Computer

What you're planning on doing with your server will dictate the hardware you'll need to fulfill those requirements.

Raspberry Pi 4

Desktop Computer

When you're running one or two services, a Raspberry Pi would probably suffice, while running your own personal cloud services mightmay require a refurbished desktop computer. 

Running a media server may require a faster processor, a decent graphics card and adequate storage space for digital media.

 

 We provide "Quick-Start" examples to help you make up your mind.

Quick-Start Examples

Core Processor

Choosing the type of main processor you will use for your server is a core decision to building a server. 

There are two primary families of processors designed and developed to meet specific criteria:

Desktop_windows

x86 Processor Traditional computers – such as desktops, laptops and servers – use an importantevolution decision.of the same processors first developed in the 1970s.  These x86 processors are named after the Intel 8086 that the architecture is based on. Traditional x86 processors utilize a Complex Instruction Set that is more equipped to juggle multiple tasks.  They focus on sustained processing power and can handle a larger workload. Traditional computers come with active heat management – such as fans or liquid cooling.   These types of computers are great for hosting your own personal cloud with a variety of services, such as OwnCloud, Jellyfin, qBittorrent, or media procurement services.

Mobile

ARM Processor ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) is a new class of processors that are in the same family as the one that power your cellphone.     The Raspberry Pi – and other single-board computers – use this type of processor for their power efficiency.  On the flip side, they can't juggle running multiple programs like an x86 processor.  Without adding fans to cool them, these system-on-a-chip are susceptible to overheating.   These extremely cost-effective systems are great hosting a single service – such as a personal website, BitWarden, Home Assistant or Grocy.

 

	Recommended Specs
Acute	Released 2011 or newer
speed	Speed 1.8GHz or higher

Single-Board Computers

The Raspberry Pi – and other single-board computers – use a different type of processor than the one you'd find in a traditional desktop. ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) is a new class of processors that are in the same family as the one that power your cellphone. 

These cost-effective mini computers are great hosting a personal website, BitWarden, Home Assistant or Grocy.   Built for power efficiency, they are not built sustained heavy loads and will overheat.

Personal Computers

Traditional computers – such as desktops, laptops and servers – use an evolution of the same processors first developed in the 1970s.  They are known as x86 and named after the Intel 8086 that the architecture is based on. 

These processors focus on sustained processing power and can handle much more intensive tasks. Most traditional computers come with active cooling mechanisms – such as fans or liquid cooling.

These types of computers are great for hosting your own personal cloud with a variety of services, such as OwnCloud, Jellyfin, qBittorrent, or media procurement services.

Graphics Processor 

When it comes operating a server, graphics cards can be leveraged by certain applications.  Compared to computational processors, graphics cards have the ability to run many processes in parallel.  This is a great advantage for image and video processing, as well as some general-purpose large-scale data analysis and number cruching. 

Within modern computer systems, there are two classes of graphics processors.

Memory

Integrated Graphics Many modern processors come with graphics cards directly embedded into the processor.  This provide enough power for basic operations – such as running a web browser or basic image editor.    Integrated graphics cards share hardware resources with the processor decreasing their overall power.  They may not be robust enough for complex image or video processing tasks.     Modern desktop systems can be modified to add more graphical processing power.  Most single-board computers – like the Raspberry Pi – cannot be modified to increase their graphic processing.     While Raspberry Pi computers are useful for small computational tasks, they can often lack the graphical processing necessary to do complex image processing tasks. These computers do not dedicated graphics processors and instead rely on a "system-on-a-chip" that shares graphical and computational power.

Developer_board

Dedicated Graphics Traditional computers have a powerful advantage here because they are so customizable.  Thanks to the extensible PCI-e interface, additional graphics processor – or a graphics cards – with much more dedicated power can be installed.    Dedicated graphics cards have specialized cores that allow them to convert videos more efficiently than a CPU. In addition, they come with their own memory to lessen the strain on the rest of the computer system's hardware.   These can be helpful for tasks that deal with images and videos – such as Jellyfin processing a movie for streaming through a media server.

