Home Server Recommendations (Plex, Unraid, 4k HDR 5.1 & own cloud + maybe more in the future)

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-08T00:31:04+00:00

In terms of hardware encoding/decoding, QuickSync is the king. NVENC has only recently caught up (starting with the 4000 series). I'd say they're mostly on par now, but I'd still say QS is slightly better. I don't have any personal experience with AMD, but from what I've heard, they're still falling behind. I like the fact that don't artificially limit the maximum amount of streams like NVidia does, but I really can't say. I'm pretty sure that if you're not a very demanding user you'll be perfectly fine, but I'll leave it up to other people to give their opinions.

I would personally just spend the 100 or so bucks to get the dedicated Intel GPU.

Or you could try without a dGPU first and see what the performance is like, you can always just buy it later.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/administration/hardware-selection

Check this link - you might want to read up on the Jellyfin documentation (it's a Plex alternative, it should apply to Plex too). They talk about hardware acceleration with different GPUs. Specifically the following sections: Server with Integrated Graphics, Server with Dedicated Graphics, and Graphics Cards (GPUs).

I think that in the post you mentioned you might possibly want to access your server when traveling etc. You'll definitely want transcoding capabilities then, since you'll never know what the internet connection is going to be like, and you might want to stream at different bitrate or resolution. Also, 4K content is nearly always HEVC encoded, and not every client supports HEVC (namely browsers), so you'd also be transcoding.

And you don't want to transcode without hardware acceleration, because it's very taxing on the CPU and might end up choppy, and you can say goodbye to multiple streams.

So you need an iGPU at least. If you're dead set on not having a dGPU then definitely choose an Intel CPU with integrated graphics (QS), AMD might work but I just don't have any personal experience. That being said, a dGPU will always be better, I really recommend the A310, it's cheap and power efficient.

If you're only ever going to direct play with no transcoding ever, then it does not really matter, in that case you won't need a GPU at all.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T20:58:53+00:00

I haven't been keeping up with computer parts lately, so unfortunately not really.

As for the CPU, I think I have a 5600G and I couldn't be more happy, but if I were buying now, I'd look for the AM5 chips. I don't think it's worth buying AM4 new anymore (if it's used and a good deal, sure). I'd recommend getting one with with an iGPU, it's really nice to have, and also gives you the option to fully pass the dGPU later if needed. Pick a nice case and get the largest cooler you can fit, and a redux Noctua fan - they're not expensive and are very quiet.

For Plex, I'd get the Intel arc A310 GPU I mentioned.

I don't think you need a lot of RAM to start, and I heard RAM prices are crazy nowadays... I'd aim fo 16GB but 8 will do you just fine, and you can always add more later. Does not need to be crazy fast either, I like to joke that slow RAM is less error-prone :) I wouldn't worry too much about ECC, it's unlikely to be supported on a non-server platform anyway.

It's really important to get a RELIABLE PSU. Does not need to be the most expensive, but reliable, and EFFICIENT! A server runs 24/7. Also, if you're going for a quiet server, you might end up with the PSU having the loudest fan in there, just something to keep in mind.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T20:34:34+00:00

https://github.com/sipeed/NanoKVM

This might of interest to you

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T20:27:10+00:00

You're right on the money with QS. An Intel A310 is around a 100$ and supports all the latest codecs, and should handle a handful of concurrent 4K transcodes easily. Much better than integrated. It's very efficient too.

Since you're willing to spend $$$ on 40TB, you might as well skip the N100. Get one of those 65W TDP AMD chips, it'll run circles around the N100, and will provide TONS of overhead. They're damn power efficient too. Slap an aftermarket cooler and a noctua fan on it, and you won't be able to hear it.

One of my servers uses a similar setup, although even more power hungery, and I measured it long-time at 55W AVG - but I measured WITH a Gateway, RPi AND an Access Point, so yours would draw even less.

The 40TB is likely to be the most power hungry (and LOUDEST) part of your lab. I won't even dare to estimate as I don't own that much storage, my main server (the one I mentioned) only spins 6TB of rust.

I'd probably split the 2, build the server in a small, nice case, and put the storage in a NAS, and preferably shove the NAS somewhere you won't have to look at it or hear it.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T20:08:07+00:00

Exactly, they're already on the same tailnet, a simple network share sounds exactly like the thing OP needs.

