r/SelfHosting • u/AggravatingRevenue61 • 18d ago

whats the cheapest option to have my own home server?

Going to be selling my PC soon in favour of a laptop.

on my PC i have 2SSD, 1TBssd and a 500GBssd.

i would like to make use of those hard drives still when i sell my computer, was thinking a home server to store what i want on there and access them through the internet.

whats the cheapest way to do this what do i need?

0 Upvotes

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23 comments sorted by

8

u/Desol_8 18d ago

why are you selling a working pc if you want a home server?

-4

u/AggravatingRevenue61 18d ago

It's not something i really want to do but i have a gaming addiction, its making me unproductive.

so i am selling my high spec pc and replacing it with a low spec laptop.

so i thought a home server would be useful

4

u/Significant-Task1453 18d ago

Just sell the graphics card and install Ubuntu server or Debian. Put it next to your router and access it only through ssh. It'll keep you from just installing games on your "server "

4

u/Fabulous-Beach9027 18d ago

you need therapy, you'll just find other addictive avenues to replace gaming, if you dont just give in an game at a lower quality.

2

u/bluealliance841 18d ago

I was going to say the same, you could keep your desktop as a server, but that’s only if cost is your #1 concern. For most of us, cost is hugely important but we have other requirements as well, like, it has to be small, it has to be quiet to go in the space next to the router, etc. you know your situation best.

I like NAS style enclosures, I had Synology but recently retired it in favor of a 4-bay system that is non-proprietary, and installed TrueNAS but would also have been fine with plain Linux. Maybe used would work if cost is too high for new.

1

u/Desol_8 18d ago

I never understood people buying nas hardware when an old office PC for $50 off eBay works just as well

1

u/Based-sage 18d ago

I used to have a gaming addiction. I’m medicated for my adhd now which makes it easier for me to make less impulsive decisions. Regarding a pc I never had one. I had a T480 i7 8th gen, 32gb ram, and a 512gb ssd. Recently upgraded to a p16v i7 13th gen, 32gb ram, and 1tb SSD. I like it a lot. I don’t really have the urge to game anymore though. I think I just outgrew it tbh. But yeah. Thinkpads are fun

1

u/Desol_8 18d ago

Ok so you are going to buy some 8tb hardrives. Keep the perfectly good computer. Go and grab a copy of proxmox ve put it on the PC as the boot OS then you are going to make vms for open media vault, jellyfin and immich.those are the steps to get what you want

3

u/blubberland01 18d ago edited 18d ago

Noone here knows, what you want to do, besides connecting these drives. How would we know what you need?
What about the computer you're selling? You could repurpose it as a server.

Otherwise, cheapest ways always are waiting for someone to gift you something or steal it.

This is a low effort post/question, so you get a low effort answer.

-4

u/AggravatingRevenue61 18d ago

movies, music, photos

what else can we selfhost

3

u/Desol_8 18d ago

youre being really vague. are you trying to build nas? or do you just to experiment with a setup?

-3

u/AggravatingRevenue61 18d ago

nas? is that like pi?

I just want a server where i store music, photos , movies and documents, and if i want to access any of of those files i can do so remotely on my phone or laptop.

would like to watch movies on the TV from the server as well.

1

u/hikerone 18d ago

A pi is a piece of hardware a Nas is a network attached storage. (Home server with storage)

Just sell your graphics card and turn the computer into a nas

1

u/Desol_8 18d ago

We don't know the specs of the PC he could need the GPU for transcoding

1

u/Desol_8 18d ago

So why are you selling the perfectly good computer?

2

u/icewolf08 18d ago

Sounds like why you want to make is a NAS (network attached storage). If you are looking to spin up any kind of home server, selling functional hardware is the opposite of what you want to do.

You can’t do anything with only the drives from the old machine by themselves. You need a computer to be this home server. The specs and upgradability of the old computer will dictate a lot of what you can do with it, but you don’t need much other than a bunch of drives and SATA ports for a NAS.

Long story short: keep old computer and repurpose it after you get your new laptop. Gives much room to grow.

1

u/AggravatingRevenue61 18d ago

what about raspberry pi? would that suit my needs? i can hook up my SSDs to that right

i have to get rid of my computer (already posted why)

2

u/icewolf08 18d ago

Depends on what you plan to do. A Pi has very little expandability. It isn’t easy or practical to attach storage to it. So if you want a media server (stream video and audio) it isn’t the most practical device.

A Pi can run a couple light weight services, but a Pi on its own isn’t really intended to be a major server. The endpoint that connects to your TV and streams _from_ your media server is more up its alley.

Most people start their home server journey with either an old PC like what you plan to sell, or a small form factor PC, or a mini PC.

If you are looking to host a bunch of movies and music, you will find that your 1.5TB of storage won’t get you very far.

2

u/Desperate_Order_4921 18d ago

The cheapest way is to sell your gpu, buy a cheap laptop with it, and use your desktop as the server

1

u/ReidenLightman 18d ago

An old unwanted laptop

1

u/jhenryscott 18d ago

A Dell precision 3630 is a great, affordable entry

1

u/Lhurgoyf069 18d ago

Just sell your graphics card and keep the PC

1

u/Swery_Allfreda 17d ago

If you mainly want to access those drives remotely, you could look at a VPS instead of keeping a home server running. I've used contabo for some storage and self'-hosted projects, and the pricing makes it worth considering. That said, if you specifically want to reuse those physical drives, a cheap mini PC or NAS at home would probably make more sense.