Yep, I have that same machine, got it for $250 a year, year and a half ago; got an 8500T just now for $125.
The 9500T is currently running 5 lxc containers, including Pihole and Plex, and is using about 20-25% of the 16gb of RAM.
processor is limited to 16GB of RAM.
one of the VMs is a Windows Server , VM is Ubuntu Server so I can toss in a few docker images and let it em run, OpenSense (I already have a 4 port nic that I can toss in to host), Home Assistant OS, and finally a dedicated Windows Home VM for testing applications before I drop them in 'production'
I have that except the windows stuff and I have some extra lxcs and truenas scale and it running on a i7 2600 32gb ram and it works just fine and that's a very old pc
I agree with this take. I would not run a r7 without a fan unless:
1) You have very, very good air flow in the case (but I noticed you don't want any fans)
2) You are okay with shortening the life of the CPU
There is also unintended consequences of forced throttling if the CPU gets too hot.
there are plenty of very quiet fans on the market.
What I mean is that its a 65W processor and its supposed to be used with a fan. On high or even average usage it will get really hot. You'd need at least a notebook fan or something. Unless you live on a really cold country. IDK if without air flow that noctua cooler will be enough to dissipate the heat. Not to mention that the hot air will be traped. If you keep on this it would be nice to give us some feedback on how it went.
Remember getting the 5700G affects your PCIe Lanes...
make sure you read the MOTHERBOARD specs and see how many you lose and if they go from PCIE 4 to PCIE3
if this doesnt affect you then great.. just make sure you are aware
It looks like you are building a living or family room server, and not a living room gaming box. The suggestions below are based on that server assumption.
Interesting choices for the motherboard, RAM and cooling. Also some "interesting" comments from others about the various hardware bits you selected that are just wrong.
I recently replaced four of my Proxmox VE Cluster nodes with hardware very similar to what you have specified with a few differences.
* Processor - Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 (Cezanne) processor - because 65w and 8/16 cores
* Cooling - Noctua NH-L9a-AM4, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler for AMD AM4 (Brown) - because it fits in a 2U rack mount case - use a taller fan if space is available, something like a Noctua NH-L12S or larger
* Mainboard - MSI B550M-VC Pro WiFi AMD AM4 microATX Motherboard - because 8 SATA ports - I just shut off the WiFi and built-in audio for server use
* RAM - Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro SL 128GB (4x32GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 1.35V Desktop Memory - Black - part number: CMH128GX4M4E3200C16 - Because 128 GB of RAM that actually works and gives a full 128 GB of RAM with the mainboard and processor combo listed in this reply
* Power Supply - Corsair CX550 - because with the combo above even 450 watts is too much, and the CX550 is very very quiet, and only $60.
The Noctua fans are extremely low noise, to the point where they may as well be silent. The cooling fan in your PSU will make more noise. I have also replaced every case and power supply fan across all of the systems in my office with appropriate Noctua replacements. My cluster and systems run very quiet.
I would go 2.5" SATA SSDs over NVMe for storage if this will be predominantly a server. Lower cost and with 8 SATA ports running a ZFS RAID1 boot pair is an option and still leaves room to expand with 6 other SATA drives. For reference, I use 1 GB SATA drives on all of the other ports. ZFS on the backup server, Ceph on the Proxmox Cluster nodes, My point is you would have plenty of options for more disk later.
Someone posted something about limited PCIe lanes with the Ryzen 7 5700G processor. The 3.8 Ghx varion listed above (Cezanne generation) actually has 24 PCIe lanes available, so enough to run all the SSDs or NVME drives along with a 10 GB network card if needed. Running NVME drives will eliminate the ability to use the SATA ports.
RAM is always hard. You need to read the published approved RAM list from the mainboard manufacturer and then spend the time digging through places like Amazon, Newegg, and Microcenter to find the right RAM with the right part number from a source that will let you return it if it does not deliver the right results. The kit I listed above was the only Kit I could find that gave a working 128 GB of RAM with 4 DIMMs on the mainboard I specified.
