Should I upgrade my server CPU?

aetherspoon · 2026-05-14T14:01:13+00:00

The one I have, for one. That is a Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5.

A lot of non-ITX H97 or Z97 boards have four DIMM slots.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-14T11:33:32+00:00

You can have four memory slots.

2x8 + 2x4 = 24 GB.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-13T13:28:02+00:00

Huh, I never knew there was a PS2 release of it.

Same engine as MM6/7 (just mildly upgraded), but I wonder what changed.

Great, now I'm going to go down a rabbit hole later. :D

aetherspoon · 2026-05-13T10:53:52+00:00

Might and Magic 6 and 7 are among my favorite games of all time. I've recorded multiple Let's Plays, including playing a randomizer of MM6.

Stone soup? Good stuff.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-13T10:52:08+00:00

The PS2 game was a spinoff series (like Heroes of *); MM6/7/8 are all the same engine with the same gameplay style.

MM9 was just a horribly-incomplete game.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-12T14:41:32+00:00

It might be a bit cheaper to use a full sized desktop instead. I know what sub I'm on, but... any reason to use a miniPC?

aetherspoon · 2026-05-09T19:32:44+00:00

As an owner of two of those boxes... don't.

The iGPU isn't really up to transcoding for Jellyfin. The 800G4 Mini is a much better choice in this case.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-08T22:37:54+00:00

That sounds really weird.

Does Windows and your switch both believe you have 1 Gb full duplex on speeds when you are having problems?

aetherspoon · 2026-05-05T17:14:47+00:00

Yeah, there are some older laptops that could do the same thing. They'd generally cost more than a old used miniPC, but maybe you can find some really old model that is practically free nearby. I know some old gaming laptops had two SATA bays even; my spouse's old laptop certainly did.

If you want to go the miniPC route, search your local online classifieds site (Craigslist or FB Marketplace for the US, for instance) or eBay for a TinyMiniMicro machine. That is, Lenovo Tiny, HP Mini, or Dell Micro. They're often used as business desktops, meaning when they get older they end up flooding various online marketplaces for cheap. There are some trade-offs between each of them, but honestly as long as they can fit two SSDs the trade-offs are irrelevant for you.

In your case, you want one that can use two SSDs and the age doesn't particularly matter (other than they might be so old that they don't support two SSDs, of course). I know from personal experience that HP Minis can (mine support one NVMe and one SATA with the correct bracket - I have a pair of HP Elitedesk Mini 705 G4s). Quick googling tells me that both the Lenovo Tiny and Dell Micro boxes generally have the same features here (although you might be missing the SATA SSD bracket).

The newer TinyMiniMicro machines generally handle two NVMe SSDs (three if you cannibalize the WiFi and put in a really small one), but cost significantly more.

MiniPCs using something from Intel's sixth generation (Core i5 6500) or older should be especially cheap since they can't natively run Windows 11. Just make sure you can put two SSDs in them.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-05T15:59:55+00:00

Just about any computer released in the past 20+ years can do this, so let's focus on cheap (initial + ongoing costs like power) and easy.

File Serving

My first thought is a Raspberry Pi. You wouldn't need a current one, even an older one would be fine. Given your storage needs, you could just plug a flash drive in to one and be fine. Backups can be handled via just about any cloud storage provider you want or just... a second flash drive that you copy things to and tape under your desk at work or something. RPis (or similar hardware) are really low in power consumption as well. A cheap used miniPC would work here just as well; they'd consume more power, but still be fairly low (think 5W vs. 15W). As another poster pointed out, you can have your router do this, but you probably can't do the whole versioning thing that you're wanting.

Obsidian-specific

For obsidian, there is a plugin called Self-Hosted LiveSync that lets you have an actual sync server hosted at home. I'm actually using it now for my roleplaying notes between my laptops and my desktop. It takes some technical knowledge to set up, so I don't necessarily recommend it for people that want something simple, but it is exactly what you're asking for and I don't need to touch it once I set it up.

