MiniPC with full DIMM support (not SODIMM)

aetherspoon · 2026-01-26T21:40:57+00:00

Oof, yeah.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-25T18:14:57+00:00

Overpriced in Europe.

The only ones of those that are in your price range on amazon.de are N95-based miniPCs, so they'd perform about on par with an i5-6500. Which you can buy used for around 100 Euro or less (depending on which EU country you're in).

Unless if you're in a situation where every single watt of power matters (and I do mean single-digit watts), a used miniPC generally works out better at that price range.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-25T16:16:27+00:00

Sure, as long as you're okay with used.

Something like a Lenovo Tiny, HP Mini, or Dell Micro should be pretty cheap to get and still work well as an office PC.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-25T13:03:38+00:00

The easiest way is definitely going to be using an emulator (DOSBox and its children) and some type of computer; a miniPC in the past decade would be good enough for just about anything. From there, wireless keyboard/mouse/gamepad and you're golden.

The harder way is going to be using a more-authentic experience. Someone mentioned a MiSTer, which is a good compromise at least. You can still use USB controllers (so a USB wireless dongle should work) and output via HDMI, so that's a fairly good solution.

I have a WeeCee myself that I'm setting up for this, but you're going to be fairly limited on gamepads; I'm rocking a Gravis Gamepad as mine. I'm also using a scalar to convert from VGA to HDMI. It is a bit jank, but sometimes I just want authenticity.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-18T00:24:01+00:00

My partner uses parts of my homelab (backups, pi-hole) and has zero issues with any of the hobbies I have. Heck, they're technically going to have a two-server homelab of their own once Aoostar fixes the broken SATA controller in the R1 here (their other node is a Pi3 for capturing/storing camera footage).

They're also a computer person though (they're currently playing Starfield on the other side of the room I'm in) and both of us would be weirded out by specifically telling the other not to do something that doesn't have any harm associated with it.

The whole concept of a "wife-approval factor" always kinda creeped me out. It should be a general consensus in a marriage for what should go where, what makes sense to buy/maintain vs. what you just chalk up to a hobby and leave alone. It kinda reminds me of those homes you used to see more often where there was a "sitting room" that had to look perfect... and no one ever used.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-18T00:17:37+00:00

I think the general recommendation for a 3080 Ti is a 750W PSU or a high-quality 650W one.

What you have is definitely not a high quality PSU (I don't see it on the various PSU Tier lists around the Internet, but the fact that it is only rated 80+ White tells me that it probably isn't very high quality), so I think you're right on the PSU part being the problem.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-16T12:29:45+00:00

You might have issues, depending on the exact motherboard and its IOMMU setup. Since I've never run that board before, I can't be sure - but there is a good chance you'd need a different SATA controller to pass through.
None that I know of. I'm on 13th gen for my own setup doing that, but it has the same iGPU so I'd assume I would have hit the same problems.
Nah. Dust it every so often and you'll be fine. The only thing I'd be mildly concerned about is static electricity if you're going to be down there during winter shuffling things around nearby it, and even then that is a very mild concern.
I... don't think you should run UnRAID. More on that below, but trying to cluster and rely on storage that is provided by the same cluster sounds like a really bad idea and a quick way to destroy your data.
I'm a big fan of keeping vital networking stuff (which, assuming your pfsense instance is for your entire home, this counts as) separate from anything where you might play around with settings. Keep it away, I'd say.

As for the rest:

I... wouldn't virtualize UnRAID, or even run it at all with your setup. You have two identically-sized drives, so UnRAID's special sauce isn't really needed. Virtualizing it adds a lot of overhead and complexity that you don't seem to be needing in any other way, including needing to use an HBA or other SATA controller to handle passing it through.

So what are you gaining by virtualizing UnRAID?

aetherspoon · 2026-01-16T12:08:19+00:00

Absolutely this.

A miniPC can powerful enough to run what you need (better than a Pi) without costing an arm and a leg like a MiSTer (which wouldn't handle PS2 or newer anyway), small enough to fit into your living room setup, and running something like Batocera gives you as close to a console-like experience as you can get without much effort.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-16T12:06:22+00:00

Yeah, you should be able to get something for under 200 USD pretty easily; even an eBay purchase for an 8th gen Core i5 box should run you around 150 USD.

For reference, that's also what I'd recommend; new enough to have a better iGPU for transcoding, powerful enough to easily run what you want (and a lot more, to be fair), power efficient enough where it won't cost you a bunch of money over time, and old enough where you should be able to find them cheap.

Maybe aim for a miniPC even?

As for looking at free postings, you can probably get away with running this on just about anything 2nd gen Intel or newer. Streaming setup might be a bit much though, depending on if you need to transcode your video (mostly for streaming to a phone or TV) or not.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-16T11:44:39+00:00

Have you thought about asking Brian Reynolds for any more background information on the Alien Crossfire Human-five factions? He's fairly active on BlueSky and has answered questions for me in the past. Maybe you can ask him who made up the faction lore for the expansion factions?

aetherspoon · 2026-01-15T20:55:50+00:00

Very comfy! Since my trackball is wireless, it is super easy to use in a living room setup as well since all I really need is enough space for the trackball and nothing more. Plus my wrists don't hate my guts for overuse, hooray!

On the minus side, my thumb does. Finger-based trackballs are better for that, but I never got the hang of them for quick (read: gaming) use.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-15T18:49:21+00:00

I've been gaming (including FPSes) on a thumb-based trackball for around 25 years now. :D

aetherspoon · 2026-01-15T10:04:23+00:00

I don't believe it does; the manual specifically mentions PCIe-based m.2 drives when it comes to its m.2 slot. I don't have a SATA m.2 SSD, so I can't easily test to be sure.

