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Ask HN: Always on low power home server

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Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#121

Post by npteljes »

brugeman wrote: post #116
npteljes wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was annoyed that my media is only available on my main machine, if I wanted to watch something on my phone or show a photo to someone, I needed to boot it up. So a home server to host files for me and my household seemed logical. Since then I went on a degoogling trip and as part of that, I installed Nextcloud, also very useful. I also do my backups to the homeserver (and then back up the homeserver too).

Can I ask what you're using to view video/photo from your home server on your/family phones? Thanks!

Unfortunately it's not a solved problem. I envy Google Photos features, wanted something that nicely present the photos but I end up just using Nextcloud's phone app or web interface. Both can generate nice sharing links with expire dates, which is quite useful because it cleans up after itself. I eyed Piwigo for a time, but it's overkill for my use case.

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#122

Post by mceachen »

npteljes wrote: post #121
brugeman wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask what you're using to view video/photo from your home server on your/family phones? Thanks!

Unfortunately it's not a solved problem. I envy Google Photos features, wanted something that nicely present the photos but I end up just using Nextcloud's phone app or web interface. Both can generate nice sharing links with expire dates, which is quite useful because it cleans up after itself. I eyed Piwigo for a time, but it's overkill for my use case.

You're welcome to try PhotoStructure. It's still a young product, but it's already got some unique features and new releases come out regularly: https://photostructure.com/faq/why-photostructure/

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#123

Post by giantg2 »

I have a small Atom powered BeeLink (or something like that). I switched it from Windows to Xubuntu and added a large external SSD in addition to the 64BG eMMC. I have it running a few security cams.

I like it. It's been stable and has enough power to outdo the Pi (multiple cameras plus web interface) while still being low enough power that I can run it off a battery backup for a while in the event of brief power outages.

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#124

Post by giantg2 »

40four wrote: post #48

I think there is an awesome setup that many are overlooking! With a RockPro64 board, you can configure it to use SSD's, both SATA & NVMe! RockPro64 boards: https://pine64.com/product-category/rockpro64/?v=0446c16e2e6... Accessories: https://pine64.com/product-category/rockpro64-accessories/?v... I think these RockPro64 boards are highly underrated. I got one a while back, I was looking for something more powerful tha…

Never knew about this. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#125

Post by jsilence »

kingosticks wrote: post #66
jsilence wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't this also work with a large enough MicroSD?

As I understand it, the firmware for the majority of MicroSD cards is very limited. The physical size and low price point are likely the reason you don't see these more complex features in consumer cards. Also, if I recall, there's nothing in the spec about levelling so you'd probably get some half-arsed buggy implementation anyway.

Thank you for the clarification!

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#126

Post by iatrou »

A couple of options:

NanoPC-T4[0] is based on RK3399, with a big.LITTLE CPU (Dual-Core Cortex-A72, Quad-Core Cortex-A53) with 4GB RAM, supports NVMe and a fanless configuration.

ODROID-HC4[1] is based on Amlogic S905X3, with a Quad-Core A55 and 4GB RAM (no WiFi, only 1G Ethernet) and two SATA ports, which make it well suited for entry-level NAS.

[0] http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPC-T4

[1] https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-hc4/odroid-hc4

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#127

Post by groone »

macNchz wrote: post #39

I used a Raspberry Pi for this for a long time and did fry a couple of SD cards along the way. A few years ago, the last time the SD card died, I decided that instead of buying a USB SSD for it I’d get a used Lenovo Thinkcentre “Tiny”, which has been great. They are readily available from corporate IT liquidators on eBay. Mine was $100 and came with a Core i5, 250GB SSD, 8GB of memory. I’ve read about people swapping…

Some anecdotal experience about Raspberry Pi and SD cards. Mine has been running for 4 years with a 32GB SD card and 0 SD cards have died so far.

It is controlling some relays and running a nextcloud. Initially I checked the iotop and noticed there were regular writes to SD card when idling. Configured the ext4 to stop that.

Re: Ask HN: Always on low power home server

#129

Post by jpeeler »

600frogs wrote: post #65

Can someone explain to me the use case of a home server? I've always enjoyed tinkering with RPis, but have never found a good enough reason to keep one running 24/7 as a server. PiHole seems to be the best use case for it, but uBlock Origin or Wipr handles ad blocking for me.

Personally while I do run AdGuard Home on my Pi, the most important software is my password manager service. Keeping all my passwords both synchronized among devices and local without worrying about the power draw from the Pi staying on has worked very well.
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