I have never homelabbed, and this is going to be my first experience. I want to set up a home server. My current goals are to set up a gallery using Immich, an ad blocker/DNS using Pi-hole, and a cloud service.

I want you to suggest what second-hand PC or laptop I should get. I researched a bit and found out that a PC is better because of 24/7 reliability, better cooling, no risk of laptop battery swelling, easy RAM and storage expandability, and low idle power consumption.

What I think the specs should be for me is 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. And my budget is 10k INR.

I want to hear your thoughts. Thank you! :)

  • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    4 hours ago

    Whatever is available on your local secondhand market. Mini PCs are usually pretty good. Less standard parts though, same with brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    4 hours ago

    IMHO RAM>CPU. Anything released in the past decade will kick ass if it has a good amount of RAM. I still game on a 2016 desktop PC.

    EDIT: Please correct me if I am wrong, but 10,000k INR =~ $100. If that’s the budget, then I highly suggest an IBM ThinkCentre Tiny. They use to sell for ~$100 (used or refurbished). They have no moving parts and make for great headless units.

  • epyon22@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    I usually get amazon renewed dell, hp Lenovo here in the States. Laptops usually just come down to specs. Though I usually see them for around $250-$300 usd so a bit over your budget but will depend on what you can find more local to you.

    These mini enterprise PCs pack a big punch for their size for desktop options. Might be able to find some if a local IT company is dumping old inventory near you

  • Tolstoy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    If you have options and the space go for 64bit CPU and midi sized office tower for expandability. If you want hardware acceleration for playback you need the check the docs (like immich vp9 > intel 9th gen CPU). What do you mean by cloud service?

  • Saiwal@utsukta.org
    0·
    4 hours ago

    @Mr.Venomous pleasantly surprised to see INR used.10k is too less for a minipc which goes upwards of 15k for your specs. I got my 16GB, 256GB SDD 9th gen i3 minipc (Dell) for 14k around 5 years ago.