this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
43 points (86.4% liked)

Selfhosted

60366 readers
576 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
ayyy@sh.itjust.works
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world
43
Ollama Server Component Recommendations (piefed.blahaj.zone)
submitted 2 months ago by irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'm looking to build a low-end ollama LLM server to improve home assistant voice control, Immich image recognition and a few other services. With the current cost of hardware components like memory, I'm looking to build something small, but somewhat expandable.

I have an old micro-atx form factor computer that I'm thinking will be a good option to upgrade. I'd love recommendations on motherboards, processors, and video card combos that would likely be compatible and sufficient to run a decent server while keeping costs lower, basically, the best bang for the buck. I have a couple of M.2 SSDs I can re-purpose. Would prefer the motherboard has 2.5Gbit Ethernet, but otherwise I'm open.

Also recommendations on sites to purchase good quality memory at reasonable prices that ship to the US. I'd be willing to look at lightly used components, too.

Any advice on any of these topics would be greatly appreciated. The advice I've found has all been out of date especially with crypto fading so video cards are not as expensive, but LLM data centers eating up and reserving memory before it's even manufactured.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Yeah,but I dont want to get locked into a proprietary OS or have to put a lot of effort into hacking it to run Linux.

[–] chrash0@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

super fair. i am a Linux guy normally. i’m just being honest. i wish there was a better more open alternative.

if you want to go with the Linux alternative it’s going to cost. get at least 32GB of RAM and at least a 4090 to run the kind of models you’re asking for. it’s the way she goes

[–] ryokimball@infosec.pub 3 points 2 months ago

The apple silicon is more energy efficient but the latest Intel and AMD CPUs deliver more processing power and can also share a significant amount of RAM to the GPU / AI components.

[–] WASTECH@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I haven’t looked into Asahi Linux in a while now, but I figured the experience would be pretty good by now. You don’t need to “hack” anything to get it to run. Last I read, there were just a few driver issues, but I haven’t looked into it in probably 2-3 years now.

[–] SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Last time I checked it only runs well on M1 devices, with M2 being somewhat usable. M3 though M5 are a complete no-go unfortunately :(

[–] p4rzivalrp2@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The framework desktop has unified memory iirc, and that can obviously use any os

[–] irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I didn't realize they were making desktops. I almost bought a laptop from them a few years ago but ended up finding an ASUS laptop that worked well with Linux and was significantly cheaper which fit my needs better for that. I'll check them out.

[–] p4rzivalrp2@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah they have soldered ram and cpu but have stays halo so ig that's fine

[–] irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So just glancing at the site, are these basically laptop CPU and RAM parts just packaged in a desktop form-factor case and that's why they're soldered? Seems like they also don't have much expansion capability much like a laptop such as only having a single PCI-E x4 slot with a proprietary connection interface, so I couldn't later add a graphics card for example. Unless, I'm just missing something, and if so please let me know.

Either way thanks for letting me know about the option.

[–] p4rzivalrp2@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The main benefit is the strix halo cpu uses unified memory, thats why it's soldered, not bc it uses laptop parts

[–] irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ok, so short, wide bus from CPU to memory? Makes sense. I didn't really mean the CPU so much as the main board is very laptop like. Very little expansion capabilities other than external connectors like audio, Ethernet, etc., but no ability to add functional or incremental upgrades like a GPU or an additional stick of memory respectively.

[–] p4rzivalrp2@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

The point of the stays halo series is the unified memory, so an additional GPU wouldn't be very useful, no?