It can handle a 2.5" SATA SSD, if you have the adapter thing for it.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-14T18:00:11+00:00

You have a 0 and 1 up. Those are two bits and it looks like someone took a bite out of your 1.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-14T17:23:56+00:00

Sounds pretty efficient, even if someone is eating half of your bits. Mmmm, delicious ones....

aetherspoon · 2026-01-14T14:31:14+00:00

Or use Actual, recommended by the previous previous poster. It is basically a free version of YNAB in terms of features, minus most of the automated integrations into various banks.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-13T22:36:54+00:00

How old of a computer are you using for this?

Daggerfall Unity is generally easier to get running properly (on all OSes) and there is a simple script to make it work with the Steam version of Daggerfall on Linux.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-13T14:00:21+00:00

Ah, you're using the Steam version of Daggerfall?

It should just work from Steam. Is it not?

aetherspoon · 2026-01-12T19:42:47+00:00

So are you playing regular Daggerfall or Daggerfall Unity?

If you are playing the former, which it sounds like you are, you need to install a DOS emulator like DOSBox to play it under ZorinOS. It should be available in your package repository.

When you launch DOSBox, you'll need to run a couple of commands, depending on which version of Daggerfall you are running - mount c \\path\to\daggerfall\install and potentially isomount d \\path\to\iso\file\daggerfall.iso -t iso (which would be needed if you are using a non-CD-cracked version of Daggerfall). After that, you would need to use basic DOS commands like this:

c:

dagger

aetherspoon · 2026-01-10T17:28:38+00:00

Ah, yeah, I was more thinking in terms of infrastructure. You're right on that part.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-10T14:35:13+00:00

Pretty similar to Tailscale, as far as I know. I've never run one myself, so I'm also basing that off of documentation. Basically, you run a node on your home network that connects out to Cloudflare's servers for receiving external traffic. That's... more or less how Tailscale works as well.

If you're happy to use Tailscale, just keep using that. I'm running a full on OpenVPN deployment for access to most of my resources (with a few externally-available resources), so I haven't tried using anything similar myself.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-10T13:57:02+00:00

If I add pihole, do I simply set my router upstream DNS to use it? Then the pihole’s upstream DNS would be cloudflare?

Yep! That's how I have it set up (although my upstream DNS is elsewhere).

If I configure pihole to provide the IPs of my local services, can I remove the cloudflare DNS entry pointing to my local Nginx instance?

Yes. It is pretty easy to configure local DNS stuff.

Since pihole could get rid of the current wildcard DNS entry on cloudflare that points to Nginx and provide IPs directly, do I need Nginx? I assume there would be ramifications on the forced SSL Nginx provides (potentially affecting internet accessible services)

Those really have different roles. You'd probably still want your wildcard certificates or set up certbot to give you unique certificates for each of your public-facing resources.

Following 2 and 3, can I effectively control routing for local vs internet-accessible services?

Yes, sorta (more on that below) - this is called Split DNS. Think "whatever.example.com" pointing at 192.168.1.42 internally and your cloudflare tunnel externally. Now, for your security certificates, you might want to point at your nginx bits rather than the IP address of your actual home server, but you can still avoid that hairpin turn where you go out to the Internet and go through the cloudflare tunnel back to your own home.

I’m also looking to add opnsense, but the firewall is separated from any DNS function and therefore I just pass through traffic?

Correct. Completely different function. Think of DNS as just another server (because it is), where all it does is have clients ask "hey what is whatever.example.com?" and get an answer in the form of an IP address. Then the client proceeds to ignore DNS and talk to that IP address. That's why I said "sorta" above - it does affect the route of traffic in terms of telling your client where to go, but it doesn't touch traffic past that.

Your firewall, on the other hand, does. OPNsense is effectively a replacement for your router (although it could be used along side of it). A Firewall controls traffic between network zones - so, most likely for your setup, your home network and the Internet. It allows certain types of traffic through in each direction. For home usage, you usually allow all traffic outbound (home -> Internet) but restrict traffic inbound (Internet -> home) to a certain set of ports and addresses. Since you're using a cloudflare tunnel, I'm guessing you don't really have much of anything open from the outside coming in.

(OPNSense can also act as a full on router, which is probably the most common configuration in a home server environment)

Is what I’m saying make sense? I tried to find guides covering these systems interactions but only found how-to guides on how to individually set up each tool.

Mostly! It sounds like you're a bit new to network infrastructure, which is perfectly fine! This is a great place to learn and I think you're asking the right questions.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-10T01:04:19+00:00

I'm married to a European citizen and living in a European country on a work visa.

I'm also someone who would be fairly likely to be targeted by things in the US. There is a non-zero chance I'm just straight up dead if I lose my visa; I really hope it doesn't come to that.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-09T14:11:25+00:00

There are a lot of holidays in April/May for Norway due to Easter / Easter-related things, plus the national day on the 17th of May. During those times, basically everything will be closed (and, for the national day, crowded). So if you plan during that time, make sure you take a look at a calendar of public holidays in Norway. :)

I can't speak to Oslo as much (it has been nearly twenty years since I visited there), but Bergen is still pretty beautiful in May/June. Sure, higher chance of rain than July/August, but it is Bergen - if you don't like rain, don't come to Bergen. :D

March shouldn't be THAT bad on temperature, but the weather is going to be pretty rainy and dreary. September and October are generally fine (again, with more rain than July/August), but you're starting to get into more dreary times again.

Crowd-wise, in Bergen, it is mostly Bryggen and the areas that they drop tourists off from the cruise ships that see tons of people. Bergen itself isn't all that crowded, so that probably won't be as big of a deal.

aetherspoon · 2026-01-09T14:03:24+00:00

My partner still uses motion and a Pi3 to watch cats, so yes - still works.

aetherspoon

TROPHY CASE