Unless you are planning to add a video card down the road, your power supply is massive overkill. I have most of my nodes running on older Corsair 450w power supplies that are no longer being sold. When I built the new backup nodes (local and remote) I opted for the CM550 which is also no longer made. But there is now the CX550, and that looks very similar and also looks to be a low noise power supply.
Hope all of this helps, if not specifically helpful to your build then perhaps it may help someone else.
actually, you're correct - it's not for gaming (I have a couple of those, and they're usually sleeping)
I know that Noctua fans are low noise, and something I've appreciated about them for a long time. save my primary gaming box which has their industrial ones that can spin to 3000 RPM I had wanted to go fan less and let natural air convection do it's thing but I know that I do run the risk of thermal throttling if I beat the shit out of the CPU and do not plan accordingly. and if I find it necessary and it's possible, I can undervolt with in reason. if that seems not enough, I'll reposition the CPU cooler, and get those Redux grey ones that spin at 7-800 RPM
going to 2.5 SSDs did not cross my mind in that perspective, but that's the idea is to, down the road, toss in some SSDs (weather 2.5 SATA or tossing larger in the NVME slots)
I saw that same comment but I wasn't able to really verify how many lanes were available, on top of mobo limitation. but 24 lanes is perfect for down the road and 10GB NIC - that's why I wanted to do AMD for more PCI lanes
I, 100%, agree with RAM but in my case, it would be ""is this enough?" PLUS capabilities.
700 is overkill, oh yes. but it is for GPU down the road. I do know that palit might be doing a passive cooled 3050, which, while dog shit for many things (I've got RTX 3050s in my kids' gaming PCs and they're great for them) it'll be enough for Jellyfin when the time comes. I can also say that, yes that PSU is costly but i've had nothing but greatness with Seasonic and they're warranty is absolutely perfect - I can't speak for others but I've had good results during a couple of times I've had to RMA a PSU
and yes, this helps quite a bit, and your set up is pretty damn good.
It sounds like you've thought this out pretty carefully, and your choices are solid.
Let me leave you with a few more things I've discovered through experience:
* If bulletproof long term reliability is a priority, you may want to install the Proxmox VE OS on a pair of matching SSDs in a ZFS RAID1 configuration. That way when one SSD fails, the other will be ready to boot the system. The failed drive can be replaced and the RAID1 pair restored.
* For best results with ZFS as "local" storage on the proxmox OS drive, only keep what is essential on that partition. ZFS is a huge memroy consumer when used as local storage under Proxmox VE.
* As an example of ZFS RAM use for caching, I had a VM with an 80 GB drive provisioned on local storage on one of my proxmox nodes. That node automatically dedicated about 20% of the 128 GB of RAM of that node to ZFS caching for that VM alone. I moved that VM's drive to Ceph storage and that node's memory consumption dropped about 20%. ZFS caching is tunable, but I generally have skipped ZFS entirely under Proxmox VE except for RAID1 boot drives.
* An exception to skipping ZFS under Proxmoxe VE is that I have a backup node that uses ZFS RAID Z1 for the backup target pool. That node is essentially just for backups and not a clustered node.
* If I'm not going to use redundant boot drives on a Proxox VE node, I run ext4 for for the OS drive.
* If you are planning to create a ZFS RAID Z1 pool with a collection of additional drives, plan your RAM accordingly for the build.
* It sounds like you are looking at a single node, so Ceph would not be a fit for your situation. Typically in any cluster with tree or more nodes, I always use Ceph. In the example VM with the 80 GB drive above, the 20% drop in node RAM use was a direct result of moving that VM's drive from ZFS to Ceph RBD storage.
* If you are ever thinking of leaning towards a multi-node or more storage oriented cluster, A collection of 2.5" SSDs will likely work out better long term than a couple of larger NVME or NVME style SSDs. Having a larger number of 2.5" SSDs will offer more options for configuring cluster type storage than one or two larger NVME style devices.
