Hey!
I've decided that it's time to finally get something resembling an actual server for my home setup, and I was hoping you folks could give me some pointers (given the current prices).
My current set up is just my old laptop with 2 external hard drives plugged in - one is the regular portal USB HDD, another is 3.5 HDD plugged via powered enclosure (ZFS and LUKS on both). I want to switch that for something relatively small, but extendable, as I want to add more disk space in the future. I'm selfhosting Plex, Immich and Navidrome, and occasionally some multiplayer games like Valheim. I'm not planning to use Proxmox or TrueNAS/whatever, I mostly just plan to throw Debian on it and spin everything in Docker.
I looked through some guides on https://selfhosting.sh/ and on Reddit, but that just got me more confused, as everyone keeps suggesting Optiplexes and NUCs, but I don't get how to combine that with 20TB+ disk space while ensuring the disks are secure and well powered. Plus my understanding is most of those mini-PC's/refurbished workstations use regular DDR3/4, whereas I was hoping to get ECC.
Should I go DIY route, or is there something I could get as a solid enough base to expand in the future? If DIY is the answer - what mobo/cpu/case should I get? My ideal budget (for everything excluding hard drives and maybe PSU since I have one lying around) is ~500 euros, but if paying a bit more would mean a substantially better deal - then I'd be OK with that. I'm in Berlin, so if you know any good local markets - that'd be great too.
Thanks!
I respect your perspective and personal experience, and I'm not trying to convince you. I'm trying to convince whoever might come along and read this that the small extra price is worth it if their computer is going to hold data dear to them and be running 24x7.
ECC is extremely good at covering cosmic ray bitflips, which happen with extreme regularity on software that runs and modifies data on the fly- server software. Yes, even home run stuff. That's just playing Russian roulette, it probably won't break anything, but why take the risk at least 10 times every day?
It's also great at catching falling RAM sticks and preventing them from doing horrible things to every bit of data running through them. This is the failure ECC caught for me at home twice.
I have only 2.5 decades in the enterprise server and software space, I won't claim to your 4. But I know I wouldn't take that risk at work, and I value my home data more rather than less.
I'm not a researcher or even a particularly well practiced rhetorician, so here's probably a much more convincing argument.
Or this perhaps.
Another link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-ECC
He has very strong opinions on certain topics, ECC being important is one of them.