It’s not 5x capable, is my point.

About 10 of those VMs are running a single docker image. It runs great but I know better now.

opnsense
home assistant
neolink
NextCloud
Pihole
Frigate
Omada controller
Photoprism
Wireguard server node
Jellyfin
Transmission-daemon
Audiobookshelf
Plex
Arr stack
Caddy
Librespeed
Invidious
Openspeedtest
OpenMediaVault
VaultWarden
Paperless-ngx
Rustdesk
Proxmox Backup Server
3 or 4 desktop images to mess around with

My 7700x is 5 times that wattage. Granted, it gas 128gb, a380, 4 hdd, 2 SSD, 40gb nic, tpu, and 25 VMs running on it.

The lesson here is that I’ve way over-spec’d my machine.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yqX3C8

$650 for the box leaves you $350 for drives and a 10Gb NIC. I’ve been using serverpartdeals refub drives with good results. They’re ~$10/tb.

I think the N100 type CPUs are limited on PCIe lanes. You end up with less nvme, less sata, and usually no slots.

You can find x570 am4 boards for less than $100 now. Two nvme, 8 sata, 2 big slots and 2 small.

But all of that flexibility and expandability is going to cost you in power. My 7700x w/A380, 3 hdd is 125 watts 24/7. $10 a month on my power bill. I think those n100 mini PCs only have a 35w brick and idle at less than 15w.

I’ve got 4 Omada APs and a virtual controller. There was a bug I experienced where a Google home mini could initiate a broadcast storm. TP-Link got me in touch with engineers very quickly and they fixed the bug in less than a week.

Gotta let companies know you’re watching

Do the devices have dual 10g ports each? You can build a triangle out of them.

It might be time to virtualize.

https://shop.silicondust.com/shop/product-category/atsc/#main

I have an HDHomerun tuner, it’s 2 channels for $120. I paid for plexpass and use that DVR, but the HDHR is platform agnostic.

I didn’t skip it, I installed ddclient.

Cloudflare is the devil!

It really was easy. And it works so well I didn’t have to lean the names of stuff haha

For anyone following along, I meant portainer to manage dockers. Podman is a different container technology it seems.

Proxmox was the answer for me. OpenMediaVault in a VM for NAS, LXC containers for things that need GPU access (Plex and frigate). Hell, I even virtualized my router. One thing I probably should have done was a single docker host and learn podman or something similar. I ended up with 8 or 9 VMs that run 8 or 9 dockers. It works great, but it’s more to manage.

You’ll want 2 network cards/interfaces- one for the VMs and another for the host. Power usage is not great using old gaming parts. Discrete graphics seem to add 40 watts no matter what. A 5600G or Intel with quicksync will get the job done and save you a few bucks a month. I recently moved to a 7700x and transcode performance is great. Expect 100-150 watts 24/7 which costs me $10-15 month. But I can compile ESPHome binaries in a few seconds 🤣

I use Ubiquity at work, and decided on TP-Link Omada at home. I virtualized opnsense and the controller, but if you’re just getting started I think this is the device you’re looking for. Street price is $250.

https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/omada-router-integrated-router/er7212pc/

You’ll then need a modem and access points. I use an S33, and I’m happy with it. As for APs- they are $100 and up depending on features you need. The mesh and roaming work very well. I over-spec’d to the 670s, 610s would have worked. WiFi 7 APs are <$200 if you’re into that.

You can old nvme -> SATA -> new nvme with any old SATA drive you have lying around.

From the wifi wikipedia page> Hardware>Embedded Systems

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi

Increasingly in the last few years (particularly as of 2007), embedded Wi-Fi modules have become available that incorporate a real-time operating system and provide a simple means of wirelessly enabling any device that can communicate via a serial port. This allows the design of simple monitoring devices. An example is a portable ECG device monitoring a patient at home. This Wi-Fi-enabled device can communicate via the Internet.

Pretty much, yes.

I think you’re underestimating the computing power of these devices. If it has WiFi, it has an operating system.

You’re looking for something like ESPhome maybe. It’s a project from the same people that do home assistant. There’s a web server (and/or local API) available that allows you to toggle outputs locally, your browser directly to the microcontroller.

I use photo prism but be aware they paywall features

I’ve had good luck with the two inland nvmes I got from microcenter if you’re trying to save a buck. Samsung 970s have been good too, I’ve got 8 of them running at work.

The water is not that hot!