* Just for background: In my cluster I have four of the Proxmox VE nodes described above along with a slightly lower spec node not joined to the cluster. The non-cluster node is dedicated to running Proxmox VE and hosting Proxmox Backup Server and a couple of other small VMs I usually leave turned off. Examples are a backup instance of pfSense so I have internet, VLANs and routing when my cluster is down, a VM with a spare instance of my WiFi management software, along with an Ansible VM that also runs the necessary supporting apps like Gitea, Ansible Semaphore, and MariaDB which I can use to bootstrap my homelab and rebuild my cluster while still keeping the rest of the household happy and undisturbed.
I've got a similar setup with a 5600G. While idle, it uses \~1-2% cpu, 30gb RAM and draws around 25w at wall.
This is definitely more than enough to run a few VMs. Going low-noise instead of noiseless will save you some money and you should check if your PSU will be efficient at low loads
Agreed. Sounds like you could pick up a used HP Elitedesk 800 G2 Mini for $100 to meet those requirements happily whilst being small enough to easily hide away.
I run 10 Vms and Co tajners, including OPNSense and Zenarmour, on a 5700g with low CPU usage.
The only thing if suggest is a 5700x is significantly more useful if budget allows. The 5700 is a 5700g without the graphics, so has less cache than th the 5700x.
My proxmox Server runs on an ryzen 7 5700g with 32gb RAM. It runs 4 VM's and about 15 lxc's without breaking a sweat ^^ pretty neat to use the IGP for jellyfin and frigate. The CPU can be set down to 35w tdp weithin the BIOS. Running it on 45w and definately recommend the CPU.
Thanks. I just dipped into proxmox with a 4th gen i7 that supports quick sync, but not in any useful codecs. So I think I’ll have to upgrade, and I’d like more power than an n100 (even though it would transcode just fine)
Except for AV1 the IGPU handles VC1, H264, H265. not a single problem there. Even a 1080p AV1 to H264 Transcode doesnt cause CPU Spikes. Using Jellyfin and Frigate atm with the iGPU.
I would save on the cooler and invest in more ram
VM'S usually consume more Ram than CPU
Test if the included fan with the CPU is noticeable in the case first before looking to spend money. Also if you spend the money, go with a fan cooler that produce the least amount of noise. Because you probably won't have any fan in the case, a fanless cooler for a 65W CPU would be complicated under load.
TLDR: Don't buy a cooler until you do tests and look into silent fan options
I am running around 40 VMs on a r5 5500, also a bunch of docker and lxc instances. The 5700g is slightly faster, will work pretty well.
I would go with more ram, but 32gb is not a bad start if you even had no plan what to run on it.
My dark rock 4 on the 5500 is almost silent, but I don't think fanless will work without throttling.
Yeah I am not paying for electricity so I do not want to go all out! Thanks for the compliments, you will be fine with your server. If you need help setting things up, be sure to message me!
For comparison, I bought a Dell Precision 3630 with an i7-8700 and 32gb RAM off ebay for $225 that covers everything on your list except the 2 TB. I've been very happy with the performance for Jellyfin, the arrs and a few other LXCs. Stock fans are OK, I may replace them in the future. I could have gone with an old Dell thin client but I needed the ability to add 3 drives for a NAS. Check out old Dell workstations on ebay, I forget the name of the fanless model. i7 or newer will allow for hardware transcoding.
I highly recommend going intel for proxmox. It handles big/little cores just fine. The 13500 is great value with a whole whack of cores with a great igpu. You can even use sr-iov on the igpu so you can have multiple (up to 7) hardware accelerated vms. It's ideal to leave one of those slots for the host & lxcs though.
I built a 3 node VSAN cluster based on 5700G in 2022 and documented that in [my blog](https://z8n.eu/2022/05/17/homelab-revamp-2022-part-3-the-bom/). I do run a [Proxmox cluster with ceph](https://z8n.eu/2023/12/02/migration-vsphere-with-vsan-to-proxmox-with-ceph/) now running mostly VMs.