	Recommended Specs
Acute	Released 2016 or newer
Speed	Processor Speed 1.0GHz or higher
Memory	Memory Capacity 4GB or higher
Developer_board	Expansion Interface PCI-e 3.0 or newer

Single-Board Computers

While Raspberry Pi computers are useful for small computational tasks, they can often lack the graphical processing necessary to do complex image processing tasks. These computers do not dedicated graphics processors and instead rely on a "system-on-a-chip" that shares graphical and computational power. 

Generally, these types of systems cannot be modified to add more graphical processing power.  Newer models can have an attached PCI-e graphics card, but this requires an add-on board and can be complicated to setup.

Personal Computers

Traditional computers have a powerful advantage here because they are so customizable.  Modern processors have decently powerful graphic processors directly integrated into them.  Thanks to the extensible PCI-e interface in desktop computers, we can install an additional graphics processor – or a graphics cards – with much more dedicated power. 

Dedicated graphics cards have specialized cores that allow them to convert videos more efficiently than a CPU.  These can be helpful for tasks that deal with images – such as Jellyfin processing a movie for streaming through a media server.

Memory 

The amount and speed of random access memory – or RAM – can affect the responsiveness of your server.  Your server will need more memory when it needs to juggle multiple services at once. 

Memory	Integrated Memory Single-board computers have memory that is built directly into the hardware board and cannot be upgraded after the initial purchase.    They often use a "low-powered" variant of memory called LPDDR that can decrease its overall speed and responsiveness during multitasking.
Developer_board	Extensible Memory Traditional computers use the DDR class of RAM that has been progressively updated since the 1990s – currently up to DDR5. Each successor is not backwards compatible, but provides sizable advancements over previous iterations. With these systems, memory can be upgraded by purchasing RAM modules of the same type and speed.

	Recommended Specs
Memory	Capacity 8GB or higher
Category	Type DDR4 or newer

Single-Board Computers

Raspberry Pi computers use a "low-powered" variant called LPDDR.  This can decrease its overall speed and responsiveness during multitasking.  These computers cannot have their RAM upgraded. Raspberry Pi computers are required to share their available memory with their graphics processor.

Personal Computers

Traditional computers use the DDR class of RAM.  Unlike single-board computers, memory can be upgraded by purchasing RAM modules of the same type and timing.

Storage

WhenThere figuringare outthree types of storage space for a server, there are generally two typeshardware that are employed to fulfill differentserver roles.needs:

Hard_drive	Platter Disks Platter disksThese are based on an older, well-tested technology originating in the 1950s. Modern hard disk drives commonly use the SATA protocol.  They are slower, but can hold up to 20TB of storage per drive making them great for multimedia or document storage. Platter Hard Disk Drive NVMeSATA SolidPort State Drive They are slower, but can hold up to 20TB of storage on each drive – making them great for longer-term multimedia or document storage.
Hard_drive	Solid stateState drivesDisks These use the newer flashsolid state memory standard popularized by the smart phones.  SSDs are incredibly fast, but storage space oftenspacr comes at a premiumpremium. price.   SATA Solid State Drive These drives can use the SATA protocol like traditional hard drives, but they are increasingly available using an M.2 port.  These "Non-Volatile Memory express" – or NVMe drives – transport data over the same speedy PCIe interfaceinterface. as  graphics cards. NVMe Solid State Drive SATA Port M.2 Port Solid state drives, especially NVMe drives, are the best option for storing the operating system and other configuration files.  When hosting a media server – such as Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf or Kavita – storing databases, metadata, and other cache files on an SSD can greatly improve the media server's responsiveness.
Hard_drive	Flash Disks When using a Single-Board computer – such as the Raspberry Pi – the primary operating system is typically stored on a MicroSD flashcard.  These are tied to classification systems that gauge their overall speed and performance.  Two common categorization systems are the: Speed Class UHS Speed Class These are signified by symbols visible on the SD card and it's packaging. They are used to ensure performance within certain devices – like digital cameras or cell phones.   For the best performance, Raspberry Pi recommends a Speed Class of C10 – or a UHS Speed Class of U1.  These provide a guaranteed transfer speed of 10MB/second.

