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Looking for hardware advice for self-hosting with a Mini PC - Page 2
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Looking for hardware advice for self-hosting with a Mini PC

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  • @DataIdeas-Josh said:

    @NobodyInteresting said:
    https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/38.81.163.2
    It does indeed show as residential, although its unfortunately blacklisted by most streaming services :-(

    oh?
    I can get on netflix just fine on that ip range.

    Nvm, apparently mine is using a different subnet, thats why lol.

  • DataIdeas-JoshDataIdeas-Josh Member, Patron Provider

    @NobodyInteresting said:

    @DataIdeas-Josh said:

    @NobodyInteresting said:
    https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/38.81.163.2
    It does indeed show as residential, although its unfortunately blacklisted by most streaming services :-(

    oh?
    I can get on netflix just fine on that ip range.

    Nvm, apparently mine is using a different subnet, thats why lol.

    The 144x range is a mixed bag it appears. I can access netflix and some shows but not all.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    I usually prefer ASUS products due to better engineering in the cooling department, especially when we are talking crammed stuff like mini laptops or PCs.

    Thanked by 1fixxation
  • @Maounique said: I usually prefer ASUS products due to better engineering in the cooling department, especially when we are talking crammed stuff like mini laptops or PCs.

    Is ASUS better than MSI (laptops) in keeping cool or similar?

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited August 2021

    I believe so, I have a rog strix i use for mining, both GPU and CPU maxed out and it rarely goes above 67 degrees. A friend of mine has an MSI for gaming, a bit older model, though, and sometimes shuts down in summer.

    Thanked by 1Kassem
  • bshbsh Member

    @fixxation said:
    Thanks @cats . Finding it difficult to get a PN51 online, seems it's just not readily available yet. However I think a PN50 will work well for me, with either a 4500U cpu or the 4700U. 4700U is the 8-core version, which might be a little overkill for my needs. But on the other hand, I do like knowing I'll have extra power in case my needs change in the future... tough one. For now this is looking like the best fit:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Barebone-Ryzen-4500U-SO-DIMM/dp/B08BLGZZV4/

    At the end of the day, I'm just running about 8 headless browsers, so that should do the trick... (hopefully)

    It seems good enough for PN50 that would have RAID-1 config.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited August 2021

    IMO RAID 1 sucks. It creates more problems than it solves, does not improve performance and you would be better off with regular backups (which you need to have anyway) in most situations.

  • catscats Member
    edited August 2021

    @Maounique said:
    IMO RAID 1 sucks. It creates more problems than it solves, does not improve performance and you would be better off with regular backups (which you need to have anyway) in most situations.

    The "better off" part is simply that if a drive dies, your system isn't down while you scramble to get a new drive in it. You have time to replace it and rebuild it vs everything dying completely. RAID is obviously not a backup, but RAID 1 is better than nothing. I'm pretty sure it also gives increased read IOPS/speeds in certain situations, but for most SSDs I believe it's minimal.

    Thanked by 1quicksilver03
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited August 2021

    @cats said: your system isn't down while you scramble to get a new drive in it.

    Yes, but:
    1. The raid controller can fail and corrupt all data, introducing a SPoF;
    2. You already have your backups on a disk, so, the downtime would be the time to copy the back-ups on another drive, then restore on the second drive you had the back-ups on and then go buy a new drive to store your back-ups on presuming you don't have one ready;
    3. Where uptime is critical, by all means, use raid 1 with 4 spares, but I bet other, more performant and reliable, solutions would be used. For home usage, nope, it is not worth it in most scenarios.

  • TimboJonesTimboJones Member
    edited August 2021

    @Maounique said:
    IMO RAID 1 sucks. It creates more problems than it solves, does not improve performance and you would be better off with regular backups (which you need to have anyway) in most situations.

    You use it in production where the cost from interrupting production is way worse than off hours cost and maintenance. Shit breaks, all your labour is sitting around twiddling their thumbs. A disk breaks in raid 1, you finish your day and fix it after production shift is over.

    This should be fairly obvious to anyone looking at raid. Cost and hassle is nothing compared to unexpected interruption.

    Edit: cats already said above.

    Thanked by 1quicksilver03
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    @TimboJones said: This should be fairly obvious to anyone looking at raid. Cost and hassle is nothing compared to unexpected interruption.

