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In 2025 I'd go for an Intel n100/n150/n305 with 32GB RAM (in officially supported). If nothing rotates nothing can break. At work we have ~10 of these passive

In 2025 I'd go for an Intel n100/n150/n305 with 32GB RAM (in officially supported). If nothing rotates nothing can break. At work we have ~10 of these passive cooled TopTon n100 with their 5x Intel i226-IV 2.5GE interfaces laying around for emergency router setups. They are great for a lot of things. But be careful: starting with the n150 you will need active cooling.

rented_mule 1y ago
100%!!! I have an n305 with the CPU thermally bonded to its small aluminum case with a quiet 80 mm Noctua fan screwed into the fins of the case. The manufacturer on Ali Express said the fan is optional, but it can get to ~85°F in the room where the computer is, so I want to be careful. At idle, the CPU reports 5-10°F above the room's temperature. It has 10 TB spread across 3 SSDs and 2 x 10 TB spinning drives attached. It's a Time Machine target for a handful of Macs and a Borg Backup target for several machines, including some across the internet using Tailscale. It's also running Home Assistant with AppDaemon (with dozens of little apps), Frigate (object detection for 3 Ethernet-connected cameras using a Google Coral TPU over USB), Paperless-ngx (15 GB of PDFs), LibrePhotos (1.2 TB of photos), Syncthing, Tiny Tiny RSS, a UniFi Controller, distinct PostgreSQL instances for various of those, and more. I count 21 Docker containers running right now, and not everything is containerized. The spinning drives are powered down with a smart plug for all but 1-2 hours at night for backups. With those off, the thing sips power... 10-15 W most of the time with occasional spikes up to ~30 W when LibrePhotos is doing facial recognition or Paperless-ngx is updating its ML models. It never feels slow. I've been running one or more servers at home for 30+ years, and this single machine handles everything so much better than any combination of machines I've had.
dwood_dev 1y ago
32GB is official, but 48GB works just fine. 64GB SODIMMs are now available and there are multiple reports of them working fine with the N305[0]. It is highly likely that it will work fine with the N100 as well. 0: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1m8fgec/intel_n305_running_stable_with_64gb_of_ram/ https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1m8fgec/intel_n305...
bullen 1y ago
You are in for surprises down the road, RAM and SSD breaks, the larger/faster they are the sooner they break. DDR2 (667MHz) > DDR3 (1.6GHz) > DDR4 (3.2GHz) etc. in longevity. and cas latency <100GB SSDs from 2010-2015 out last all later >100GB SSDs. SD cards can last 12 years before failing I know because I ran 2x 32GB SanDisk into the ground, one is still up sort of...
hilsdev 1y ago
>If nothing rotates nothing can break. Hah! I wish! Though then I might be out of a job

rented_mule 1y ago

100%!!! I have an n305 with the CPU thermally bonded to its small aluminum case with a quiet 80 mm Noctua fan screwed into the fins of the case. The manufacturer on Ali Express said the fan is optional, but it can get to ~85°F in the room where the computer is, so I want to be careful. At idle, the CPU reports 5-10°F above the room's temperature. It has 10 TB spread across 3 SSDs and 2 x 10 TB spinning drives attached. It's a Time Machine target for a handful of Macs and a Borg Backup target for several machines, including some across the internet using Tailscale. It's also running Home Assistant with AppDaemon (with dozens of little apps), Frigate (object detection for 3 Ethernet-connected cameras using a Google Coral TPU over USB), Paperless-ngx (15 GB of PDFs), LibrePhotos (1.2 TB of photos), Syncthing, Tiny Tiny RSS, a UniFi Controller, distinct PostgreSQL instances for various of those, and more. I count 21 Docker containers running right now, and not everything is containerized. The spinning drives are powered down with a smart plug for all but 1-2 hours at night for backups. With those off, the thing sips power... 10-15 W most of the time with occasional spikes up to ~30 W when LibrePhotos is doing facial recognition or Paperless-ngx is updating its ML models. It never feels slow. I've been running one or more servers at home for 30+ years, and this single machine handles everything so much better than any combination of machines I've had.

dwood_dev 1y ago

32GB is official, but 48GB works just fine. 64GB SODIMMs are now available and there are multiple reports of them working fine with the N305[0]. It is highly likely that it will work fine with the N100 as well. 0: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1m8fgec/intel_n305_running_stable_with_64gb_of_ram/ https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1m8fgec/intel_n305...

bullen 1y ago

You are in for surprises down the road, RAM and SSD breaks, the larger/faster they are the sooner they break. DDR2 (667MHz) > DDR3 (1.6GHz) > DDR4 (3.2GHz) etc. in longevity. and cas latency <100GB SSDs from 2010-2015 out last all later >100GB SSDs. SD cards can last 12 years before failing I know because I ran 2x 32GB SanDisk into the ground, one is still up sort of...

hilsdev 1y ago

>If nothing rotates nothing can break. Hah! I wish! Though then I might be out of a job