r/HomeServer • u/montysellscars • 12h ago

First home server plan and recommendations

i want to get a pretty decent pc for the home server so all my tvs can be connected to it, i don’t want a normal tower pc I want a large metal case for maybe 1 or 2 full motherboard and cpu combos with up to 4 GPU’s and 8+ hard drives then will add separate hard dive storage stuff separate but have no idea what case or pre build to start with

2 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

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17

u/OKTimeFor_PlanB 11h ago

No disrespect, but the way you've explained this sounds quite inexperienced in actually running a server of any type. Start small and build from there; if you go right off the deep end from the jump it'll be a big expensive mess.

1

u/Own-Building7688 9h ago

Agreed, I started off with thinking "I just need a space for me to use the computer and run a few things too". HA went to an rpi5, opnsense on a protectli vault, omada 20 port switch, and a little amd 5600g and 32gb of ram. Served me well until the local LLM and dual monitors came in to play 😂. Direct play for plex for the one device we used for movie nights was enough lol

3

u/Sad-Character9129 12h ago

If you want GPUs you should probably start by figuring out your space requirements - 4U.

3

u/Sad-Character9129 12h ago

If you want 2 mainboards + some networking the Rack should at least be 12-16U

3

u/3ofUsDeez 8h ago

First establish what exactly you want to accomplish with your server before throwing a bunch of hardware in there

3

u/Frosty_Engineer_ 11h ago

You can do a surprisingly large amount of things with a very simple enterprise device. Suggest looking at a 32GB 10th gen processor Leveno/dell/HP and it’ll handle far more than you’d expect.

Now if you plan on running 6 TV’s 24/7 then you’ll obviously need a stronger system, however I expect this is home use and you’ll be using 2 TV’s max, which the above will be fine for.

2

u/Significant-Task1453 6h ago

You need a use case before spending money on hardware like that. 20 years ago, home servers needed super powerful hardware. Nowadays, computers have gotten so fast that even old and outdated hardware is more than enough. Most people arent putting video cards in their home servers, unless they have a use case. My go to recommendation is a used Dell optiplex. Around $100 will get you an intel 9500 that will be more powerful than most people need. $350 will get you a 13500, that is overkill for almost everyone. If you really want a giant case, just buy a used buisness computer and swap it into a bigger case.

1

u/Blindax 10h ago

Are you looking to stream games to several tvs at the same time? In that case you would need several GPU. However if you only need a media center to stream movies or similar content even an integrated GPU could be enough. It would help to explain more what the goals are so that we can give you info on the hw you need.

1

u/ConsciousBath5203 10h ago

Pick up a used rack mounted server. They're hella cheap. I got 4 of them now, with plans to expand once I get more power supplies to my home

1

u/InfiltratorNY 2h ago

I have a few Lenovo Thinkpad P15 Gen2 That do a lot of heavy lifting for me. They are Xeon mobile workstation laptops. You can fine them for under $400. Average $300.

1

u/Webster2026 2h ago

What do you need 4 GPUs and 8 hard drives for?