Hi friends. I’m a newbie in self-hosting, though I’ve been managing (virtual) linux servers at work for a couple of years. I’m completely ignorant on the hardware choices out there, hopefully you can point me to the right direction.

Here are my requisites:

  • Low power consumption, I plan to have it connected 24/7 and I’m kinda concerned on how much it will impact the electricity bill
  • Ethernet port, preferably gigabit but whatever
  • Graphical performance is not important as I don’t plan to connect it to any display. As long as I can ssh into it, I’m good.

Services I plan on installing, for starters:

  • casaOS
  • pi-hole, or equivalent
  • Home Assistant
  • Kitchen Owl (nice to have)
  • Paperless-ngx (nice to have)

I live in europe and my budget is around 80 euros or so. Thanks in advance!

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      We buy the HP Pro/Elitedesk 1L pcs as backup servers and attach storage.
      Works pretty good and they are pretty cheap with the power they can provide.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      2 years ago

      Good point.

      The Pi Zero is 2w max… It’s downside is it draws 2w MAX. Power is power, only so much you can do in 2w. As you pointed out, the 4 and 5 can do more, because they can draw more, (or they draw more so can do more, it’s all related).

      The key seems to be ability to minimize the idle power while still capable of ramping up to something useful when you need it - like the micros you’ve listed.

  • UnPassive@lemmy.worldEnglish
    171·
    2 years ago

    Try a used laptop. Cheap, power efficient, built in UPS, small. Can be quite powerful and some are even upgradable

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
    81·
    2 years ago

    As a point of reference regarding power consumption:

    I’ve been running a desktop non-stop for the last ten years (built as a gaming rig) as a file/media server, so it’s probably the worst thing you can run this way, power-wise. Has an 800 watt power supply, running windows.

    I’ve done the math many times, costs me about $1/day in power at mostly idle.

    Just presenting a worst-case example as a guideline.

    I’ve recently spun up a Raspberry Pi Zero W for PiHole, DHCP, DNS, Tailscale, Joplin and Bitwarden. It’s maximum power draw is TWO WATTS. Haha

    Currently running a watt meter on the desktop, should have some decent actual numbers from it soon, but can’t imagine idle is any less than 50 watts.

    So there’s two extremes. Don’t be me (looks like you aren’t!)

    Edit: I wouldn’t recommend the Zero W for this, it’s underpowered. I’m already overloading it with just PiHole and Tailscale, honestly.

    • dogma11@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Throwing in my own data, I have a small server rack at home that runs a brocade icx4630 switch and dell r720, idles around 250w. My desktop setup, monitors, amp, computer itself etc idles around 200w.

      • rambos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Adding my data as well:

        My server is diy desktop pc - mbo MSI Z270-A PRO with celeron G3930 and 16GB RAM, 3x SSD on 550W PSU, idles at 23W. After adding another 3.5" HDD consuption went up to 34W. 34W in Ctoatia is around 34€ a year.

        Some SFF PCs are at 10-15W. SBCs like rpi should be below 10 W, but dont think you can get anything new for 80€

    • Crispy_Mate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Pi Zero could be underpowered but the bigger pi’s sound like a perfect match. I would recommend looking into a used pi 3 or 4, because the pi 5 is new and always out of stock (at least in europe) so you pay around 150$.

  • PieMePlenty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    Look into a NUC on ebay. I was able to snag a new 11th Gen i3 for 200 eur. Power draw is about 7w with a headless Debian. Running a media server, nextcloud, pihole, an arr stack and I’m planning to add home assistant and a zigbee bridge which I now run on a pi.

    If you aren’t planning to run to much on it a rpi4or5 will actually be enough and these things can draw 15 on absolute max load.

  • Dran@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 years ago

    A raspberry pi or orange pi could definitely run all of those things at very low power consumption.

  • Corgana@startrek.websiteEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    +1 for CasaOS! The simplest and best I’ve tried.

    Lots of good suggestions here already but nobodys mentioned the Asrock A300 DeskMini. Low power consumption and you could probably find one for pretty cheap.

    Obviously an old laptop you don’t use anymore is a great and affordable choice too. Comes with a built-in battery backup!

  • Kuinox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I just bought a cheap Intel i3 10100T that have a TDP of 35W.
    There is a bios option to reduce that to 25W.
    Thoses are not sold to end users and must be purchased through craiglist or equivalent.

  • testfactor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    2 years ago

    Not to state the obvious one, but there’s always the Raspberry Pi.

    The supply has gotten better on those, so you can probably pick one up in your price range, and the power draw is super minimal.