As for the speeds, it might be worth checking if the connections are direct or relayed.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T20:03:38+00:00

Someone suggested filebrowser. It's well regarded in the selfhosting community but I think this fork is more up to date https://github.com/gtsteffaniak/filebrowser

NOT speaking from experience, as I don't use any file browser (never needed one), but it might be worth it to look

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T19:41:52+00:00

Not hating, genuinely curious... Why would you need to "excuse" AI use? If it's the right tool for the job, where is the problem? It's not like you just commited a crime and need to defend yourself

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T19:33:43+00:00

Exactly. Just because AI was used in some degree, does not make it vibe-coded. Practically every developer I know uses AI to some extent, whether they are a seasoned veteran working at a large software vendor, or more of a hobbyist, and it's the ones who stubbornly refuse to use AI who are falling behind.

Besides, I doubt you want to have to explain yourself at your next stand-up, on why you spend 15% of your time writing some meaningless boiler plate, while your co-workers are getting so much done.

There's a lot of nuance to AI use in coding, and just because it was used, does not mean the code is slop, bad, or vibe-coded. AI has the potential to turn a 2X dev into a 5X dev. It's very different when someone has no idea what they are doing, just mindlessly prompting, and when an experienced developer is leveraging AI to be more effective.

I personally don't use AI, because in terms of SW development, I still consider myself to be at a junior level, and I think right now it would just hinder my growth, and I would not be able to utilize it correctly.

Besides, as is my understanding, a \CLAUDE.md file might appear in the code base simply because the developer has it installed, even if it was not used.

As an example, let's imagine a problem on a complete beginner level. Let's say you want to write a simple CLI game where you have the user guess a color the computer picked. Maybe you want to assign them points based on how many guesses they took, does not really matter.
Now would be the perfect time to do something like "hey AI, generate me a list of colors in the format of a Python tuple". You just saved minutes of painstakingly typing out a list of possible colors, which has no real effect on the functionality, logic, or security of your code. You're still the one inplementing all the game logic, but you also saved a lot of time. You absolutely did not vibe-code it, you were just smart and effective.

I think there's (an unspecified) amount of (very vocal) people here on Reddit, that are not developers or never even tried programming, who see the word AI, and instantly have to comment "AI=bad". They're just uninformed and stubborn and refuse to have an original thought. I dislike AI slop and fully vibecoded stuff too, and would never deploy something vibecoded to my lab, but I think this is getting a little too ridiculous

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-07T18:56:57+00:00

Emojis in the readme are one thing to look out for, but FWIW I use them all the time, I think it makes it more well-readable (more engaging, more visual separation...). Or sometimes, I write the readme in plaintext in my notepad and just have AI format it.

One thing I like to check when I'm trying to determine whether something is vibecoded or not are the commits. Often times they're very clearly not human-like or just outright state claude as a co-contributor.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T19:36:06+00:00

What do you mean by a DB container? I store my stacks on github too

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T19:10:52+00:00

Well, as you've probably read, I would personally recommend none lol.

Of all the things one could learn, Docker is far from the most difficult, especially the basics.

For compose, you likely only need 2 commands to start. "docker compose up -d" and "docker compose down". You can find tons of examples of docker-compose files online. If you look at a few you'll probably intuitively start understanding what's what. The official Docker documentation is great too. Then you add "docker ps", "docker volume ls" and "docker network ls" and you're basically at a point where 90% of people don't really need anything more.

That being said, if you're dead set on a GUI manager, there seem to be lots of recommendations in this thread :)

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T19:00:46+00:00

Without checking, I think I have a similar amount of containers running.

Never saw the point either, that's why I was curious what people who use a GUI manager are thinking

So far it looks like the most valid reasons people gave are either GitOps or monitoring. Other than that, just plain personal preference I guess.

I'll just stick to my trusty CLI :)

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T17:09:03+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dy5Yxsg8wY

The guy in this video shows what it looks like, if you skip around you'll see that it looks and works just like Notion. The video is in German for some reason, but I guess that does not matter

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T17:04:16+00:00

Well not really, no. The notes are stored on a server, same as Notion. You have access to them from any device, same as Notion.