Graph/table of different speeds SD, HDD, SSD, nvme, ram

Type	Read Speed	Write Speed	Capacity
MicroSD C1	10 — 100 MB/s	10 — 100 MB/s	16GB — 1TB
MicroSD U1	10 — 100 MB/s	10 — 100 MB/s	16GB — 1TB
SATA HDD	80 — 160 MB/s	80 — 160 MB/s	250GB — 32TB
SATA SSD	200 — 600 MB/s	200 – 600 MB/s	250GB — 20TB
NVMe SSD	5000 MB/s	6000 MB/s	120GB — 4TB
RAM	40 GB/s	40 GB/s	4GB — 512GB

 

Depending on the form factor of the computer – such as a mini PC as compared to a Workstation – there can a wide range in the quantity. 

Compact PCs often support one or two additional drives, while a full workstation computer can often accommodate six or more.  This can be a combination of M.2 slots and SATA ports.  For external storage, most computers have USB3.0 or even eSATA.

Each of these storage drive technologies are also available to be used as an external disk over a USB,USB, Thunderbolt or eSata connection.  This allows you to expand your storage options beyond what will fit inside of your computer case.  This may create a "bottleneck" where the maximum speed is limited and should not be used for storing system drives.

When hosting multiple services from a single server – such as a personal Jellyfin media server and public WordPress site – it can be advantageous to store each of their files on seperate storage drives.  AlongsideThis otherhas security benefits, thisas well as helps to balance the load across multiple hard drives to avoid a hardware bottleneck.

 

Similarly, storing seldom accessed files – like your multimedia – on traditional platter drives allows them to conserve power by idlingturning unusedoff hard disks.disks that haven't been used recently.

	Recommended Specs
Terminal	Operating System SSD 150GB or greater, NVMe or SATA
Manufacturing	Service Files SSD 150GB or greater, NVMe or SATA
Subscriptions	Multimedia & Documents HDD 2TB or greater, SATA

Single-Board Computers

When using a Single-Board computer – such as the Raspberry Pi – the primary operating system is typically stored on a MicroSD flashcard.  These are tied to rating systems that gauge the flash memories speed and performance. 

Three common categorization systems are the:

• Speed Class
  
• UHS Speed Class

These are signified by symbols visible on the SD card and it's packaging.  For the best performance, Raspberry Pi recommends a Speed Class of C10 – or a UHS Speed Class of U1.  These provide a guaranteed transfer speed of 10MB/second.  

In addition to the on-board SD card, Single-Board Computers are equipped with USB3.0 ports to connect additional storage space.  For the best performance, you can even buy an add-on to attach an M.2 NVMe drive.

Personal Computers

Traditional computers often have an array of ports for attaching storage drives.   Depending on the form factor of the computer – such as a mini PC as compared to a Workstation – there can a wide range in the quantity. 

Compact PCs often support one or two additional drives, while a full workstation computer can often accommodate six or more.  This can be a combination of M.2 slots and SATA ports.  For external storage, most computers have USB3.0 or even eSATA.

Connectivity

A network-connected server should be connected to your router with a hard-wired Cat6 Ethernet cable.  

Wireless internet should be avoided for always-on services where reliability is crucial.  

Your server should have a 1Gbit or preferably 2.5Gbit connection speed.  This is related to the throughput available for your local area network and not your Internet service provider speed.

BlueTooth can be used to connect smart devices to Home Assistant, but is not crucial for any server functions and should be disabled when not in use.  BlueTooth hacking is a common avenue for exploitation when left on.

	Recommended Specs
Settings_ethernet	Wired Connection 1Gbit or higher; Cat6 RJ45 Ethernet cable
Wifi	Wireless Connection Disabled
Bluetooth	BlueTooth Disabled