I am getting into doing different things as a way to advance my knowledge and skills. I am currently learning docker along side learning Linux better.

I wanna have a home server I guess? I want a lot of storage space for my jellyfin server which I currently have running off a VPS.

I also have a matrix and lemmy instance running off a VPS. I’d like to do this all off of a home system that I can upgrade and fine tune to do what I want.

So, my problem is I don’t know where to start. My budget (without drives) is $600 and I kinda wanna do it today for the sales. I wanted to do a ITX build but keep running into issues so I’d also be fine with a atx. Just I want something small form factor…

I know this isn’t the right place but could I get some help, please?

  • tenekev@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I built my first thing from scratch. I say “thing” because it was neither a NAS, nor a server, or a hypervisor. It had storage, standalone services, containers and VMs.

    If you are unclear on what you need, DIY is probably the best approach.

    I’ve invested a lot in my DIY machine. It’s a node in a proxmox cluster. The other two nodes are mini PCs. If I was starting from scratch now, I would probably go with a prebuilt NAS and a bunch of mini office PCs for running VMs and other things.

    DIY gives a lot of flexibility but you are managing every aspect of it. Borking the storage, borks your whole setup. It’s a lot of fun but you need to know what you are getting yourself into.

    Getting only a NAS will be insufficient once you start experimenting. Which means you will need to get another machine for hosting services/VMs. It can get expensive quickly.

    If you go the DIY way, start witha hypervisor and virtualize everything else. That way you will have a more stable setup.