from FukOui@lemmy.zip to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 09:34
https://lemmy.zip/post/66950384
My old laptop for self hosting just croaked, and I’m thinking of buying a 2nd hand mini pc, but this time I want to do it proper. I want to optimize the electricity consumption and specs needed/ future upgreadability, considering how expensive everything is now.
My use case is just for self hosting files (infrequent access and reducing reliance to google drive), and occasional dev workload via ssh. I’m thinking of buying a used optiplex with at least i6 gen cpu (SFF or micro form factor), but I want to see if there are better options.
There was a link posted in this subreddit about power consumption comparison of different mini pcs (raspberry pi, n100, etc), and I regret not saving it.
If anyone could suggest me better options it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
#selfhosted
threaded - newest
Go for a n100 or even one with an Atom CPU. Get as much ram as you can afford…
Depending on what you are doing that may not be a good idea. The N100 is way overpriced and the Atom is very old and thus has limited I/O speeds and awful performance.
Compare the processors at Versus.com for a rough overview.
This one?
I don’t think so. The Vercel link just redirects me to vendor HIPAA comparison stuff
Huh, you’re right. That sucks.
The GitHub with the data is linked in that post if you want to look through the csv file.
That happened right after the OP posted that link. Worked for maybe a couple hours and then…poof
I have a FriendlyELEC NanoPi R4S with metal case, running Armbian with a couple of USB SSD drives, for file and website hosting mostly. Just my personal use: no heavy loads. It’s air cooled (no fan). It typically reports a temperature of about 35 centigrade. Up into the 40s if I increase the load (development, upgrades, indexing, etc.) I don’t know the actual power consumption, but the power adapter is only 15w. My original NanoPi R1 works fine for the same purpose and uses even less power - runs cooler. I got the R4S and an R2S Plus, so as to have spares and development/tinkering systems and to have a 64bit CPU, in case I wanted to run anything that requires it.
It’s not upgradeable but it’s fairly cheap and has worked well enough that I haven’t wanted to upgrade it for years, other than migrating from the R1 to the R4S, as mentioned. If by dev workload you mean running local LLMs or heavily loaded CI build system it probably wouldn’t be a good fit, but fine for compiling a package occasionally, local git and npm servers and similar. I don’t recall when I got the R1: some time before Covid. The R4S and R2S Plus have been running for about 5 years now.
There are many other SBCs supported by Armbian. You might find something better matched to your requirements.
Lemmy has relatively good search, usually if you remember bits of the title that works?
In any case: Both n100/n150 and raspi are in the <10W range. Obviously raspi is lower, but also A LOT slower and much worse connectivity. As the price is roughly comparable, I’d go for the much more capable N100/N150. Only go the full ‘minipc’ route if you don’t mind the (probably) higher power usage, which can depend highly on model. Older (but cheap on eBay) models can be 25W on idle.
Depending on what you actually need, I’d setup a Sync thing or NextCloud or something and go from there.
Most small form factor machines will idle in less than 10 watts
These universal statements are almost never true. What means “most”? All 3 that I have are more, some up to 25W. If they are “new”, maybe. Not many that you can get on eBay are old enough that they will draw a noticeable amount. Add always, “it depends”.
I have a Beelink Mini S that I got 4 or 5 years ago (N5095, 8GB RAM, 256GB SDD). It was $200 new at the time. It’s easily handling the hosting of 20-25 services.
For the little that you plan on doing with it, I think you could grab just about anything.
Optiplex etc. with an Intel 8th gen “T” chips seem to offer the best bang for the buck + energy efficiency on the second hand market right now.
The main issue with these thin clients is the lack of SATA ports and power connections for them if you want to add some larger 2.5” SSD/HDD storage. Usually it is only one, but you can also use the DVD drive slot with an adapter in the mid sized versions.
Still didn’t test mine, but I’m planning on using this for two extra (dying) disks for my Jellyfin files in my server: aliexpress.com/item/1005009770143040.html
How will you power the drives?
And from what I have heard, these m2 to SATA adapters have over-heating issues.
I have an Optiplex that at one point I had 4 2.5" drives in, had to use some duct tape and glue, but it worked fine.
The mid size versions have 3 drive bays (2x 3.5", one 2.5") plus an optical bay, but only 3 SATA connectors (which was really odd to me). You can find dual SATA adaptors for the “WiFi” M.2 slot if you want to use an adaptor for a 2.5" drive on the optical bay. But if you want more than 4 drives, you’ll need to get creative mounting them.
