I’m trying to start out self-hosting and was looking for some good servers. I have a budget of ~100 USD and am in the US. I was initially going to get some type of raspberry pi but they seem to always be sold out here

  • Matej@matejc.comEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    People usually forget that home machines for server require:

    • stable internet connection
    • stable electricity supply
    • hardware maintenance
    • upgrade of hardware

    I had all that when I was a student, it’s wonderful to learning opportunity. Now I grew up, I use VPS in cloud and pay for all that with ~16eur/month and could be even cheaper. But considering my work hour, I can pay for that amount with half an hour of work with my job.

    • kentucky444@eslemmy.esEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      While I totally agree that managing hardware at home can be cumbersome, if you need large and slow amounts of storage - e.g. for torrenting o plex - VPS are too expensive. With a ~250 € investment I could get a server with 2TB HD that consumes 50W at max while the same VPS would cost me twice - if not more - for 12 months.

      • Matej@matejc.comEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Yes the immediate cost is lower, but when drive fails? You need to consider some RAID setup then so that means at least 2 of them. Well depends how much your data is worth…

        Also consider that computers need external battery power for short power shortage and lightning protection. At least battery requires replacement every few years.

        • kentucky444@eslemmy.esEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          Thank you for your comment, however, considering that renting a VPS with similar specs would cost twice, if not more, for a single year, I believe that factoring in a second drive for RAID configuration and a potential UPS (although I would not mind the downtime) is more than possible.