Random Thoughts....

Maybe best for the tech random thoughts but what kind of storage capacity are you thinking of? If money is no object, stuff like the Radxa Taco exists and would be extremely efficient at the expense of raw power. If you're just storing small files and don't care about speed then this will be fine.

Alternatively a Pi or Intel NUC with desktop USB drives could work, only the ones with a full size hard drive and external power though. I don't recommend portable external hard drives because the USB controller is often integrated on the hard drive controller board and that's the weakest point, if it dies your data is unrecoverable without professional help. With a desktop drive you just take the disk out and connect it up.

Cheapest would probably be an old HP Microserver with internal disks or a small form factor Dell PC with the USB drives.

Edit: I rarely get anything through the post/mail unless it has a card attached to it. Companies like to send me reminders for insurance but those get shredded as do car tax reminders once I've paid.

What I was considering was something like a 2014 Mac Mini (I use one for general computing already and a second one would be the perfect form factor for the table of internet stuff in my house). Unsurprisingly, power draw numbers for it are very hard to find. Apple tells you it will idle at 6W and consume 68.5 at full clip. Being most of them are intel chips with a 65W power envelope, I expect it will be somewhat more than that.

I would connect an enclosure (let's call that an additional 40W for a dual-enclosure one with a fan) and plug the entire thing to my network. Docker can then deal with pihole and openVPN, SMB can deal with the file sharing to actually use that VPN.

That's the intended base use case. I'm sure I could come up with others. I've never actually built a home server or used docker. But I enjoy learning things, besides...

...

how hard can it be?
 
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What I was considering was something like a 2014 Mac Mini (I use one for general computing already and a second one would be the perfect form factor for the table of internet stuff in my house). Unsurprisingly, power draw numbers for it are very hard to find. Apple tells you it will idle at 6W and consume 68.5 at full clip. Being most of them are intel chips with a 65W power envelope, I expect it will be somewhat more than that.

I would connect an enclosure (let's call that an additional 40W for a dual-enclosure one with a fan) and plug the entire thing to my network. Docker can then deal with pihole and openVPN, SMB can deal with the file sharing to actually use that VPN.

That's the intended base use case. I'm sure I could come up with others. I've never actually built a home server or used docker. But I enjoy learning things, besides...

...

how hard can it be?
Sounds ideal. Probably get a Kill-a-watt so you can do your own power testing, you aren't going to get much better than those power numbers though so the price of the power meter might negate any cost saving you could make by testing! I suspect my home server with its full PC processor and seven HDDs uses a lot more power, I'd rather not know.

In checking how many disks I had in Storage Spaces I saw that one of the cheap M.2 SSDs I had in there has kicked the bucket. It isn't really needed now as I have enough HDDs without the SSD caching I was relying on previously to keep the transfer speeds up.
 
So euhrmm, this is Cowboy, quite sad, quite alone, quite drunk.......you know people underestimate just what being alone feels like, and how suddenly it happens, it sucks dudes and dudettes, and I'm not sure how much of it I can stand.....
 
So euhrmm, this is Cowboy, quite sad, quite alone, quite drunk.......you know people underestimate just what being alone feels like, and how suddenly it happens, it sucks dudes and dudettes, and I'm not sure how much of it I can stand.....
As someone who's also been down that road many times, let me tell you what you probably already know: If you feel down, don't get drunk. Alcohol enhances your existing feelings.


What he said!
 
Do you ever just have a fart and go “that was rich,” and you feel accomplished?
 
I washed Theo Bunny yesterday because he fell off a table when I was camping last weekend, and man, there is no cozier thing on earth than a freshly washed Puffalump.
 
I washed Theo Bunny yesterday because he fell off a table when I was camping last weekend, and man, there is no cozier thing on earth than a freshly washed Puffalump.
Snuggling a beagle and hearing the comforting groans is up there.
 
Snuggling a beagle and hearing the comforting groans is up there.
Those are just farts and Hank is just as satisfied by his as you are by yours. :p

Cat farts can be deadly, ours has farted in my lap many times and I can't compete with that.
 
I'm not experienced with dogs, must just be the cat that mixes them up then. :LOL:

In other news - hedgehogs are hydropneumatic.
 
When a dog inhales, groans and then lets out a sigh that sounds somewhat like a vehicle with air brakes engaging the handbrake, that's when you know they've had A Good Day™.

golden-retriever-sleeping.jpg
 
So gentlemen and ladies, for those of you who were not around pre internet, let me talk you through the process of buying something ( lets say a piece of electronics) pre internet.

You decide you want X
You drive to a store, tell the sales assistant ( usualy an idiot teenager) what you want.
Sales assistant then recommends a product , whether or not this is what you want depends on the level of idiot teenager.
You decide to puchase said product with really nothing to go on except ' salesperson said to' since you had no way to do any research.
' not in stock, come around in 3 weeks'
3 weeks later drive to store (again) to come collect you product.
Take it home
Only find out if and when it functions to what you wanted after paying for it.


These days:
Do some research on the internet, determin exactly what you need, read peer reviews, decide if it's right for you, order, this all takes 45 minutes.
Day layer get product delivered to your door, use and enjoy.



And STILL there are people in the world who foam at the mouth at the mention off online shopping.
 
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