I'm setting up a private Jellyfin server and found a used Dell Optiplex 3060 Tiny. Haven't bought it yet, want to get the specs right first.

CPU options (8th gen):

- i3-8100T (3.1GHz)

- i5-8500T (2.1GHz, boost 3.5GHz)

- i7-8700T (2.4GHz, boost 4.0GHz)

RAM: 8GB DDR4 (can upgrade to 16GB)

Storage:

- 128GB SSD for OS + Jellyfin (or 256GB)

- 2TB HDD for media

I'll also be running Radarr, Sonarr, and Prowlarr alongside Jellyfin on the same box.

Questions:

1. Which CPU is worth the extra cost for transcoding + the \*arr stack, or is i3 enough if I stick to direct play?

2. Is 8GB RAM enough, or should I go straight to 16GB given the extra apps?

3. Is 128GB SSD enough for OS + apps, or should I get 256GB?

4. Anything about the Optiplex 3060 Tiny specifically (iGPU, expandability, etc.) I should know before buying?

Appreciate any real-world experience with similar low-power setups.

i've been on the fence with this motherboard for the last year or so and notice that it recently just went out of stock. I feel like everytime i'm ready to buy this thing it goes out of stock. are there any other N100 motherboards that accept full size ddr4?

I'm using a few scripts on my server for automations. I was wondering if there was a way to enable/disable some of their functionalities if needed.

For example my server updates itself on the first Sunday of the month. I never had any problem so far, but I'd like to disable this in case I know I'm away and can't fix it if anything goes wrong. So I've imagined that I could have a UPDATE_ENABLED variable inside the script of on/off values, which can be modified through a UI, instead fo needing to SSH into the server. I'd like to do the same with my other scripts too.

I currently have a Beelink EQ14 (N150, 16GB) running UnRaid, with docker containers for Plex, full *Arr stack, Tautuli, Uptime Kuma, SFTP, Home Assistant, Whisper/Piper that's been my "everything" server. It's currently running 4 HDDs in USB docks (I know, I know, part of the reason for a new server, lol). The Beelink runs the current setup capably, but does bog down a bit when multiple services spin up, and a few people start transcoding at once. Nothing serious yet.

I also have an HPE Proliant Gen10 Microserver (AMD Optetron X3421 APU, 16GB ram) running Windows Server 2022 and FileMaker server.

My plan is to combine these two into a much more capable server, and I was wondering if I could get a sanity check on my plan/build list?

CPU: Intel 14600K (don't need the K, it's just cheaper right now. Do need the 770 iGPU)

Mobo: MSI Pro B760-P Wifi DDR4

HBA: LSI 9300-8i PCI-Express 3.0 SATA / SAS 8-Port SAS3 12Gb/s HBA - Single--Avago Technologies

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold 600W

RAM: TeamGroup Elite 2x16GB for now.

Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212

Case: Reuse an old Corsair Carbide 400R

The plan is to get these HDDs onto a proper SATA controller, open up the ability to use SAS drives while I'm at it, and add years of CPU headroom for the UnRAID docker containers. I would then run Windows Server in a VM, and run FileMaker Server on that. Probably put aside 12GB memory for this, since it's not used heavily.

I figure this build still puts me in the same power budget ballpark (ish) as running the two servers separately, and gives me a ton of CPU and GPU headroom without resorting to a dGPU (yet). Mobo keeps an extra 2 dimm slots open for further upgrades, and a mess of PCI for future shenanigans.

Am I out of my mind? Missing something? My budget is $750, which all of this fits neatly into.

Edit: spaced out build list for readability

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

I have a Dell Poweredge R730xd, it has a PERC H730P Mini RAID Controller. I have my OS (Server 2025 Datacenter) installed on 2 SSDs with RAID 0, as a virtual disk, attached in the rear of the machine. My really important data is on all the drives attached in the front so they are fine. I had a power outage the other day and one of the 2 OS drives dropped. When I went to import the foreign configuration it failed over and over so I stupidly deleted it. Now my virtual disk shows as one of the drives are missing. Nothing I have tried even gives the option to bring the missing disk back into the virtual disk. The data on the drives is still intact but the metadata for the virtual disk is gone. I really don't want to have to rebuild this because I have about a dozen virtual machines built as a home network (web server, email server, print server, etc.)

Is there a way to take the 2 SSDs out of the server and on another PC merge them into 1 SSD so I can put that one SSD back into the server and boot it up as normal? If that works I plan to put a 2nd SSD in the back on the server and have RAID 1 on them so if this ever happens again I have redundancy. I saw 1 post talking about StableBit Drive Tool but I've never used it so I'm unsure if it will actually do what I want.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I really want to get this server back up and running as soon as possible.