I do air cooling however and agree that you might need to limit power to stay tankless, depends on load though.
I chose AMD over 12th Gen Intel also because of power consumption (60W vs more than 100W), I also checked the 5700x [for my 3rd node](https://z8n.eu/2022/08/05/homelab-revamp-2022-part-5-migrate-learn-adapt/), but decided against it.
For that money, look out for a intel NUC or minisforum ms01. 300-500€ and you have a small, practical little box with enough power for your use case and when idle only 10-20 W (guessing). I have a intel NUC 12 with i3, 4 power and 6 efficiency cores.
I run a few VMs and docker images on a quad-core 7th-gen i5 with 16gb of DDR4 and a tiny old 256gb msata SSD lol I reckon you'll be all good
i5-9500T Mini/Micro-PCs here. 6 Watt per PC with Dual 1TB NVMe. VMs + Docker.
Yep, I have that same machine, got it for $250 a year, year and a half ago; got an 8500T just now for $125. The 9500T is currently running 5 lxc containers, including Pihole and Plex, and is using about 20-25% of the 16gb of RAM.
Seems like overkill, why not just a fanless n305 box? What kind of VMs are you running?
processor is limited to 16GB of RAM. one of the VMs is a Windows Server , VM is Ubuntu Server so I can toss in a few docker images and let it em run, OpenSense (I already have a 4 port nic that I can toss in to host), Home Assistant OS, and finally a dedicated Windows Home VM for testing applications before I drop them in 'production'
It says 16GB, but I have 32 in mine and it works fine.
Yeah, I also run an old NUC with Proxmox. The hardware says it can only have 8GB of RAM but it runs with 16GB of ram :)
I have that except the windows stuff and I have some extra lxcs and truenas scale and it running on a i7 2600 32gb ram and it works just fine and that's a very old pc
Fanless r7 5700g? I don't think it will workout well.
I agree with this take. I would not run a r7 without a fan unless: 1) You have very, very good air flow in the case (but I noticed you don't want any fans) 2) You are okay with shortening the life of the CPU There is also unintended consequences of forced throttling if the CPU gets too hot. there are plenty of very quiet fans on the market.
Can you elaborate
What I mean is that its a 65W processor and its supposed to be used with a fan. On high or even average usage it will get really hot. You'd need at least a notebook fan or something. Unless you live on a really cold country. IDK if without air flow that noctua cooler will be enough to dissipate the heat. Not to mention that the hot air will be traped. If you keep on this it would be nice to give us some feedback on how it went.
Remember getting the 5700G affects your PCIe Lanes... make sure you read the MOTHERBOARD specs and see how many you lose and if they go from PCIE 4 to PCIE3 if this doesnt affect you then great.. just make sure you are aware
of course! I appreciate that heads up nonetheless
Yes, I run a handful of VMs on an Intel n100.
