Planning My First Home Server: Hardware & Setup Advice Needed

Hardware & Gaming PC Builds, Modding & Overclocking
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Hello everyone, I’m new here and just starting out with building my first home server. I’m in the research phase—watching videos and browsing forums to learn as much as I can.

My Planned Setup

Storage Goal: About 8TB total.

Hardware Considering: Lenovo P330 workstation, 32GB RAM, 4 x 2TB NVMe drives for storage, plus a 256GB SATA SSD for the operating system (OS).

Prioritizing NVMe speed but can’t allocate more storage just yet.

Network: Current router with 1Gbps Ethernet; not planning to upgrade soon.

Primary Uses:

Immich (for managing photos/videos)

Jellyfin (media streaming)

Music server (still deciding)

Nextcloud (cloud file sync/storage)

Maybe a VPN later, and more as I learn.

User Scenario

There will be about 4 to 5 people using this server. I’ll be the main/primary user and plan to use all its features, while the others will mostly use Immich for managing and accessing photos and videos.

My Main Questions

Backups & Redundancy: I want to back up all files to the NAS—this server will store the master copy. I won’t have a second backup NAS for now. What are the best ways to ensure data redundancy or quick recovery?

Network Speed: Is my 1Gbps LAN connection enough for now, or do I need a faster network card immediately for my setup?

Operating System: What OS do you recommend for a beginner who wants to run Docker containers and easily manage the server?

Containers & Apps: Beyond Immich, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, music server, and VPN, are there must-have containers you’d recommend for someone new?

Hardware Suitability: Is the Lenovo P330 with my planned configuration good enough for these needs and a few simultaneous users? Any potential bottlenecks I should know about?

Beginner Tips: Any advice, learning resources, or common pitfalls to avoid as I start this journey?

Thanks for any suggestions! Looking forward to becoming part of the community and learning from everyone.

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Okay ,so I am also noob to self hosting , but here we go

If u haven’t bought both nvme then u can also get 1 larger and comparatively cheaper enterprises hdd from here(marketplace) which will significantly increase ur total storage which can you use for jellyfin library

1st decide what are u going to run as OS Proxmox (and use linux vm) or run linux natively.You will find on net that Proxmox is so worth it and all that fluff, but I personally wouldn’t recommend it if u aren’t that familiar with it and also pass through is another nightmare(again AS my personal experience).So try to go with lite linux distro like debian.

U said that u have 1Gbps lan (I am assuming thats ur router port maximum capability and not ur ISP plan),u are very unlikely to saturate it.Not worth upgrading as of now.

Unless u are familar with reverse proxy and all that,I would recommend u to check out tailscale first.It is one of the best container to have.Within 15mim you can set it up and have remote access to your services.Last time I check immich has some problem with Chuck video upload (>100mb) on remote video upload I am not sure about the current situation(Edit: this is for cloudflare tunnel).

Paperless ngx is also a good container you can take a look at that.

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Thank you very much for your valuable msg.

I am still at the sourcing stage for most parts and planning to learn it on my spare laptop as of now.

I also thought of getting a large hdd, but i want it to be compact thats my primary goal and a mini pc will definitely not have enough power for an hdd, unless I buy an external drive/enclosure.

I have a basic 100mbs plan and yes that the router port speed.

I am familiar with Linux , but new to hosting. Do you recommend using something like CasaOs over Debian?

No I am not familiar with setting up reverse proxy , but definitely need it and will give tailscale a try.

Anything else similar to immich ?

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If you’re patient enough, I’d suggest just go head-first into it with whatever pick of the OS you choose. Your components are more than enough to get going. I started with way less (like a Raspberry Pi 3 which didn’t have a lot of compatibility with packages back then).

IDK how comfortable you are around command-line interfaces but if not, you probably should get comfortable to make life easier. If you’re feeling brave, you can try any of these options you find including Proxmox. Can search YouTube for an up-to-date setup tutorial if need be.

Else, if you’re new to all this, I’d probably suggest installing something like Ubuntu/Kubuntu, checking things out GUI wise, trying the command line, figuring out how to SSH etc and work your way from there. You can try running docker inside Ubuntu to run the apps you mentioned, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a compose file from places like Images | LinuxServer.io and spin that up. Again, if you don’t know what all these mean, don’t worry, you’ll figure it out along the way.

I’d just say get your hands dirty first and maybe don’t go initially itself for the “right” setup if your experience is less. Once you figure things out, break things etc. in a simpler OS, you can move to more complicated setups.

My personal recommendation is not to try and upgrade networking from the get go. 1Gbps should be sufficient if there’s no crazy simultaneous use of all the resources for high-end streaming and stuff. I somehow doubt your household would be doing all that. I’d say figure these basics out, try running compose stacks for the things you want to run, test it out with some of your files/data and from other users’ devices. If things get messy, yeet and start over or try something new like Proxmox when you’re up for it.

