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Server vs miniPC dilemma for homelab (piefed.zip)

submitted 4 days ago by TisButAScratch@piefed.zip to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I'm currently facing a dilemma. Right now, I have a synology NAS that I use to host my homelab containers (*arr, pi-hole, vaultwarden, Plex, etc).

I am planning to offload as much of that as possible to a dedicated machine, which hopefully will allow me to continue self-hosting even more demanding services (Immich, etc).

I was lucky enough to get a proper server - Supermicro, for free, with 64GB Ram DDR4 and 1TB. However, I plugged it in and that thing is NOISY.

My rack will be in the home office, where I will spend at least 8 hours a day, so I can't afford that level of noise.

What should I do? Should I try to sell the supermicro and buy something else with that money? Should I keep the RAM and SSD (and CPUs?) and build something else with them? Are there any quiet servers I could look into (I am guessing better performance but more expensive), or Should I go the MiniPC route instead (cheaper and smaller, but more limited specs)?

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[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 10 points 4 days ago

So I have both Rackmount Server and Mini PC's running in my lab, and it really comes down to what do you want/need.

Mini PC PRO:

small size
quiet operation
low power, low heat
limited remote management option with vPro

Mini PC CON:

limited storage options
limited ram
lower thread/core counts at lower TDP (often 35w)
limited expansion or no expansion

Rackmount Server PRO:

offer expansion
offer redundant power
lots of RAM
lots of cores/threads
lots of PCIe
lots of networking
IPMI (remote management)

Rackmount Server CON:

lots of noise
lots of heat
lots of power use
takes up way more space

https://www.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-ms-a2

I think the little Minisforum MS series offer the perfect balance of mini PC with server like options. They give you 4 built in network ports 2x 10g and 2x 2.5g which is perfect for most applications IMO, they are available in both AMD and Intel flavors. With the one open PCIe slot you can add an external SAS card and then just use a SAS enclosure for disks. I currently have USB HD's plugged into my mini PCs and its not great, they dont get enough cooling, and I live in fear because they are on cheap wallwart power supplies. It is working and for the most part has been.

My Rack configuration has been stripped down massively and now its just a single 2RU and Dell 1RU that is a low spec storage server only. The 2RU has an AMD 3900x w/ 64gb and 16gb MI25 card so I can tinker with AI, the Dell is just an i3-8gen with 32g and 4x 12tb drives.

The Lenovo's are both i5-8gen with 32gb, same with the Dell mini PC, the Minisforum is an MS-A1 before they had the MS-A2 with better networking and PCIe. The Lenovo's do have upgraded networking so I can have 4 network ports per box, 2x 10gb, 1x 2.5, 1x1g.