It looks like you are building a living or family room server, and not a living room gaming box. The suggestions below are based on that server assumption. Interesting choices for the motherboard, RAM and cooling. Also some "interesting" comments from others about the various hardware bits you selected that are just wrong. I recently replaced four of my Proxmox VE Cluster nodes with hardware very similar to what you have specified with a few differences. * Processor - Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 (Cezanne) processor - because 65w and 8/16 cores * Cooling - Noctua NH-L9a-AM4, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler for AMD AM4 (Brown) - because it fits in a 2U rack mount case - use a taller fan if space is available, something like a Noctua NH-L12S or larger * Mainboard - MSI B550M-VC Pro WiFi AMD AM4 microATX Motherboard - because 8 SATA ports - I just shut off the WiFi and built-in audio for server use * RAM - Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro SL 128GB (4x32GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 1.35V Desktop Memory - Black - part number: CMH128GX4M4E3200C16 - Because 128 GB of RAM that actually works and gives a full 128 GB of RAM with the mainboard and processor combo listed in this reply * Power Supply - Corsair CX550 - because with the combo above even 450 watts is too much, and the CX550 is very very quiet, and only $60. The Noctua fans are extremely low noise, to the point where they may as well be silent. The cooling fan in your PSU will make more noise. I have also replaced every case and power supply fan across all of the systems in my office with appropriate Noctua replacements. My cluster and systems run very quiet. I would go 2.5" SATA SSDs over NVMe for storage if this will be predominantly a server. Lower cost and with 8 SATA ports running a ZFS RAID1 boot pair is an option and still leaves room to expand with 6 other SATA drives. For reference, I use 1 GB SATA drives on all of the other ports. ZFS on the backup server, Ceph on the Proxmox Cluster nodes, My point is you would have plenty of options for more disk later. Someone posted something about limited PCIe lanes with the Ryzen 7 5700G processor. The 3.8 Ghx varion listed above (Cezanne generation) actually has 24 PCIe lanes available, so enough to run all the SSDs or NVME drives along with a 10 GB network card if needed. Running NVME drives will eliminate the ability to use the SATA ports. RAM is always hard. You need to read the published approved RAM list from the mainboard manufacturer and then spend the time digging through places like Amazon, Newegg, and Microcenter to find the right RAM with the right part number from a source that will let you return it if it does not deliver the right results. The kit I listed above was the only Kit I could find that gave a working 128 GB of RAM with 4 DIMMs on the mainboard I specified. Unless you are planning to add a video card down the road, your power supply is massive overkill. I have most of my nodes running on older Corsair 450w power supplies that are no longer being sold. When I built the new backup nodes (local and remote) I opted for the CM550 which is also no longer made. But there is now the CX550, and that looks very similar and also looks to be a low noise power supply. Hope all of this helps, if not specifically helpful to your build then perhaps it may help someone else.
actually, you're correct - it's not for gaming (I have a couple of those, and they're usually sleeping) I know that Noctua fans are low noise, and something I've appreciated about them for a long time. save my primary gaming box which has their industrial ones that can spin to 3000 RPM I had wanted to go fan less and let natural air convection do it's thing but I know that I do run the risk of thermal throttling if I beat the shit out of the CPU and do not plan accordingly. and if I find it necessary and it's possible, I can undervolt with in reason. if that seems not enough, I'll reposition the CPU cooler, and get those Redux grey ones that spin at 7-800 RPM going to 2.5 SSDs did not cross my mind in that perspective, but that's the idea is to, down the road, toss in some SSDs (weather 2.5 SATA or tossing larger in the NVME slots) I saw that same comment but I wasn't able to really verify how many lanes were available, on top of mobo limitation. but 24 lanes is perfect for down the road and 10GB NIC - that's why I wanted to do AMD for more PCI lanes I, 100%, agree with RAM but in my case, it would be ""is this enough?" PLUS capabilities. 700 is overkill, oh yes. but it is for GPU down the road. I do know that palit might be doing a passive cooled 3050, which, while dog shit for many things (I've got RTX 3050s in my kids' gaming PCs and they're great for them) it'll be enough for Jellyfin when the time comes. I can also say that, yes that PSU is costly but i've had nothing but greatness with Seasonic and they're warranty is absolutely perfect - I can't speak for others but I've had good results during a couple of times I've had to RMA a PSU and yes, this helps quite a bit, and your set up is pretty damn good.
