Good news selfhosted crowd! I pitched the idea of setting up a server, and she is down with the idea!
I want to run Linux and host things like Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf, Navidrome, maybe Plex (I currently host it off my Mac desktop but would move it to a dedicated server).
I know you can host Plex et al on something like a Raspberry Pi, but I want a bit more power. I want something that can push at least 2-3 4K streams.
I’m considering targeting 12th gen i5 with 16GB DDR4. Maybe 32GB if I can swing it. Is that overkill? I know you want 8th gen Intel for hardware transcoding of either x265/HEVC or AV1 (probably the former as the latter is newer).
There are other projects I’d like to run. I’d like to be able to host my own LLM/AI but I’m not trying to go performance overkill here. This would be my first server.
I am somewhat comfortable using the command line, and I would be remoting into the server via my Macs (I have a desktop and a MacBook). However, Linux can run Windows games via Proton and that’s something I’m interested in for some older titles that aren’t on Xbox (like Deus Ex, which came out in 2000 and should run on integrated graphics). I’m not inexperienced with Linux and have been using it off and on (mostly off unfortunately) for over 30 years. My go-to would be Ubuntu, but I’ve heard great things about KDE lately and I know the Internet is in love with Mint these days. Would the distro really matter all that much as long as I have the required services?
Thanks. The more I see, the more I realise I should just leave the AI stuff out. AI and gaming were outlier possibilities anyway, though I’m way more interested in gaming than AI. Right there with you on AI ethics. I don’t like seeing them steal art and rip off artists, but they can be good at tracking down solutions on various forums. At least, they do it faster. But it sounds like running one might be outside my budget, so I’m more interested in running services, and light/classic gaming, since I have an Xbox (Series X).
I’m running a simple COMAI instance on my desktop that recommends linux commands and does limited chat. it was easy. It spins the processor up to 50% to give a response and takes a couple of seconds depending on complexity. I run the other stuff on a dedicated server, but with nginx proxy manager, I can send the COMAI instance to a page on my domain even though it is on a different computer on my LAN.