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)?

  • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    15 hours ago

    I ended up at the same. Desktop PC with a lotta hard drives in it and big fans that don’t have to spin fast and make a lot of noise.

    Bonus points that it’s consumer desktop hardware and not server grade shit so if something needs replacing there’s usually a cheap replacement available.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2·
      15 hours ago

      Desktop PC with a lotta hard drives in it and big fans that don’t have to spin fast and make a lot of noise.

      I use a USB DAS JBOD enclosure with fans, which is also an option if you have a mini-PC and just want a bunch of drive space.

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCDDGHMJ

      This particular enclosure has physical buttons that lock in place so that the power state is restored on power loss, something that (to my surprise) a number of USB DAS enclosures apparently don’t do.