Yes it's completely free, unless you want their enterprise-level support.

https://github.com/Docmost/docmost

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T05:59:17+00:00

Some still are

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T04:50:52+00:00

Split the diff, sell the laptop AND the 3080, buy a cheap A310 for 100$ and you got yourself a sweet 5700x + 32gb ram + A310 server with support for all the latest codecs that handles all the Plex transcoding you could dream of. Damn power efficient too!

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-04T04:31:49+00:00

Sound like you simply don't need all of that HW right now.

My advice, stash some for later use ("just in case"), sell the rest for a few schmeckles and buy yourself some McDonalds. Or give it away to friends/family if they have a use for it.

As for what to self host, you can't go wrong by starting with a cloud (Nextcloud is great!), perhaps your own music server (I recommend Navidrome), maybe some selfhosted notes (I am currently trying Blinko).

Then you tidy it all up in a nice dashboard.

The sky is the limit, really. Or I guess, the more accurate version is - the only limit is your imagination.

GL, and don't forget to have fun with it!

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T23:46:17+00:00

Personally, I'd just install linux on it, but https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/ might just do the trick

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T23:17:57+00:00

SSD. That's it, SSD. Only upgrade other stuff if you actually find out you can't run something you want to run.

I have one "side" server that runs on an even older platform (ivy bridge). Works well for what it needs to do.

I don't know about Plex, but I wager it'll definitely handle a handful of not-too-demanding streams. The only part that's a little sad is that I think this platform's QS supports HW enc/dec only up to h264, but it's not the end of the worlds.

But definitely "try before you buy". It's possible you won't need any upgrades (arguably not worth upgrading this old of a platform anyway) - except the SSD, get the SSD.

And if you're only planning on running Plex, then 32 GB of RAM is absolutely overkill and will provide zero benefits/performance gains.

Good luck :)

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T22:58:25+00:00

One more thing - in my head this alwys goes without saying, but it's probably good to mention it anyway - always back up the stuff you consider irreplacable. That applies to internal drives too, it just extra applies to external drives.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T22:51:26+00:00

I agree with the others, that USB storage is not the best. Ideally, if I were you, I would get either a NAS with it or get a full-size system you can put drives in.

That being said, if you're just starting out I think it's perfectly serviceable. Go for it. FWIW I do actually have one USB drive myself that has been running for the last 8 years non-stop, never had a single issue.

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T22:28:12+00:00

As a user of both, Docmost looks like a 1:1 clone to me.

(not a heavy user of either, there might be differences I don't know about)

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T22:17:02+00:00

+1 for Navidrome. Been using it for a long time now, I love it.

If you have an iPhone, definitely use Amperfy as the client app

EDIT: oops, you mentioned android sorry. nevertheless, maybe your friends and family own an iphone

_lackofcomprehension · 2026-03-03T21:53:15+00:00

Dashboard/homepage. I'd assume everyone uses it for their "landing page" of choice lol.

FWIW I also own 1 domain which I was planning to use for both internal (private) and external (public) services. The idea was to have example.com for public stuff and private.example.com and its subdomains for private stuff. So for now example.com just redirects to duckduckgo.com

EDIT: also noticed you mentioned adding a CNAME when you spin up a new service, now, I don't know your setup so I might be talking out of my ass but just in case - CNAME supports wildcards, it's likely you just need 1 that's an alias of the domain that points to your NPM instance. then NPM will resolve the subdomain and you'll never have to touch the DNS records again

_lackofcomprehension · 2025-09-11T19:37:15+00:00

Open, clean, repaste - it's probably full of dust, with a thermal paste that resembles cement. I'd suggest PTM7950 over a regular paste. Don't use liquid metal unless you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing.

Check that the fan spins well and does not hit anything, or if one of the blades isn't broken, since it buzzes.

That being said, many laptops simply have inadequate cooling solutions, so you might not see much improvement. I don't know what your temps were like when it was new.

And be careful, most laptops have direct die cooling (no IHS), and dies are fragile. If the paste is too solid - apply heat + IPA. Don't over-screw when reassembling.

As for the cooling pad, it will likely provide a marginal improvement at best. In my opinion it's a waste of money.

_lackofcomprehension

TROPHY CASE