In preparation for building ANBU, before forking out for what would start out as a budget build, I took a lot of different factors into consideration. In order to justify spending on new hardware, the biggest question I found myself asking is, ‘What are the possible uses for a home server?’ Not only did this help me decide whether or not I really needed to have one, but also what I could add to it in future to really get my money’s worth out of a modest home server.
- A central location for storing media.
- Streaming media to other devices, either on your home network or over the internet, eg via Plex.
- Performing and managing your downloads in one place.
- A file and/or print server.
- A web server for hosting your own websites, blogs and forums.
- A development server for developing your own scripts and applications.
- Backup management and storage.
- An Email/Exchange server.
- A private gaming server, eg Minecraft.
- Folding @Home.
- Running virtual machines.
- Old game emulators.
- A Calibre ebook server.
- An iTunes music server.
- Running your own cloud server.
So far most on this list are things I’d like to add in future once I’ve upgraded to a slightly beefier spec, but for now the server handles all of our downloads, streaming media, home computer backups and a little Tekkit Minecraft server. We stream via Plex which allows us to enjoy our media either when at home, or when out and about over the internet.
What about you? Is there anything else you currently use your home server for? Is there anything else you’d like to see it do for you in future? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know!
I like some of the suggestions here. I’ve been looking at others and their home servers for a while now and really would like to join all of you in the fun. Is there any particular spec you’d recommend for starting out with a basic file server? Thank you for your time.
Jason
I’m glad you liked the suggestions, Jason. To answer your question, a basic file server won’t require much power to work well. If you have any old PCs or hardware lying around from the last few years you could probably re-purpose it very easily. My own little box is running a 2.4GHz dual core with 4GB DDR3 RAM – definitely nothing special and it runs WHS 2011 v smoothly, serves our media around the house to all of our PCs and other devices without any problems. If it helps, I can put together a post with a few recommended spec to see how it goes?
If you need anything else, just let me know. 🙂
Folding @home used to be worthwhile even on old hardware until maybe the last year or so when it’s really not worth the effort unless you’re sporting at least a quad core and some powerful GPU. At least, the same has always been true of bitcoin.
Yeah I agree, I’ve read similar things about Folding and Bitcoin. It’s not something I’ve ever thought of turning my own home server to performing due to spec, but I know there are still lots of people who enjoy it and lately have been making extra pocket money with Bitcoin.
Not bad suggestions, especially for those starting out with this stuff. I looked at your build log and see that your home server is pretty basic running WHS 2011. Have you considered upgrading to 2012 at all?
Thanks, I’m glad you found the suggestions helpful. You’re right, my own box is pretty basic. It was initially intended to only be a basic file server, but then I started throwing some other tasks in its direction and it didn’t cough or splutter and so I’ve been happy with the performance so far. I DO have a copy of Server 2012, but I’ve been saving it for when I hopefully up the spec on the server a little more. There are things on this list I’d love to start on Server 2012 (including utilising strorage pools), but I’m going to hold off and upgrade the processor to at least an i3.:)