I personally just use an old desktop (4th gen i7, yeah that old) and a NAS (mostly for bulk storage seperated from the server). The device you listed is probably more than enough to handle everything, unless you’re sharing Nextcloud and/or Plex with a bunch of people.
Have you looked into an actual NAS rather than a mini-pc though? It’ll give you more storage upgradeability over a mini-pc, and a quality NAS could probably host everything.
I would also consider buying used, especially first starting out. You can save some money buying a model year or two older hardware for decent savings.
I assume you’re not really experienced with storage servers? Then I would likely recommend a Synology NAS. They give you great software that you can easily configure without the need of deeper knowledge of the inner workings. I started with a Synology and didn’t regret it. It just worked and gave me reliable storage so I could concentrate on the other parts of my homelab. It comes with a price though and you mostly pay for the software.
If you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty or prefer to use an open source storage solution from the beginning, you might consider Unraid or TrueNAS. The latter is more “enterprisey”, the former seems to be more beginner friendly (but I haven’t used it personally).
It absolutely is viable. I do so myself. There’s pros and cons to this.
The cost of hardware is more because you have more pieces, you probably need a decent shelf to hold everything (check the local thrift stores for old home theater stands, they work great), and it may add latency for some things where they interact together.
The hardware modularity of it is really nice though. It’s kinda nice not having to worry about losing all your data if you need to reinstall everything on the server. And it gives you the ability to update in smaller pieces rather than all at once.
That being said, a NAS itself generally isn’t all that good at transcoding Plex. Most entry level NAS’s ($200-$300 range) can only transcode a few streams at a time. However you might not use transcoding all that much anyway if you store media on it in a playable format.
I’ve personally only ever used Synology, and they’re not bad, but they’ve been doing a few anticonsumer practices in more recent years that makes me want to get away from them. They’re really easy to set up though, so it’s not a bad option starting out.
If you’re going to go this route, I’d host Nextcloud on the NAS as well as your Plex media, then mount the share on your server so that your server can do transcoding while you’re NAS does bulk storage. Everything else could be hosted on the server
Considering you’re starting from square one though, it may be better to just buy a beefier NAS, and then get a server as your needs expand. Especially if you don’t plan on sharing Plex or Nextcloud with a bunch of people outside your home at this time.
Thanks for the detailed response! I’ve looked around a bit, and a Synology DS220+ seems like a good starter. Knowing I have the ability to move comoutation to a server later on and keep using the NAS for storage makes it seem like a great setup for me
Happy to help, though might I suggest you get 4 bay version of the NAS instead of the 2 bay version (if your budget allows it). I speak from experience in this where storage space required tends to grow quicker than anything else, and you may outgrow a 2 bay NAS quickly. This is especially true if you’re running any type of raid array.
You’ll also want to get a UPS to help avoid data corruption on power failures. Even if your power goes out indefinitely, doing a proper shutdown can help prevent data failure. You can see the responses I recieved asking for help on this topic here: lemmy.world/post/158974
I upgraded my gaming machine and used my old motherboard and cpu and loaded unraid on there, the i7 was great for plex transcoding and eventually i ran out of sata ports on my machine so I stuck a sata expander card in my one pcie slot, luckily the motherboard had two m.2 slots so I used that for cache. the case I used was a node304 and over time I added drives as I was running out of space. eventually I build a separate JBOD chassis to hold more drives
It works great I keep my containers in the cache so they operate faster, and when moving files to my server it gets placed on the cache initially so the transfer is quick, then later it will migrate into the slower hard drives on it’s own time
This may be a really basic question, but the regular android clock app can set recurring alarms already right? What is the added value of using home assistant externally?
Question is fine, I get added value from HA, but still probably overkill or maybe even bad idea :D time will tell…
I am using alarms as medication reminders at the moment and it is working fine of course, but I wanted something more advanced due to very complex medication schedule. I tried google calendars and tasks, but it is pain to manage that with not much benefit. I also tried some other android medication reminders and some of them are almost perfect, but I guess I became quite demanding. I don’t have a knowledge to create android app or anything that works standalone and I had homeassistant running some simple automations already on home server.
So probably not the best approach but I couldn’t think of any better (for now) to get these features (mostly working, but still work in progress):
Pill counter - it counts down pills so I can see how many I should have (also to confirm I took a pill in case I forgot - happens sometimes)
Pill reminder - Android Alarm or Home Assistant android app notifications (notifications work fine, but kinda useless without internet)
Reorder reminder - e-mail notification if it’s time to reorder
Nice overview in dashboard
Feature 2 seems easy, but creating alarm every 2 days already involves tasks/reminders or some other app. I’m trying out this thing with home assistant and google clock on android and it looks promising. Will look for more alternatives like calendar at one point. Even like this, server can send alarm commands every morning for whole day, but would be nice to make schedule in case I lose connection to my server for more than 1 day or something.
Have you looked the blueprints by chance? There are medication reminders in there. I use this one and it works quite well: community.home-assistant.io/t/…/300137
Thanks for link, but yes I have. That’s the one I actually found first for HA and it is super nice. It is impossible to set reminder every 2 days for example unfortunately. I figured how to make my own automation with that option, but as I said above, notifications are working most of the time, and not if your phone has no signal (basement or airplane mode). That’s why I’m testing out notification alternatives. I was looking how to make a blueprint, but they don’t support all perks I want in my automation so I had to stick with packages.
Hehe yeah, it is lot of work, but most of that is done already. I agree there are many apps available and I spent a lot of time testing them. Still looking for perfect solution and that is where the idea came from. I could use an app or I could just stick with google reminder/task/alarm/calendar, but I also enjoy playing around and learning new things. Its kinda my hobby. If my dream comes true and I finish this it will beat all apps xD
It’s weird, because that’s my feeling too. It got suggested by customer support at a retailer when asking in their chat. I guess it’ll work, but feels backwards. I think I’m going with a NAS solution, and running the server without RAID
Settlers II is the one I go back to from time to time (though nowadays I’m playing the “History” version on uPlay). And of course, all those old Lucasfilm/-arts and Sierra games.
Also there was this 3D-ish platformer called Sky Roads I used to play a lot back in the day. But I haven’t played that in ages. I don’t even know who developed it.
Oh, and Wing Commander 3 and 4. Both really good games.
I thought the same until I used Wefwef, have you tried it?
Mlem doesn’t have iPad support yet. The app opens in a tiny letterbox view, with the sides of the screen not usable, so it isn’t currently a good solution for me.
It will take a lot of time before that happens, if it does at all. The platform just needs more people and right now as much as we like to believe Reddit is dying… it still has a massive user base.
kbin.life
Top