I have an early 2000s PC (pre-SATA) with 512MB RAM (I’d love to tell you about the CPU, but its under a cooler that isn’t going anywhere) that’s been sitting in closets for about 15 years. Assuming I’m willing to buy into it, can something like that reasonably host the following simultaneously on a 40GB boot drive:

Nextcloud Actual Photoprism KitchenOwl SearXNG Katvia Paperless-ngx

Or should I just get new hardware? Regardless, I’d like to do something with this trusty ol business server.

Edit: Lenovo or Dell as the most cost-effective, reliable self-host server in your opinion?

  • @Lightning66@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2•11 months ago

    I would never say no to using older hardware. Yeah, it’ll be like punishing yourself. But you learn a shit ton.

    I recently started self hosting. I started on a PC with the same specs as you’ve said. Booting was an issue. And tons of stuff always broke. But i learnt a lot. And then there was a time, when i genuinely thought i could do better and switched an old laptop with decent specs.

    Pi’s are very expensive and too dang low on supply.

    So always make do with what you have. If it’s your first home lab, then yeah go ahead. In a few months switch

    • @glue_snorter@lemmy.sdfeu.orgEnglish
      4•11 months ago

      Pi is not the only SoC, merely the best-known.

      I’d earn anyone thinking of buying a Pi for a home server: ARM is widely supported, but you might regret investing in arm32. Atom is a safer choice.