I was given a Dell G5 5587 from 2018 with an i5 8300H. Screen is broken, but I guess that doesn’t matter. There are:

  • 2 ram slots
  • 1 SATA
  • 1 m.2
  • 3 usb 3.1@5gbps
  • 1 gigabit Ethernet port
  • 1 Thunderbolt 3 @40gbps

I want to use it as a server for backups, file server, host a homepage, run git to sync logseq, if possible use it as a mediaserver, spin up VMS to learn sysadmin stuff, learn to deploy code, try out different operating systems like plan9, freebsd, nixos.

I’m thinking that there are probably some storage solutions that let me connect a bunch of hdds to the Thunderbolt connector. So is that what I should do? Any suggestions appreciated!

I also got my old desktop, i7 920, 24GB ram, but I’m worried about power draw. Better to use the laptop?

  • MentalDV8@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    If you really MUST use the 8300H, here is a thought:

    The 8300H is 4c/8t. Not too bad.

    1. Max out the RAM
    2. Install a 1TB NVMe
      1. Partition as part1 256GB for Proxmox and part2 768GB for VMs
    3. Install a 512GB or 1TB SSD
      1. Partition as part1 1/2 of the full as ISO storage and part2 1/2 as various data storage (Docker, LXC, yada container data)
    4. Get a USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps external five bay 3.5" disk dock.
      1. I have four, they work okay.
      2. This would plug into Thunderbolt3 and costs much less than a true Thunderbolt3 bay. I think I paid $240USD for a Yottamaster 10Gbps 5 Bay USB C Hard Drive Enclosure Daisy Chain, Type-C External HDD Enclosure Support 2.5" & 3.5" SATA HDD/SSD up to 5X18TB - Daisy Chain DAS Support 270TB Storage Expansion [FS5C3] but it’s now $278.
      3. This is not a RAID box, but you can run RAID over the USB. It’s not going to win speed records, but then again, i5 8300H so it will do fine for backups. I have it on a six-core i7 8000 something and it’s good.
    5. This gives you a hypervisor, LXC containers, VMs, one VM running Debian 12 and Dockers (dozens of them) which can be your media servers (JellyFin/Plex), yada.
    6. AND you’ll run Proxmox Backup to ensure everything is backed-up on the backup server. JUST IN CASE.
    7. If you set this up correctly, you could move it to the i7 you have in minimal time. Or any other new system you get. You can always pull the drives out of the external USB case and put them in a tower case of a “new” PC you find, someone gives you, you buy very cheap, yada.

    Would I do this? Well you’re spending $400USD to $500USD if you don’t have parts. You’re buying HDD if you don’t have them.

    You could Craig’s List or Facebook MP or even eBay and find a better, more powerful, but still power friendly system with space inside for those drives. I see things for $150 on there with SSDs and often NVMe and space inside for HDD. I mean five SATA motherboard ports is all you need for drives (RAID5 using ZFS).

    I would likely go that route vs. making an old, out-of-date laptop (I have 17 of them, I know out-of-date LOL and I love my “kids.”) work. If you want to build a Frankenstein, I’m here for it. If you want a working server you’ll have (almost?) zero issues with, shop around a little and save money. And headache. (Will the laptop even boot to BIOS screen on external LCD with the main broke?) AND a desktop can easily give you multiple 1Gbps or 10Gbps connections for future use, cheap.

    Cheers!

    • Sleezebag@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Wow, thanks for the amazing reply!

      and wow! I did not expect to have to shell out 400-500 before disks. So I think I’ll go along with your suggestion. I’m located in the nordics, so stuff is more expensive, and things are not as available. In the 200-300 range, I mostly find 6th gen intel gaming rigs. I did find a ryzen 3900x rig for 400, that comes with a gpu and 6 sata slots. So I think that would be better value than an external 5 bay enclosure.

      I just thought I could drop 100-200usd and have a nice setup, but I guess I didn’t know the cost of stuff. Thanks for steering me in the right direction!

      • MentalDV8@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        I think over in the EU you’re going to find that the stuff I buy on the low end on Amazon and eBay here in the States is likely even more money for you. That Ryzen 3900x if you can get it pretty cheap will do everything you need to do and so much more. And you’ll save money over an external bay which is the big cost hog in this whole mess.

        And if it has a decent GPU you could use that for transcoding in Plex and jelly then if that’s an interest and you could also make good use of those SATA slots.