Im interested in starting to self host and ive seen that people use old computers, but Im wondering if these specs are overkill:

Intel Core i7 2600K Processor 24GB RAM 800GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Graphics Card

Its a used computer, and I was going to offer 150-170? They are asking 250. Things I want to try are:

-cloud storage -immich for photo backup -jellyfin -game servers like enshrouded, vrising, palworld, etc

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Update: Thanks everyone. I will search for something more power/cost efficient. I thought that a graphics cards was more necessary for jellyfin and game servers, but clearly not at the cost of cpu power/efficiency.

  • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    2 days ago

    Definitely overkill. Depends on your use case though. I have the same computer that I use for HTPC. It’s running Kodi + Transmission. The OS is Fedora, but I could get away with LibreELEC. It’s just that I had Fedora already and didn’t bother to reinstall.

    What I don’t like about this computer is that it’s very power hungry if compared to a less powerful one. I have a separate Orange Pi Zero and I’m super happy about it. It serves two functions: downloads torrents and shares them via UPnP (with miniDLNA package). So it’s turned on 24/7, while this big computer is on only when I want to play something.

    Immich, I don’t know. I’m yet to discover how it works. I think maybe I’d turn it on when I need it, so that may be an option. This potential computer of yours, if you could turn it on via Wake on LAN, that could help tremendously, if you care about power consumption. Most of the computers I saw have this feature in their bios.

    If you don’t care about power consumption, I think that’s a decent computer. It can run everything, or almost everything no problem. I think you can run a lot of services with it.

    All the computers in my infra are super cheap used devices, the first one was hands me down computer some people wanted to throw away, so they asked me to utilise, if I could. I took it, and only later I realised it can be utilised this way. That computer is mostly off, as it’s even more power hungry.

    To learn, you can restore literally any computer. To run something long-run, best is N100 or similar mini computers. They are cheap, run cold, some have no active coolers (so, silent), and sip power. That’s what I plan to implement to my home, once I’d settle on what I need.