You mean “mid” as in midi-tower? Because that sounds like the large version. Well maybe there is an even larger workstation version or so, but the normal medium sized Optiplex comes with one 3.5" SATA bay and one DVD drive.
I’ve been running an HP ProDesk 600 G4 mini (i5-8500T, 32 GB RAM) for a few years now and am very happy. I bought it with 8 or 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB M.2 for 140 €. It can fit one 2.5" SATA drive and two M.2 2280 drives. I have it running 24/7/365 with 2x2 TB M.2 SSDs and a 256 GB boot SSD and it usually uses around 7 Watts.
If you want to go the HP route, ProDesk 600 and EliteDesk 800 have two M.2 slots, while the ProDesk 400 only has one.
Alternatively, Lenovo and Dell also have similar formfactor PCs, but I don’t remember their names.
Performance wise, the 8th gen i5 is more than fine for TrueNAS and 10-15 docker containers.
Recently I decommissioned a Dell T320 and replaced it with a Dell Optiplex 7020 SFF with the i7-4790 and 32 GB RAM all for right at the $200 mark. I’m running a total of 52 containers on it right now with load averages looking like 0.31, 0.51, 0.72. The Dell T320 running the same 52 containers cost me $40 USD per month to run. The Dell 7020 costs me $5-8 USD per month to run 24/7. If you wanted a wider tower, I set up a Dell 9020 for a friend of mine’s son who wanted to get into selfhosting at the age of 10. Similar running costs. I’ve got an Optiplex 3020 mini with 16 GB RAM and a 4 TB external drive running Proxmox quite well and costs probably $3 USD per month. I’m pretty well chuffed with the performance so far of the 7020, and in fact am eyeballing another one to replace a second Dell T320.
I’m now curious what’s services are you hosting. It’s hard for me to imagine self hosting more than 10 containers/ services lol
The easiest way for me to show you is just a screen shot of my dashboard:
spoiler
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0482f6cd-c831-4b1f-a2d3-249dbfbc5483.png">
I’ve added a couple since that screen grab.
Woah cool. This looks neater and more organized than hostname based routing on my reverse proxy.
What dashboard software are you using?
Homarr
ETA: If you want to go nuts with integrations, HomePage seems to be the rage.
I would get a Intel 6-8 gen i5 and then if you can afford it I would get some SSDs for data storage.
Keep in mind hardware prices are astronomic right now so you are unlikely to get a good deal
An i7 doesn’t really use much more power for bursty usage, as it gets back to sleep states faster. Same issue with ssds vs HDDs, per GB, there’s not much difference in power consumption, only when you look at per drive does it matter.
That hasn’t been my experience especially with SSDs vs HDDS
SSDs have no moving parts so they will always use less power since there is no motor
Of course. But when you have a storage requirement and it can be met with fewer HDDs than SSDs, the difference becomes less and less.
I looked at all the old thin clients and didn’t like their power consumption to performance ratio. Ended up buying a cheap mini pc with an n100 and it’s been amazing. CPU is max 15w, but mostly only 1 or 2w. Whole mini pc with an nvme draws only a few w most of the time. I bought it before all the craziness for £80, had it maybe 18 months now and no complaints. It’s been rock solid.
You can’t really optimize for both power efficiency AND upgradability while choosing second hand USFF computers. Sort of have to pick a priority. I realized that electricity is relatively cheap where I am, and so older thinkstations with i5 or i7s are a great frugal option. Not so in, say, Europe.
The SFF or MT form factors are a lot better, I’d say MT is the best as it has full height PCIe slots. Keep in mind the dell/hp/lenovo models all use proprietary motherboard form factors and power supplies, but not that big of a deal I think since there are so many parts available if something does break.
I highly recommend 7th gen intel or newer, as you get the much better quicksync support and quality.
If you get a desktop class CPU (i5-7500 for example), the whole computer will typically draw around 15W at idle with an SSD, which is pretty decent.
If you need less idle power draw then you’ll want a mobile/notebook class CPU (like an i3-7100u) as the idle usage should be less than 5W. But those typically only come in the micro/mini form factors.
Also good to remember that every 3.5" HDD draws around 7W when idle and spun-up (typically difficult to spin down on servers since there’s always some process accessing files).
Whatever you end up buying, and I speak from bitter experience here, swap the SSD that it comes with it. Consumer SSDs in micro systems do NOT have the write cycles required for 24/7 docker activity.
Now I run a couple of Micron 7450 Max server SSDs. Live and learn.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
[Thread #31 for this comm, first seen 28th Jun 2026, 16:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Regarding strictly cpu/power consumption ratio I guess the mac mini is pretty good.
CWWK “Pocket NAS”