[vladvasiliu]

The Helios64 "Full Bundle" looks nice, but only 4 GB RAM seems limited for ZFS. Plus, for 300 USD, there should be a way to set up a similar x86 system, possibly from second-hand parts. I'm thinking some older AMD Zen with 8-16 GB RAM and a Fractal Design Node or similar case.

Yes, I know that would likely use more electricity, but in my particular case (France), electricity isn't that big of a cost, plus I wouldn't be running this 24/7. More like one or two evenings a week. The only reason why I'm not running recycled "enterprise" servers at home is that my apartment is small and I absolutely cannot stand the noise they make.

[MivLives]

I've had good luck buying old gaming pc parts off my friends. If they're upgrading their cpu, they normally have a mobo/ram/cpu to sell.

[vladvasiliu]

But those are usually "consumer" parts (in the broad sense). In particular, they won't take ECC RAM. I'm hoping this will change now that AMD has a believable "enthusiast" offering that has ECC.

This to me is the main issue. Usually, manufacturers think ECC = Enterprise = Running in a computer room = Doesn't need to be quiet.

Of course, usually clients looking for thin, least-possible-U systems doesn't help either.

I've actually gotten my hands on a Lenovo tower server my client wasn't needing anymore which is really pretty quiet. But it's "huge" by rack standards. It's basically a full PC tower in height, but longer.

I could see myself running it in the kitchen or something once I get it home after the lockdowns.

The issue is it only takes 2.5" drives, which are still quite expensive if SSDs or use SMR if HDDs.