I have two systems that I need to replace. One is my backup server, which runs FreeBSD and uses some USB attached drives. Really that could be done with anything that is like a Pi, except amd64/x86.

The other is my pfSense router. It is having some hardware issue, which isn’t surprising, I pulled parts out of my scrap pile to make it. For that, I need something that can take an pcie card for my dual 10g network card. Does anyone have any ITX or smallish machines they like? Actual smallness doesn’t matter so much as not being expensive.

How do people go about finding things these days? I used to use newegg, but mostly now it seems to be a trap of accidentally ordering parts from the moon. Amazon is fine if you know exactly what you want already. Pcpartspicker works well, if you are building a full system from parts (which I do for bigger machines) but I don’t know where to get barebones boxes.

@di5ciple@lemmy.world
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11Y

Dell Optipex i loaded my down with max ram and put 2x 2.5hdd and 1 14TB HDD inside. I’ll probably get a storage case for the HDD’s later.

black_dinamo
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01Y

Which one you use?

@di5ciple@lemmy.world
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21Y

Optiplex 3070, it’s made a good box for jellyfin, truenas etc. SFF is goof for my needs but if i didnt move often i’d get a regular size to hold more HDD

black_dinamo
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11Y

Nice! I’m thinking about getting a 3040.

@di5ciple@lemmy.world
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21Y

They are solid, the bios was my biggest surprise as there are so many settings i can tweak. Dell and Lenovo both make good boxes for homelabs and run linux well.

@kalpol@lemmy.world
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1Y

I still use a couple of HP N40Ls for NAS. They’re not fast but they hold up just fine and are as reliable as a brick. The newer models look pretty interesting if you can pick one up used.

The Optiplex micro workstations are also pretty awesome for servers.

@tony@lemm.ee
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51Y

You can get a Dell Optiplex 7020/9020 SFF i5 16GB RAM No HDD from the Michigan State Surplus. For me shipping was about $25 for three of them.

@Grass@geddit.social
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11Y

Damn I need something like this but in Canada

Curse you! Ordered…

TheHolm
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01Y

Just add power cost to run it. Old thing become way more expensive if you add power cost over it life.

@MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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1Y

They use about ~20W, not too bad.

That said I would go for 7th gen or newer at this point for proper QSV support, and OpenVINO support for things like Frigate object detection.

pacoboyd
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11Y

Personally I like the Lenovo Mini Systems. Have three right now. Mostly use the AMD ones with built in Radeon and my kids do Minecraft on them. But they also make great mini servers. Lots of folks use the Intel versions for Plex servers with quicksync. Some versions will also fit a pci card for 10gb or quad nics.

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