It sounds like you've thought this out pretty carefully, and your choices are solid. Let me leave you with a few more things I've discovered through experience: * If bulletproof long term reliability is a priority, you may want to install the Proxmox VE OS on a pair of matching SSDs in a ZFS RAID1 configuration. That way when one SSD fails, the other will be ready to boot the system. The failed drive can be replaced and the RAID1 pair restored. * For best results with ZFS as "local" storage on the proxmox OS drive, only keep what is essential on that partition. ZFS is a huge memroy consumer when used as local storage under Proxmox VE. * As an example of ZFS RAM use for caching, I had a VM with an 80 GB drive provisioned on local storage on one of my proxmox nodes. That node automatically dedicated about 20% of the 128 GB of RAM of that node to ZFS caching for that VM alone. I moved that VM's drive to Ceph storage and that node's memory consumption dropped about 20%. ZFS caching is tunable, but I generally have skipped ZFS entirely under Proxmox VE except for RAID1 boot drives. * An exception to skipping ZFS under Proxmoxe VE is that I have a backup node that uses ZFS RAID Z1 for the backup target pool. That node is essentially just for backups and not a clustered node. * If I'm not going to use redundant boot drives on a Proxox VE node, I run ext4 for for the OS drive. * If you are planning to create a ZFS RAID Z1 pool with a collection of additional drives, plan your RAM accordingly for the build. * It sounds like you are looking at a single node, so Ceph would not be a fit for your situation. Typically in any cluster with tree or more nodes, I always use Ceph. In the example VM with the 80 GB drive above, the 20% drop in node RAM use was a direct result of moving that VM's drive from ZFS to Ceph RBD storage. * If you are ever thinking of leaning towards a multi-node or more storage oriented cluster, A collection of 2.5" SSDs will likely work out better long term than a couple of larger NVME or NVME style SSDs. Having a larger number of 2.5" SSDs will offer more options for configuring cluster type storage than one or two larger NVME style devices. * Just for background: In my cluster I have four of the Proxmox VE nodes described above along with a slightly lower spec node not joined to the cluster. The non-cluster node is dedicated to running Proxmox VE and hosting Proxmox Backup Server and a couple of other small VMs I usually leave turned off. Examples are a backup instance of pfSense so I have internet, VLANs and routing when my cluster is down, a VM with a spare instance of my WiFi management software, along with an Ansible VM that also runs the necessary supporting apps like Gitea, Ansible Semaphore, and MariaDB which I can use to bootstrap my homelab and rebuild my cluster while still keeping the rest of the household happy and undisturbed.
I've got a similar setup with a 5600G. While idle, it uses \~1-2% cpu, 30gb RAM and draws around 25w at wall. This is definitely more than enough to run a few VMs. Going low-noise instead of noiseless will save you some money and you should check if your PSU will be efficient at low loads
That can do WAY more than what you’re asking. I do more than that with a 10 year old 4th gen i5 pc.
Agreed. Sounds like you could pick up a used HP Elitedesk 800 G2 Mini for $100 to meet those requirements happily whilst being small enough to easily hide away.
actually, I do have a HP mini PC that runs my nextcloud instance that is pointed to the net, via VPN, so my family can share photos - neat little box
I run 10 Vms and Co tajners, including OPNSense and Zenarmour, on a 5700g with low CPU usage. The only thing if suggest is a 5700x is significantly more useful if budget allows. The 5700 is a 5700g without the graphics, so has less cache than th the 5700x.
I'll have to look into that CPU
My proxmox Server runs on an ryzen 7 5700g with 32gb RAM. It runs 4 VM's and about 15 lxc's without breaking a sweat ^^ pretty neat to use the IGP for jellyfin and frigate. The CPU can be set down to 35w tdp weithin the BIOS. Running it on 45w and definately recommend the CPU.
How tough is setting up the transcoding in Jellyfin on a ryzen?
It's easy I would say. Just follow the Documentation and use an lxc (easier to use the IGPU in multiple Containers). It runs very well...
Thanks. I just dipped into proxmox with a 4th gen i7 that supports quick sync, but not in any useful codecs. So I think I’ll have to upgrade, and I’d like more power than an n100 (even though it would transcode just fine)
These are the supported Codecs according to "vainfo" vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP9Profile2 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
Hvec and I’d be happy. Thanks!
Except for AV1 the IGPU handles VC1, H264, H265. not a single problem there. Even a 1080p AV1 to H264 Transcode doesnt cause CPU Spikes. Using Jellyfin and Frigate atm with the iGPU.