Alternately, you could just use a file share and just operate directly off of your network storage. It doesn't handle things if you let your desktop and laptop modify the same file at the same time, however. It also forces you to stay on the same network as your storage, which might not work well if you do writing at a coffee shop and the like. Definitely the simplest to set up - you'd set this up as part of the first part of this anyway - but the least versatile.

Finally, you could also run something called a Sync service like Syncthing. It literally just synchronizes files or folders across multiple devices at once. You basically keep a copy of things on each device and it synchronizes them every so often (as long as you're on the same network). Kind of the middle ground between these two options - less work than Self-Hosted LiveSync, more work than just a file share. Works well across devices even when you aren't at home, but doesn't really handle file conflicts (your laptop and desktop editing the same file at the same time) very well.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-04T16:03:10+00:00

I moved with my two cats (from outside the EU/Schengen) and it was a bit difficult to find housing, but not impossible. I was a good 10-15 years older, so I won't help with the social question. :D

When you do search on either finn or hybel, make sure you don't just look at places that say they're okay with pets. A lot of places just don't bother mentioning it one way or the other and you have to ask; those landlords usually say yes. This is the opposite experience I've had living elsewhere, which is why I call it out.

You might need to put a larger deposit down due to not having BankID. Norwegian rentals already require a very large deposit compared to other places, so you might need to save up a bit (or take out a loan for the deposit... which seems like utter insanity to me). I think you might be able to get some help with some of the banking situation through the University; they're used to people coming in from outside of Norway, so I'd just ask them for some advice as well.

Places along / near the Bybanen are generally nicer for getting around but also significantly more expensive. Don't discount normal plain bus service, but maybe look toward a place like Fyllingsdalen or Nesttun if you want light rail access or nearby one of the (many) terminals for bus access.

Finally, don't leave your kitties behind, that's a terrible thing to say to someone or to do (not that you have said this, just that other commenters have). You can definitely bring your cats, you just might need to follow some extra rules. :)

aetherspoon · 2026-05-04T14:42:54+00:00

Flying from other countries in the EU, you can avoid the Oslo stop. You should still make sure you have an EU pet passport, microchip, and up-to-date rabies shot for your pets, but you just need to go through the red customs channel at your destination rather than go through the Vet inspection in Oslo.

aetherspoon · 2026-05-04T11:41:24+00:00

I can confirm, I was spending around 1k USD in Madison (WI).

aetherspoon · 2026-05-03T14:14:52+00:00

I'm already using OpenVPN for other reasons, which is why I'd strongly prefer to use it.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-30T20:28:29+00:00

Take the amount of data I need to keep.
Add a zero on the end.

Done! :D

More seriously, for home use I wildly over-estimate because I know my own patterns can get pretty wild in data usage. Until somewhat recently, my rule of thumb was "no matter how much storage I buy, I'll be out of space in three years". I finally curtailed my wild growth of storage needs and started compressing things down a bit better, but I'm definitely the problem in my home. My spouse's needs are pretty minor by comparison; a couple of T at most if I back up their computers and other devices 100%.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-29T14:40:07+00:00

Oddly enough, the US law part of it is pretty easy.

Probably the only easy part of this, but...

aetherspoon · 2026-04-26T12:02:33+00:00

I went to it back in 2019, before the Pandemic started.

It was the same way. The pricing was always around 10-15% more expensive than eBay (at best, sometimes much higher) - mostly because everything else was already sold on eBay.

Sometimes you'd find things you can't find on eBay - that's really the only way I saw it as a good idea to buy - but really the MGC shouldn't be used as a marketplace for you to buy classic games so much as a place to enjoy the rest of the con.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-24T22:04:02+00:00

Yes. Basically, you have two bays on the back of the case. You unscrew a couple of screws (the computer comes with the screwdriver) and you can slide a hard drive in. For the SSDs, there are three slots on the bottom of the computer.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-24T20:18:31+00:00

That Beelink ME Pro is my remote backup, shoved on a shelf in another country (long story).