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@Nikzcool Can you share which videos were most helpful for you to learn more about this? I myself am interested in building my own home server someday.

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Hey , even I am new into this field.would like to know what’s the least amount of hardware required?. Like I already have Intel 3770 and 12gb of ram as a media pc for my TV. Would like to know whether this enough or should I get something form am4 platform or Intel 8th gen+?.

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Thank you very much for your advice.

I am not new to linux have been using it since early 2000s, just new to server Building and not much aware of the commands specific to them.

I think I should directly jump into something which is more centric to my use case and master it. I just want something that doesn’t have a steep learning curve or something that doesn’t fit my need.

But yes, I am still yet to try proxmox or casaOS or anything specific to server or container setup.

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I’ve build a media server out of 5600G works great

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The h/w depends on your usecase and what all you want to run.

I am not the right person to answer your query, i am fairly new to severs and new to this forum.

However I would suggest to have something that has a low idle usage, as mostly you would want to run it 24x7.

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I just saw multiple videos on YT from servethehome, itg gear, techno time, etc

Read through r/homelab, r/homeserver, github pages.

And whatever doubts i had went to Perplexity Ai.

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Earlier I had narrowed down to a custom pc based on 3400g and a320 in a server case but didnt want spend much of my limited space, then hp elitedesk/ prodesk 800 g4 or higher due to dual nvme and then stumbled upon m920q /m920x which had pcie slot and nvme storage.

Once I went into mini form factor, i knew I had to stick to nvme.

Obviously cost is higher but can neatly tuck it in the false ceiling.

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I am currently planning this exact setup as below.

Just minus the Nic

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/s/H8u6nXzFyJ

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Hey thanks for the valuable insights. Will watch this thread for more info.:slightly_smiling_face:

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Have you considered building the PC yourself than buying pre-built ones? You can save money that way.

All services which you are planning to run can run smoothly on 4th gen i3 and above so there is really no issue.

  • For redundancy, you will need to have at least 1 parity drive.
    • I have 3x 4TB (1 Parity) and 2x 6TB (1 Parity), so 8TB+6TB usable
  • 1 GBps is enough in most day to day usage, immich and jellyfin etc.
  • For OS I use Truenas on my main NAS, it needs lots of time to get used to that OS, but I guess that is what home-labbing is all about.
    • CasaOS is more friendly and very good at running docker.
    • Even Windows Server is also good because you are familiar with it.
  • You will find more ‘apps‘ as you go along, and I do not think you need to worry about it since you are planning to buy 9th gen+ CPU, it should handle everything
  • Power usage also have to taken into consideration, but you are going nvme route so I guess it should be fine.
  • If you are doing this for fun, feel free to tinker and break things, that is the fun of it. If you do not like to tinker and just use basic 3/4 apps, maybe Synology is also a better option, setup once and forget about it thing.
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You are on the right track. If you want things easy, check out Unraid. They will soon be launching offers on licenses for some anniversary. It’ll make life really easy.

Though if you are comfortable with docker, you can spin everything up within Linux. CasaOS can be avoided, I feel it messes things up a bit and kind of assumes a domain ownership to work well.

As others have said, Lan speed will not be a bottleneck in most scenarios for you right now. Other hardware also is sufficient for your use, though if you have a lot of if pics to process initially, and a windows machine with a good GPU, for initial processing can spin up a immich machine learning docker on WSL for fast processing. DM me if you need help with that.

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Homelab is more of a Hobby thing. Atleast it starts it that way. Would highly recommend you to start with the hardware available and then, while assessing your requirements, scale up. It would save cost in the long run

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By any chance if someone needs a pcie riser for P330 I’ve got one which I bought from refurb.co but never used. Can dm me

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Thanks, I saw a few videos, forgot the channel name, but it wasn’t too clear. Honestly YouTube search sucks these days, couple of results actually related to what you searched and then it’s completely unrelated stuff at the bottom.

I’ll check out the channels you mentioned :+1:.

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Amongst all I’ve found proxmox as most versatile although that’s just my opinion but it does open a lot of options

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@Nikzcool - dont waste money on so many SSDs at this stage, use HDDs for data. Get a larger SSD for boot + containers + container metadata.

Plus you would need a hyper m2 card for that many nvme ssd - I dont know of any workstation which has 4 m2 slots. ideally you should opt for SATA SSDs.

Backups - if running proxmox, get another machine (can be anything) and run proxmox backup server on it.

P330 - unless you have a reason to go with it, opt for a DIY approach. HDDs will be more cost effective vs SSDs and for the most part, you would not need the raw speeds of SSDs, since your gigabit LAN port will be a bottleneck.

Look at containers for deployment as much as possible.

Try all flavours of linux - but try to stick to something that will be useful for you in future. casaos is more of a container platform to me, and i would stick to proxmox. i can deploy whatever i want on it.

@AlphaSkull - thats intel 3rd gen, ivy bridge and you should add a new GPU at the very least to benefit. Else upgrade to anything 7th gen above intel.

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