this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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So, for the last couple decades, I've been lucky enough to be a professional geek doing server support for what is essentially an MSP. Every few years when they cycle their servers, I get a free upgrade from the e-cycling pile. That's worked great, but the third utility price increase in the as many years has me looking to rightsize my home server.

I'm currently running a Dell 720 which was a VDI server in its previous life, meaning 384G of memory and 40 cores of Xeon E5-2680, but I'm only using 20G of memory running about a dozen Docker containers, including Jellyfin; my load average is less than 1. I've been using Debian on that server, but I'm comfortable in any distro.

Unfortunately, the iDRAC says this is running between 200 and 250 watts at base. The hardware is vastly overspec'ed and I'd like to lower my power usage, if possible, as I'm certain it's not going to get any cheaper as time passes.

I also need to retire an old W10 box running BlueIris and migrate to a Frigate Docker container before October, because I'm not buying a Windows 11 machine just for that.

So I need a sanity check for my plan, as I've been on the server-side so long that my knowledge of desktop technology is sorely lacking, and I suspect some people here are running the EliteDesk 800 as a server.

I want to pick up an HP EliteDesk 800 5g SFF with an i9-9500 or i7-9700, such as: https://www.amazon.com/HP-EliteDesk-800-G5-Desktop/dp/B0BZ9J54WK

I'm not beholden to buying from Amazon, it was just the first link I found at a reasonable price.

I've chosen the EliteDesk because of the AMT KVM, and the SFF to add 3 1/2 HDDs.

I have DIMMs I can borrow or buy to get it to 48 or 64 gigs.

I'm using less than a TB of local storage on the 720, as it uses expensive 10k SAS drives, so most storage is NFS from the NAS. As a result I'm looking at a 1TB NVME for local OS storage.

I plan to use a couple 4TB spinning rust SATA drives for Frigate storage in the new system.

Are any of the M.2 slots on the board compatible with the Coral M.2 accelerators for Frigate? Preferably the Dual Edge variety? I'm having a hard time finding what kind of slots they are. I know I can get a PCI-E adapter, but native is better.

Is the i5-9500 enough, or should I pay the extra $150 for the i7-9700?

Is the i5/i7 iGPU strong enough for Jellyfin or should I be looking for a discrete GPU?

Those of you running one, what does your power consumption look like?

Am I going about this completely wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help.

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[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

What do you do to protect your micro's m.2 disks? I had one that cooked itself, and I haven't put much load on it since I replaced the drive.

[–] Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it 2 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

@Passerby6497 @curbstickle I have a Minisforum hm90 that tried to cook the nvme (it triggered a smart error before actually frying, thankfully). Since the m2 slot is on the bottom near some vents, I just put the minipc on top of an AC Infinity usb fan (I forget if P12 or P14 - use whatever fits your minipc best) that blows up into the case and over the nvme.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I'll give that a look, thanks!

[–] Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

@Passerby6497 np! Any usb-powered PC fan will do, btw. I also have some Arctic fans that I like even better, but for the minipc I'm using an AC Infinity because that's what I had handy.

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