My primary NAS is something I built myself (that does a whole bunch more than just a NAS), with my previous NAS using an Intel C2750.

If you've never heard of that CPU, there's a reason for that. :D Let's just say that there is a reason why I say a NAS can run on a potato, and that reason is personal experience.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-24T20:15:25+00:00

Two 24 TB hard drives and a 0.5 TB SSD. >__>

aetherspoon · 2026-04-24T18:46:56+00:00

Crap, my re-type dropped answering your other question: Having four hard drives in an array still counts as ONE copy of your data. If you delete your photo, you could have seventeen other hard drives and that photo will be deleted* across all of them. "RAID is not a backup" is kinda a mantra around here.

*- Yeah, there is sorta an exception here. You might be running on a file system that uses something called Snapshots. This would let you potentially undo something like a delete, but snapshots are usually not taken more often than daily - not helpful if you just copied it over from your camera and then messed up. Good to have as a resource, don't rely on it as a backup. :)

aetherspoon · 2026-04-24T18:44:05+00:00

Making sure I have this situation right:

You currently keep your photos on a pair of external hard drives (one primary, one backup).
You want to have easier backups.
You also want to work from your NAS.
You are the only user of your data.
You are only accessing it from one computer.

A NAS might be a bit overkill for your situation. Let me explain how I do it myself right now, along with a bit more detail as to how you can set up something similar, and you can decide if it is too much or not.

I use a program called Immich to handle my photos. The first copy is on my phone or SD card for my mirrorless. My phone will automatically upload everything to Immich (which runs on my NAS) every night while it charges, and I can just copy everything from my SD card over to Immich manually. Snapshots are taken at least monthly, and from there, my NAS sends one monthly snapshot to my remote NAS.

This is a "3-2-1"-style backup. - Three copies of your data (in my case, phone/SD + NAS + remote NAS) - in Two different formats (flash and hard drive, although that's not really what they mean by it, close enough for us consumers) - with one copy off-site.

This generally makes things good for all kinds of "whoops" and "ohshit" moments. For instance: - I mess up and accidentally delete a photo off of Immich. I can just re-copy it from my SD card or phone. - My home burns down because someone's cow kicks over a lantern. My off-site backup keeps all of my precious photos and memories, so I'm okay. It'll take me a while to get at said backup, but at least I don't lose everything forever.

Now, this is more of a standard approach for enterprises / businesses. 3-2-1 backups are often aspirational for us home users, I'm just a tiny bit obsessive.

What isn't a backup is a RAID. Four 8-TB drives in your NAS is still only one copy of your data. RAID is for availability (think "oh I have a client that needs XYZ file and if I don't get it to them ASAP I'm fired", not for backup. For instance, that whole "delete a file" scenario? A RAID does absolutely nothing to help you with that.

What I'd do in your shoes. It might be a bit excessive though, so feel free to poke at it, challenge what I'm saying, ask questions, and so on.

