Setting up my first home server! reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Flamber_ · 2023-09-27 14:10 Hi everyone, and thanks in advance to everyone who's willing to help! Recently, I got my hands on an old Lenovo Thinkcentre M700 (Intel Core i5-6400, 16GB RAM, 480GB SSD). I am planning to turn it into my first home server, a project that's been on my mind for a while but I never had the time to dive into (plus, I have very limited experience/knowledge when it comes to setting up servers). Ideally, I have two primary goals: 1. Set up a cloud storage with automatic photo/video sync from my mobile phone (not much data, less than 250GB). 2. Have a mini-PC connected to the living room TV that would allow to cast Windows on the TV screen (mainly for web browsing and Teams calls). I might add more goals over time (like media content streaming with Jellyfin or home automation with Home Assistant), but I don't have an immediate need for those. I've read some guides on the subreddit regarding how to set up a home server and how to address point 1. From what I understood, it seems the most optimal route at the moment is Proxmox+Docker+Nextcloud+Traefik+a VPN solution (Tailscale?)+a backup solution (Blackblaze?). **Is that correct? Am I missing something? In terms of hardware, do I need anything else besides a couple of 1TB HDDs?** For point 2, what's the best approach? **Should I create a Windows 10 VM? Or am I talking nonsense here? Is it a bad idea to mix point 1 and point 2 to have both on the same machine?** Again, thanks to everyone who's willing to help! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-09-27 19:11 The hardware sounds about right. 16 GB of RAM is good for now, may want to get up to 32 later if you're gonna run VMs but may be ok with 16 if you're just gonna run one from time to time – depends what you want to do with it. The CPU is OK-ish, may want to upgrade to a Kaby Lake or Coffee Lake later (I'm assuming the socket is 1151), [it will give you HEVC 10bit and VP9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick _Sync_Video#Hardware_decoding_and_encoding) hardware encoding (for Jellyfin transcoding). In case it needs to be said, the typical approach is to run things off the fast SSD, and keep the HDDs for storing things like documents, backups, films, music, images etc. You may or may not want to set up those 1 TB HDDs in a RAID1 so you'll have some redundancy in case one dies – but at the cost of halving the storage space. May want to look into Immich or Photoprism for photo sync and browsing. You'll have to give some more details about who you want to use your services for us to be able to advise on VPN or reverse proxy. Search around for Backblaze, make sure it's the best solution for you. HDDs under 4TB are fairly cheap, you may want to invest in those as backup. Another home backup solution is burning Blu Ray discs, quality BR is rated to last hundreds of years – small capacity but cheap and long-lasting. Other than that it sounds good, start with a W10 or W11 in a VM on Proxmox and a photo sync & storage service in a Docker and see how that works for you.