Hey all
Been playing around with plex and the *arr's for a while on my main desktop.
Now looking to set up a server to run plex, downloads, pi hole and eventually some other backup's.
Unfortunately the PC I had laying around is 32bit and it seems like most things are removing support for that architecture if they haven't already. Now I'm faced with the problem/opportunity of getting something new (to me).
But I'm struggling with the absolute sea of options out there and also don't want to spend on brand new gear.
There's quite a bit of server grade hardware floating around (like a Dell Poweredge server T410, 32GB ram, Intel Xeon E5645 2.13GHz Quad-core for $100AUD) or even rackmount gear (probably overkill but a boy can dream).
Or should I just get a consumer case with the most drive bays I can find and build from there?
Lowish power consumption is a priority, planning on running ubuntu or similar.
Any and all tips welcome! Thanks.
There are several arm SBCs that are made to function as a nas, and they have slots for several drives. You could start with something like that, especially if you don't plan on transcoding video. You could always add more computing power later and still use it as storage. Or, you could just get an older laptop and start with a few tb USB drive for data. I started with a core duo Dell that was at least 10 years old. Integrated battery backup, decent power consumption, and you won't be spending much money on it. If you run everything in docker with mounted volumes, and I highly recommend that you do, it'll be super easy to migrate to something else once you get a better idea of what you want.
In other words, don't spend a lot of money till you figure out what your needs will be.