never crashes and you also need a small space heater. It gets rather expensive otherwise.

smitelli 2y ago

I've had some luck by misusing older hardware designed for network appliances. I picked up an older Protectli Vault used on eBay for something like $65 and it's more capable in practice than I would've thought. (Makes sense I guess, considering it was built to do packet filtering and VPN termination all day.)