Hi everyone,

I am looking to upgrade my current home server: a Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB) for something more capable, but still with low power consumption. Nothing overkill. My current setup on the Raspberry Pi 4 is based on OpenMediaVault, and I run Jellyfin, Navidrome, Radicale, Trilium and Syncthing as Docker containers. This has two HDDs connected: a 6TB almost full with movies and series, and a 4TB with around 1 TB of music and the data from Docker. It works mostly OK, but Jellyfin eats the RAM quite easily (the library is not that small) and I need to restart it or it will eventually crash the whole thing.

I have seen here and in similar forums people using and recommending miniPCs with an intel N100 processor, often purchased on AliExpress. I have never used AliExpress and don’t have a deep knowledge of processors, power consumption, etc. So my main questions are:

  • is a miniPC with an N100 processor still a good option these days for an amateur like me (enough power, low energy consumption)?
  • is AliExpress a reliable place to buy a computer for this purpose (shipping to EU)?

I already looked around in AliExpress and found some options, from brands like Bmax, MLLSE, GMKTec, FIREBAT… first time I heard of any of them. From what I have seen there my preference would be:

  • GMKTec G3 Mini PC, which seems to have the option to upgrade the RAM (this is not fully clear from what I see on AliExpress) and also has the option to add a second SSD drive. It has 4 USB3 ports so I can add more HDDS in the future in addition to the 2 I currently use. It comes in 2 variants: 8GB RAM + 256GB SSD drive for 112.39€ / 16GB RAM + 512GB SSD drive for 133.39€.

or the

  • Bmax B4 Plus. This one seems to not have the ability to upgrade the RAM, but it claims to have a 2.5 inch hard drive slot, so I could add an HDD to it. It comes with 2 USB3 ports and 2 USB2 ports, plus a USB-C port. With 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD drive, it has a price of 132.02€.

Does anyone have any of these miniPCs and can confirm if the RAM/SSD are upgradable? Would you recommend them or something completely different?

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    Others have mentioned SFF desktops.

    My current server is an old Dell Optiplex SFF desktop. Idles at just under 20w, peaks at 80. Currently has an NVME boot drive, and an 8TB 3.5" drive.

    Runs like a champ, easily serves Jellyfin video, with transcoding, while converting videos with handbrake (and with 2 other systems converting videos off that drive over the net).

    Cost, internal space, options and power it’s hard to beat an SFF. If you don’t need internal space or conversion power, than a NUC can work (the lack of sufficient cooling limits it’s converting capabilities).