I have a refurbished Lenovo Thinkcentre that I was running Truenas off of. Everything was working great, but it got hit with a power surge and after lots of trouble shooting it appears the motherboard is fried and I don’t trust my ability to soder and fix it.

No now I need to upgrade my setup. Wondering what is a good sub $300 computer I can order that will run Jellyfin, Immich, and a few light services off of? With Truenas you seem to need two SSDs. One to boot and one to run apps, so it seems like a mini PC will not work.

I have a seperate HDD drive bay with a few hdd’s in it full of shows and picture. Just need a PC to run my services.

I would prefer something I can order off Amazon or can be shipped quickly so I can get back up and running again.

  • BenevolentOne@infosec.pubEnglish
    31·
    9 hours ago

    I usually pick up the cheapest non-chromebook laptop I can find and put Linux on it.

    There are a couple key advantages here:

    1. It’s very cheap.
    2. Battery Backup included.
    3. Monitor and keyboard included.
    4. Power efficient by design.
    5. Available all the time from any vendor.
    6. You can take it with you, update your server on the couch and slap it back on the rack.
    7. Virtually any configuration you want in candy colors.
    8. Did I mention these are very cheap?

    It can be a bit tricky to find one with Ethernet and two SSDs is kinda exotic (especially because you could get two whole laptops for the cost of some NAS enclosures) but there are over 3000 different models under $300 on Amazon, I’m sure you can find something good.

    • unit327@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      7 hours ago

      The battery backup is a more of a liability than a benefit imo, will just turn into a spicy pillow eventually. Especially considering any power loss will hit your router/network too rendering the server’s battery moot. The only thing a laptop battery really protects against is accidental temporary unplugging.

      • BenevolentOne@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        4 hours ago

        Not sure, the battery doesn’t really get cycled, it doesn’t get hot, I have a few which are going strong after 10+ years (the useful life of the hardware).

        It’s not a hypothetical for me.

        • unit327@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Batteries are more problematic sitting at full charge than when they are empty. You’re also paying money for features you don’t use (battery, screen, keyboard) and have less ability to upgrade, repair, or add storage.

          By all means if you have an old spare laptop lying around use it as a server, I usually take the battery out though.