What’s the best affordable pre-built mini server available in Europe? I’m looking for a reliable and compact option that won’t break the bank
Edit: something that are not arm based
Edit 2: I’m looking to set up a system that can run Jellyfin, Ollama, and a few other small services. By ‘pre-built’, I mean I want to buy a device that already has the necessary hardware and installation, so all I need to do is install the operating system and I’m good to go
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Go on ebay or your local 2nd hand market and search “mini PC” or “Office computer”…
Prebuilt like a traditional server? I personally use an orange pi and it’s pretty good. Just make sure to use the open source arm OS.
Edit: something that are not arm based
You want pre-built to run ollama, that’s at least gonna cost you an arm, maybe even a leg.
It depends on the model you run. Mistral, Gemma, or Phi are great for a majority of devices, even with CPU or integrated graphics inference.
I see people mentioning small office desktops, and they are good, but I will warn you that they use proprietary parts so upgrading and repairing them can be difficult. Also jellyfin.org has some good info under the hardware acceleration section for what to use.
You can try the Minisforum MS-01. Relatively compact, inexpensive, with a lot of options for expandability as well as relatively powerful Intel CPUs with QuickSync for LLM and transcode. Here is a nice overview of the device.
If you want to run Ollama and other ML stuff, you’re looking at buying an RTX4090, my friend. Affordable and ML are two things you can’t put into one sentence.
While you certainly can run AI models that require such a beefy GPU, there are plenty of models that run fine even on a CPU-only system. So it really depends on what exactly Ollama is going to be used for.
I am satisfied if it can run a 7/8B relatively fast
I’m not sure if they’re still affordable but I ended up getting both a morefine and a beelink, one with the n100 Intel CPU and the other with the n305. They handle everything I’ve thrown at them, and come with out of the box quicksync transcoding for Jellyfin/Plex. Handles 4K transcode like a champ. Couple that with 2.5g Ethernet and they sip power. Though they might have gone up in price since I bought mine.
2 bay nas with a Ryzen7 and up to 32GB ram.
There is also a cheaper option with an N100
Thanks i will take a look at that.
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Check out used tiny/mini/micro desktops on eBay. Loads of info here: https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimicro-home-lab-revolution/
Only downside is going to be no GPU for the AI workload. Maybe some of the later AMD APUs could cut it. If not, all three major manufacturers have SFF variants that are pretty much the same hardware in a little bigger case. Those will accept smaller off the shelf GPUs.
What are the reviews on hardware offered by umbrelos guys?
I’ve had a good experience so far with two minipcs, mele quieter 4c for kodi, and a morefine m9 (I think this one is branded as mipowcat in the EU). They’re both n100, the m9 can go up to 32gb of ram although it is picky about what modules it will accept. I use the m9 for jellyfin and about 10 other services. Quick sync works great as far as I’ve tested it. For jellyfin I’m relying mostly on direct streaming, but I tried a few episodes with forcing some transcoding by using Firefox for playback and it worked fine.
what are you gonna use it for?
something that are not arm based I’m looking to set up a system that can run Jellyfin, Ollama, and a few other small services. By ‘pre-built’, I mean I want to buy a device that already has the necessary hardware and installation, so all I need to do is install the operating system and I’m good to go
Raspberry PI
I love my NUCs but haven’t really paid attention to what has happened since Intel sold that line to ASUS.
Thanks i will take a look at the NUC.
