How to build the CHEAPEST possible homeserver, while still remaining performant

Alright. I’ve been asked what my infrastructure runs on because it’s really fast, performant and oddly cheap

This guide implies that you’ll be already exposed to old machines. If not, then may god help you.

Getting the case

Start by browsing Ebay, Facebook Marketplace (or similar) or your local computer recycling center. Look for something like an HP Compaq computer that had a full-scale ATX case in them, but put in a small form factor.

You have to make sure that the screws line up with ATX Motherboards. It doesn’t matter if it’s ITX or ATX, there’s literally no difference in screw position, and in many situations you can either unscrew or yank the standoffs from the metal sheets where they are if they poke on the motherboard.

Getting the PSU

We CANNOT, under ANY circumstances, use new PSUs. Even though they don’t cost that much, they’ll drive prices up so much.

If you already have an old machine with a 500W/550W PSU, you can skip this. If it’s dusty, make sure it’s discharged or unused for a really, really long time, open it up and blow it out. Yes, this is a “don’t try this at home” moment, but I did and really had no issues because of the predispositions I was facing.

Now that we’ve established a possible marketplace, we’ll only be using that one, as prices aren’t much different.

Start by finding something adjacent to a 500W PSU. 550W? Acceptable. But the thing is – they’ll sell for way too much. Getting them bundled is the next obvious choice.

Start looking for Broken computers. Something that doesn’t work. Make sure it turns on, at least, but has an irreparable hardware error that makes the computer worth like 10$.

Gut it completely. Keep the PSU, use your own PC to test the hardware that works, such as the RAM, GPU, etc. Due to the current market situation, you could possibly sell that RAM to refund your PC’s price, effectively making the purchase somewhat of a net positive, rather than a gaping hole in your bank account

Getting the Motherboard (and the rest of the components)

Now it’s time to deviate.

You can get just about anything, but it won’t be cheap.

If you have everything, including the PSU, it’s time to get a cheap machine. What better way, than to browse Aliexpress for a cheap x99 motherboard.

These x99 chipset clones are made to get paired up with Broadwell Xeons. Due to their insane amount of PCIe lanes, Chinese rich kids bought flocks of these, and the demand for a competent motherboard rose.

The bandwidth couldn’t get exhausted, so they split that shit into a whole bunch of x1 PCIe slots, hooked up good GPUs on there, and started mining. It worked, till it didn’t, and then FLOCKS of E5 Broadwell Workstation Xeons popped up on Chinese marketplaces

You’re gonna wanna find a bundle with 32GB of RAM and a CPU that fits your expectations. It’s DDR4 ECC, prices didn’t increase (much) in that area, and with how the market is I doubt that the RAM you possibly sold from that broken PC didn’t refund the expenses.

BONUS: You need a GPU to actually see what you’re doing. Just get the shittiest possible Quadro, go as far as to use a x1 slot so you have a free 16x for whatever shenanigans you’ll be doing, whether Transcoding (which is already possible on your CPU with no real drawbacks) or a HBA.

Disks

Get around 500GB/1TB disks from old broken laptops you’ll find at recycling centers, et cetera. You’ll need 2 adapters and a Front Panel USB to USB port converter. Try 3.0 if you’re worried about speed

In total, you’ll get around 6 disks, which means:

• 500*6 = 1.2TB of usable storage
• 1000*6 = 6TB of usable storage

But there’s other disks that you’ll use

Speaking of disks, make sure you get a 128/256GB boot disk!

These x99 motherboards are capable of NVMe, and there are flocks of 128/256GB NVMe drives for this exact purpose. Even the fake 1TB, 4TB, 8TB drivers are all just 256GB, so that’s your safest possible bet. Just don’t fall for pictures not taken by a camera.

Don’t worry about the form factor – if you have a key, you’ll be able to reposition the standoff and screw the NVMe drive into the motherboard nicely.

Speaking of which – these drives are NOT server-rated. As such, I’d recommend AGAINST getting them RAID-ed, as one drive failure without any parity which I doubt you’ll have could possibly wreck your entire stack.

Alright – now what about the OS?

I was, for the longest time, a strong proponent of “Just install Debian, copy-paste install instructions, possibly wreck your shit if you ever need to remove traces of the software”

I’ve went past that and did something unthinkable – made a reproducible setup!

If you want what I did:

• Install Debian
• Install Webmin (for an EZPZ setup experience)
• Install Docker
• Install Portainer

Make a Docker-Compose file with an intranet bridge network with a good subnet, then put your VMs in the Compose and network them into it

Then install Nginx Proxy Manager, port-forward 80 and 443 and then you’re gucci!

What do we have here?

Well… This is a Server, alright.

500GB, 256GB, 256GB, 750GB, 3TB. Actually amazing storage capacity for what I need, though I need to upgrade my music storage because it’s at the brink of being full.

You’ll be fine with this. If you need anything more serious, chances are you already have the money to afford a big NAS and whatever

This is bottom of the barrel bullshit that works amazingly.