On 2/2/22 06:11, Christian Britz wrote:
Inspired by my previous attempts to implent NFS on my Synology NAS, I am thinking about buying a mini server where I install Debian to serve as file share (SMB and NFS) and DLNA server. It should fully support Debian Stable, have a low price but be capable of performing the tasks well, ideally have working WIFI, be silent, low-power and small. Do you have any recommendations for me?
I had a similar wish list for a SOHO LAN server/ NAS several years ago. My conclusion was that small, energy efficient, high-performance computer hardware commands a premium price and has little room for expansion or upgrades. Used server equipment is a much better value and is designed for expansion/ upgrade, but servers are rarely quiet or energy efficient.
I decided to go with a used Dell PowerEdge T30 with a Xeon E3-1225 v5 processor, 2 @ 8 GB ECC memory, a 2.5" SATA 6 Gbps SSD, 2 @ 3.5 SATA 6 Gbps enterprise HDD's, and a DVD+-RW drive. I installed FreeBSD.
The uATX tower chassis is smaller than all of my other towers, the CPU and PSU fans are quiet, and energy efficiency is decent. But the HDD's are attached directly to the chassis internal drive cage, so HDD activity makes noise. If the machine was located in the bedroom, I would attach vibration/ sound absorbing materials to the drive cage and interior surfaces. Or, pay for large SSD's.
The T30 was a worthwhile investment (~US$750), and I still have two 3.5" drive bays, two memory slots, and four PCI/ PCIe expansion slots available for the future.
That said, understand that Synology, QNAP, Western Digital, Asus, etc., do a lot of engineering and legal work to develop and maintain their NAS products to interoperate with all of the various devices and technologies found in a SOHO environment. It's a never-ending treadmill. I implemented GELI, ZFS, jails, Samba, SSH, and CVS on my T30. I bounced on NFS and Kerberos, I have yet to try DLNA.
David