    @Maounique said: 3. Where uptime is critical, by all means, use raid 1 with 4 spares, but I bet other, more performant and reliable, solutions would be used. For home usage, nope, it is not worth it in most scenarios.

  • @Maounique said:

    @TimboJones said: This should be fairly obvious to anyone looking at raid. Cost and hassle is nothing compared to unexpected interruption.

    @Maounique said: 3. Where uptime is critical, by all means, use raid 1 with 4 spares, but I bet other, more performant and reliable, solutions would be used. For home usage, nope, it is not worth it in most scenarios.

    So... 'something is pointless except for when it's not'. Good point.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited August 2021

    @TimboJones said: Good point.

    The point being this is a discussion about the home device. When we are talking about hosting at home on a mini pc, we are not talking about Paypal or the Pentagon here. In this particular context, RAID 1 can do more harm than good. And you DO need back-ups anyway.

  • fixxationfixxation Member
    edited October 2021

    Thanks @cats @Maounique @AXYZE - took me a few weeks but eventually got all the components, went with an Asus PN50 in the end, AMD 4700U (8 core) processor barebones - and then added 16GB RAM (Crucial) 3200Mhz and an M.2 NVMe 250GB SSD. Completely happy with it, fan noise isn't even noticeable and while I had issues with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and ethernet not working easily, Ubuntu 21.04 worked straight away.

    Thanks for all the advice, really happy with this piece of kit :smile:

    GB4 benchmark... which quite easily beats almost and of my hosted VPS plans at the moment:

    ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##

    Yet-Another-Bench-Script

    v2021-10-09

    https://github.com/masonr/yet-another-bench-script

    ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##

    Sat Oct 9 19:32:00 IST 2021

    Basic System Information:

    Processor : AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics
    CPU cores : 8 @ 1400.000 MHz
    AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
    VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
    RAM : 15.1 GiB
    Swap : 4.0 GiB
    Disk : 114.8 GiB

    Geekbench 4 Benchmark Test:

    Test | Value
    |
    Single Core | 5593
    Multi Core | 27394
    Full Test | https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/16375246`

    ^^ I've tried to format this in a nice yellow box like everyone else, but cannot find the correct mark-up! :neutral:

    Thanked by 1cats
  • @fixxation said:
    Thanks @cats @Maounique @AXYZE - took me a few weeks but eventually got all the components, went with an Asus PN50 in the end, AMD 4700U (8 core) processor barebones - and then added 16GB RAM (Crucial) 3200Mhz and an M.2 NVMe 250GB SSD. Completely happy with it, fan noise isn't even noticeable and while I had issues with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and ethernet not working easily, Ubuntu 21.04 worked straight away.

    Thanks for all the advice, really happy with this piece of kit :smile:

    GB4 benchmark... which quite easily beats almost and of my hosted VPS plans at the moment:

    ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##

    Yet-Another-Bench-Script

    v2021-10-09

    https://github.com/masonr/yet-another-bench-script

    ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##

    Sat Oct 9 19:32:00 IST 2021

    Basic System Information:

    Processor : AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics
    CPU cores : 8 @ 1400.000 MHz
    AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
    VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
    RAM : 15.1 GiB
    Swap : 4.0 GiB
    Disk : 114.8 GiB

    Geekbench 4 Benchmark Test:

    Test | Value
    |
    Single Core | 5593
    Multi Core | 27394
    Full Test | https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/16375246`

    ^^ I've tried to format this in a nice yellow box like everyone else, but cannot find the correct mark-up! :neutral:

    Good choice! If you will need more space in future then use USB-C - these ports on this matchine are rated for 10Gbps so its noticeably faster than SATA :) You can get NVMe 10Gbps USB-C enclosure for like $15-$20 on Aliexpress. Im using couple of them because, I had many small NVMe drives from laptops that were upgraded. Now I have blazing fast pendrives xD

    Thanked by 2fixxation cats
  • Forgot to mention, or maybe I did, that the 2.5GbE Realtek chip in these are usually not supported via 20.04, but you can install the driver from Realtek's site and they work great!

    Glad to hear it's working well, it's insanely fast for a little machine that sips power for sure! I would've gone higher spec but that's just me, I have my 4500U Gigabyte BRIX decked out with 32GB and a 500GB NVMe SSD (Samsung 970 EVO I had sitting around), it's a SOLID little box.

    Thanked by 1fixxation
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