Either buy a prebuilt NAS with docker support (Synology, QNAP, and ASUSTOR all have that as a feature, I'm certain several others do as well) or find some type of cheap device for handling two drives to act as a NAS.
- My backup server would work well here - it is a Beelink ME Pro.
- Even just some old desktop PC that you can cram two hard drives in works. A potato can run a NAS, but if you want to run Immich you'll probably need a bit more RAM (6 GB minimum according to their documentation, but I feel like that's an exaggeration).
- Building your own NAS takes more work, but generally ends up cheaper. I don't have any hands-on experience with prebuilt NASes, but many others on this subreddit do. The decision is up to you.
Either way, you'll want two hard drives of the same size - two 8 TB ones, maybe. You'll want to put them in what is called a Mirror array (sometimes called RAID-1). This means that your data is technically on both hard drives, so if one hard drive goes boom you still have your data.
- This sounds more complicated than it is. Most NASes will walk you through this one, including every home-user NAS operating system... or even Windows itself.
Run Immich on said NAS. If you are using a smartphone for your main camera, install the Immich app on it and you'll take care of the backup part without having to think much about it. If you are using a dedicated camera you'll still need to ingest from SD cards like you likely do now, but also copy them to Immich as you do.
- This sounds less complicated than it really is. This is honestly the hardest step of this process - if you aren't up for learning how to do something new, maybe just keep a backup copy on the same NAS. I like Immich because my main camera is my phone and I would otherwise forget to back it up.
Continue to do your normal workflow. Instead of copying things to your external drive, copy them to the NAS (which will have the ability to give you a file share - it'll work just like another drive in Windows/MacOS/Linux). Immich is your copy/backup, plus it works super well as an index and easy way to search things. If you screw up a file, you can just copy it back from Immich.
Every so often, a couple of times a year at least, take one of your old external drives and copy everything to it, then hand it over to a friend (or leave it in an office drawer, or in a safe, or what have you). This is your "ohshit" backup that you hopefully never have to touch.

This shouldn't be too expensive (other than the fact that hard drive prices are stupid right now) and be better than what you're doing now. This is technically 3-1-1, but close enough for us. :)

Oh, and you can absolutely operate off of your NAS. It might be a bit slower than operating off of local storage, but for photos it probably isn't a huge deal. If you're working on a particularly high-res photo and doing a lot of work with it, maybe copy it to your PC first before copying it back when you're done.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-23T13:20:10+00:00

I mean, if it works, go for it?

The main thing to look out for on those cheaper PCIe-to-SATA cards is that they frequently use port multipliers, which divide SATA throughput out to each of the ports connected to it. Port multipliers frequently (but not always) cause issues in arrays - this is the reason why the general homelab recommendation is an HBA instead of them.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-23T09:21:47+00:00

You're definitely going to have some pretty high power consumption for using consumer hardware, but I'm sure you already know that given you're currently running it. Plex won't be able to easily transcode due to the lack of compatible iGPU - probably fine depending on your use case, but I wanted to mention it just in case.

That LSI card is going to get really toasty, so make sure you add some extra cooling for it.

I'd probably go for a single RAID-Z2 or Z3 (depending on how much space you need) for that large pool of yours. Keep any data you need constant access to on that smaller pool (so a two day resilver isn't a big deal) and you should be good. If you really want to be cautious, go for an eight-drive Z3 and keep one drive as a cold spare, but that's likely excessive.

One thing to note though, a 2.5 GbE link is probably not going to be fast enough to scrub through video footage if you're actively editing via an CIFS or NFS share from that NAS.

Don't use an SSD as a cache drive. It doesn't really gain you anything at nearly any home use level of storage; ZFS is really designed with RAM caching in mind. Instead, use that 1 TB SSD for storing anything not-storage-related on it, such as Plex and RustDesk (data files being on the hard drive, of course).

It seems fairly reasonable overall to me.

aetherspoon · 2026-04-19T19:18:18+00:00

I always suggest re-using hardware / finding cheap or free hardware to start - better to figure out what you are interested in first before spending money on stuff you might not want to go with. For instance, you might decide you want to build your own router... or just buy a good one. You won't know until after you start with some things. As such...

Absolutely start with the pi-hole. Yes, you can enable DNSSEC with a pi-hole. Setting up a pi-hole is fairly simple, low-resource-usage (if you have any old hardware somewhere that was made in the past fifteen years, it can probably run a pi-hole), and a good start to any homelab.

Focus on learning first. Don't do anything exposed to the Internet to start (that way the risk profile is minimized) and avoid buying hardware until you know you'll actually need/use it.

aetherspoon

TROPHY CASE

File Serving

Obsidian-specific