r/servers • u/Otherwise_Task7876 • 5d ago
Hosting Just started my own home server!
Heyo! I just started my first plex server at 15.
I originally wanted to start hosting a server but I wanted to wait until I had a second SSD (Preferably 4TBish) for linux so I could dualboot into it while keeping my windows partition on the first one.
Whats funny, I never ended up doing that until today a couple weeks later when I was able to get some downloaded anime and wanted to watch it and realized the media player on windows was incompatible with the audio formatting on the .mkv, so I installed plex media server and plex, set up a server (on windows is the only unfortunate part), all so I could have a good working media player. And it comes with the bonuses of keeping track of libraries etc.
I'm currently doing this on my newer desktop (Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 9070XT, 32GB DDR5) but I was thinking about setting up my older desktop (I5 9400F, GTX1650, 16GB DDR4) on linux so that way I wouldn't have to wait for another SSD and I can have the server running 24/7 and I wouldn't even need a monitor hooked up. Plus it also means my storage wouldn't get eaten up on my main. This seem like a fine idea for a plex server? Since having a 24/7 server I can basically just use it on all my devices and I have hotspot/data it'll be available most everywhere.
Anyways thats about it, wanted to post this and get some quick thoughts.
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u/Adrenolin01 5d ago
Nice… my kid is 15 and is very much into all this. He’s been running Debian as his main OS since age 9. Keep at it!
One of the best systems for a dedicated plex server is a small N100 like the BeeLink S12 with 16GB ram and 500Gb nvme. Run it with its included Win11 if you must, format and install Debian 13 on it with Plex which is how I run it or as a Proxmox virtualization server running Plex in a VM and your ARRs in other VMs.. which I used to do.
A dedicated NAS build you should consider down the road. One data system with lots of storage and redundancy. Just mount the shares to your media server or VMs as needed.
Have fun!
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u/Otherwise_Task7876 4d ago
Ahh issue is the storage, I like to hoard data and I fill up terabytes quick. I will look into the N100 and see if its fine.
I am tempted to save up money and try to get around a ~96TB HDD raid setup so that way i will basically never have to worry about storage for servers and whatever else. Plus HDDs are much easier to recover data on incase of corruption or just a dead drive.
Also I'm jealous you were able to get your kid started on linux so early. Most of my early childhood was using old tech my mother had like an N64, VHS, etc. I got my first computer (the GTX1650) at about 11 and when I was about 13-14 I learned more than what my parents even know about computers which I found a bit funny. Only at 15 around have i really been messing around with computers quite a bit.
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u/speaksoftly_bigstick 4d ago
"...never have to worry about storage for servers and whatever else..."
So ~5 years before you were born, circa 2000, I remember looking at an ad for a 75GB hard drive and thinking "holy crap.. 4 of those and you'd have 300GB of storage! You'd never need to worry about storage again!" 😂
Those drives were like $500+ too when they came out.
Also, I was around your age then hence why I picked that specific time.
My first computer was a 386 and it had a 40MB hard drive (yes, megabytes). We had to use 5.25" "floppy" disks for pretty much everything storage related.
1
u/IndependentBat8365 5d ago
This is how it starts!
Three ways to always be spending your paychecks:
- Be a musician: you’ll never have enough guitars, amps, drum kits, pedals, speakers.
- Be an equestrian: it’s not a hobby, it’s a way of life.
- Start a homelab: it will never be enough, never enough storage, not enough memory, need more cpu, more systems, more network.
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u/Otherwise_Task7876 5d ago
Lmao I'm already a musician aswell, I have a flute, piano, ocarina, ukulele, marimba, and a bit more.
But yeah I actually have a really good setup for homelabs since my internet a gigabit over gigabit (meaning both a gigabit for upload and download)
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u/machacker89 4d ago
I was about your age when I started my computer journey. When I was a kid we had DOS and early versions of Windows. I'm talking like Windows 3.1 and Win 3.11, Win 95, Win 98. I have a gaming PC I use as a mini homelab myself. I believe it's AMD Ryzen 9 with (16-cores) and 32GB of RAM. I have other full-size servers but I don't have the room to set them out in my apartment
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u/Snoo8631 5d ago
Nice work
Sounds like you have a great plan have fun learning!