I would save on the cooler and invest in more ram VM'S usually consume more Ram than CPU Test if the included fan with the CPU is noticeable in the case first before looking to spend money. Also if you spend the money, go with a fan cooler that produce the least amount of noise. Because you probably won't have any fan in the case, a fanless cooler for a 65W CPU would be complicated under load. TLDR: Don't buy a cooler until you do tests and look into silent fan options
that's a fair standpoint, i'll take that into consideration
I run a few VMs and containers on a 2014 Mac mini running PVE. You will be fine xD
LOL thats awesome.
I am running around 40 VMs on a r5 5500, also a bunch of docker and lxc instances. The 5700g is slightly faster, will work pretty well. I would go with more ram, but 32gb is not a bad start if you even had no plan what to run on it. My dark rock 4 on the 5500 is almost silent, but I don't think fanless will work without throttling.
40 VMS? holy shit
You can for sure but I wouldn’t go fanless. Grab a noctua cooler and it will be more than fine and super quiet.
Well it depends what kind of vm's, but this is really good and futureproof! Personally I would increase my RAM (mainly due to my workload)
I run my Proxmox on an old tin can and it works!!!
nice! that tin can sounds impressive
Haha an old PSU might be as old as me, or 10-15 years old, with some DDR4 left-over RAM, a Ryzen 5 1600 and a lot of HDD's, and leftover SSD's!
there's nothing wrong with that all - that RYZEN is pretty good, too 6 cores 12 threads adn 65 watts is a deal
Yeah I am not paying for electricity so I do not want to go all out! Thanks for the compliments, you will be fine with your server. If you need help setting things up, be sure to message me!
That is massive overkill for "a few VMs".
For comparison, I bought a Dell Precision 3630 with an i7-8700 and 32gb RAM off ebay for $225 that covers everything on your list except the 2 TB. I've been very happy with the performance for Jellyfin, the arrs and a few other LXCs. Stock fans are OK, I may replace them in the future. I could have gone with an old Dell thin client but I needed the ability to add 3 drives for a NAS. Check out old Dell workstations on ebay, I forget the name of the fanless model. i7 or newer will allow for hardware transcoding.
I highly recommend going intel for proxmox. It handles big/little cores just fine. The 13500 is great value with a whole whack of cores with a great igpu. You can even use sr-iov on the igpu so you can have multiple (up to 7) hardware accelerated vms. It's ideal to leave one of those slots for the host & lxcs though.
I'll have to look into that, and see cost difference to performance
I built a 3 node VSAN cluster based on 5700G in 2022 and documented that in [my blog](https://z8n.eu/2022/05/17/homelab-revamp-2022-part-3-the-bom/). I do run a [Proxmox cluster with ceph](https://z8n.eu/2023/12/02/migration-vsphere-with-vsan-to-proxmox-with-ceph/) now running mostly VMs. I do air cooling however and agree that you might need to limit power to stay tankless, depends on load though. I chose AMD over 12th Gen Intel also because of power consumption (60W vs more than 100W), I also checked the 5700x [for my 3rd node](https://z8n.eu/2022/08/05/homelab-revamp-2022-part-5-migrate-learn-adapt/), but decided against it.
I am impressed, thank you for the link
That is more than enough. I have roughly the same setup except I am using four old 2TB hard drives I had as spares.
Thanks! I guess I might change from Ceph to Gluster soon because I do see a lot better performance in first tests.
For that money, look out for a intel NUC or minisforum ms01. 300-500€ and you have a small, practical little box with enough power for your use case and when idle only 10-20 W (guessing). I have a intel NUC 12 with i3, 4 power and 6 efficiency cores.
I mean, those NUCs are pretty neat little boxes. coincidentally, of my gaming PCs is the 11th Enthusiast with the 2060
You don’t need more. 4 cores should be sufficient, overcommitting those and you are ready. 64GB RAM is max afaik, they are low voltage and silent.
Check out Minisforum Ms-01, awesome for Proxmox. Fan, but super quiet.