Mastodawn

Upgrading my home server from an Odroid HC2

https://lemmy.ca/post/3818960

Upgrading my home server from an Odroid HC2 - Lemmy.ca

Hey folks. I’ve been running a media and torrenting server off an Odroid HC2 running OpenMediaVault 6 on Armbian. It’s been doing pretty great, and I have it set to run docker containers for qBittorrent, ProtonVPN, the *arrs, etc. The problem I’m running into is that the HC2 has an arm32 CPU that is not supported by most apps, so I’m stuck running old images. I want to upgrade to a newer mini PC/SBC that is more future-friendly. I’d like it to be capable of running Plex streaming at 4K, Radarr/Sonarr/Prowlarr, etc. as well as other apps as docker containers. I might repurpose the HC2 to just run self-hosted NextDNS. Here are my questions: 1. What mini PCs or SBCs would you recommend? I’m leaning strongly towards a mini PC over an SBC because it would be more powerful, I don’t need specialized software for it, recovery and backups are much easier, etc. I’m not too concerned about power usage unless it’s extravagant. 2. Which OS would you recommend as a media server? 3. What is the simplest way to transfer my server over with minimal fuss? I use private trackers, so I’ll have to very carefully stand up the new server and transfer over torrents, etc. in one fell swoop. I’m guessing I should just be able to install the apps and then transfer over the configurations and media files and change permissions, etc. 4. Anything else I need to consider? Thanks!

antlion Aug 23, 2023

I’m in the same boat. My poor HC-2 is struggling on memory running Omada (WAP controller) and HomeBridge, among other things. I use Emby so I don’t need transcoding - supports 4k streaming just fine.

Right now I’m looking at one of the fanless Intel four port software routers, like this one.. But for a machine like that I’m going to use ProxMox to spin up a Firewall/Router/VPN/Networking VM - not sure which OS/image. That will remain separate from my media and web serving. I will probably end up just off-loading the network tasks to the new machine, and leave my HC-2 running as a media server. That way I can restart and upgrade the systems independently. Using ProxMox, it may be possible to move the media services onto a second VM on the same machine, but I’m not sure what advantage that might give me, if any.

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Anony Moose Aug 24, 2023

I don’t have as much of a need for a networking machine, since I’m happy to keep my simple network setup with just the VPN bits on the home server. I might start self-hosting NextDNS too for DNS ad-blocking. The main downside of the HC2 I’m facing for media is that 32 bit CPU support is being dropped on the main apps I’m using. For your needs that Intel router does seem quite interesting.

Unkn0wn Aug 24, 2023

I’ve been in the same situation a few months ago (Odroid HC-1). I upgraded to a Pentium NUC7 with 16GB RAM, which has more than enough power and ram for my use. A huge improvement over the Odroid and it was pretty cheap too.

Anony Moose Aug 24, 2023

Looks pretty good, but wow, that’s pricey! $650 or so on Amazon Canada.

Unkn0wn Aug 24, 2023

That’s definitely too much. I paid 128€ for mine earlier this year.

Anony Moose Aug 25, 2023

Might get a better price if I shop around

oats Aug 24, 2023

Why not build a new PC or buy an old pc? One with ryzen 5 5600G, 8gb Ram, 250GB ssd should cost ~250USD whether you buy new/old, i recently checked the prices, cause I needed one and they were similar. This should take you a long way. As for storage just pick a case with enough ssd/harddisk slots.

You can also go much cheaper depending on what you get.

The advantage is you can add a GPU like the intel A380 for av1 encoding of video if you feel like you need it.

For OS depending on what you are doing there are a few choices:

True nas: mid difficulty
debian: i just use this with docker, does the job
alma linux/Rocky linux
ubuntu
yunohost: if you would be interested in hosting activitypub apps, easy
casaos: easy

Anony Moose Aug 24, 2023

The main concern with using a PC would be size, noise, heat, etc. If I can build something with a tiny form factor and minimal fuss, that could totally work.

oats Aug 24, 2023

You can get pretty sleek mini-pc in the price but, there performance is sub-par compared to the price they are asking for.

While itx for factor is very expensive, m-atx is cheaper and there are quite few sleek cases for them.

If you are looking for prebuilt mini pc, asustor flashtor is pretty sleek if you only want m.2 storage.

Anony Moose Aug 25, 2023

I want to support my existing HDDs as well as M.2s, so the Asustor is out. m-atx is interesting, I like that it’s flexible for ongoing upgrades.

Limit Aug 24, 2023

I like the “1 liter PCs/home servers” for this kind of stuff. I have a 3 node proxmox cluster running on hp elitebook minu 800 g4’s. I got them for around $120 each on ebay (prices vary). Other big manufacturers have their own mini modules (hp, lenovo, dell) Generally these have a lower price tag than something like a similar generation intel nuc because it’s less of a niche market, these are used in business office environments and usually sold used pretty cheap when hardware is refreshed or businesses are closed. You can find replacement parts easily also. Just make sure they include a power adapter if you do search for one.

Mine are running i5-8500t processor which supports Intel quicksync and performs very well for video transcoding in plex. Should easily be able to do a couple of 4k transcodes easily. If you’re not interested in running proxmox, this would run OMV easily and have plenty of power to run lots of containers.

Anony Moose Aug 25, 2023

I haven’t looked into proxmox yet, so I wouldn’t rule it out yet. OMV is nice, but I found it a little limiting. I actually really like the idea of running a full linux distro with an actual desktop (so not just headless) on it instead of just using OMV as the primary interface. I like the idea of spending more time within actual linux so I can upgrade my linux-fu.

1L PCs look cool, I suppose I won’t be able to upgrade too much, but then again I’m unlikely to need to anytime soon. The form factor looks amazing.

Limit Aug 25, 2023

I needed something for compute not really storage, regardless these hp’s have two nvme slots, and an optional ssd tray (lower modules come with the ssd, these did not have the tray but can buy separately if needed) so the storage upgradeability is pretty good.

Anony Moose Aug 25, 2023

Since my home server is a media server, it’s primary drive is an 8TB HDD :)

Limit Aug 25, 2023

How is that currently plugged in to your odroid? You’ll face similar limitations with beelink or intel nucs. Those small form factor pcs generally don’t support 3.5inch hdds. Most can fit a single 2.5incch ssd.

Anony Moose Aug 25, 2023

The HC2 supports a full-sized 3.5in HDD.

Oh, I’d assumed the NUCs would fit a 3.5in HDD, I guess that rules them out.

jbrr25 Aug 25, 2023

I was in the same boat and recently bought a Beelink S12 Pro, which has a N100(12 gen) processor and 16GB of RAM. I added an SSD in the included bay and has been great. I just installed Debian and docker and configured those containers.

Only thing is I needed to connect to a monitor and keyboard to select the Debian USB installer in the BIOS. After setting that and ssh, it has been smooth sailing. Can recommend

Anony Moose Aug 25, 2023

That looks amazing! Unfortunately I think I might have limited my options by using a 3.5in HDD as the primary storage for my media server :/ looks like I’ll probably have to go one size bigger in terms of form factor.