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The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/malachi347 on 2023-11-03 04:09:36.

TL;DR: I’m torn between adding 8GB of RAM to an already-stretched-thin i3-4360 Windows box, or taking a Dell XPS which is a rarely-used, but a very decent gaming rig and turning it into my main home server.

What started as me installing Plex server on my downstairs PC has turned into a full blown self-hosted, home automation addiction (and I love it). A few POE cameras, a custom built rack/punch panel/switch closet, a custom built pool/spa controller and a ton of sonoffs and raspberry pis later…

So anyways a while back I frankensteined that same downstairs desktop into a server I lovingly call “Forge” (everything is Westworld named). i3-4360, 8GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 960 and stuffed like a turkey on thanksgiving with HDDs (4x4GB=10.9 RAID5, a 10TB 7200rpm HDD and a couple SSDs for the OS and caching and stuff). It’s also used as a web browser for the wife and guests as well which isn’t ideal.

Now that the addiction is in full swing, I’m running just about everything under the sun on this poor thing. Blue Iris, Sonarr, Radarr, uTorrent w/ Web Server, Plex Media Server, CodeProject.AI Server, Filezilla Server, Docker Desktop for PhotoPrism, as well as functioning as a network-wide SMB/FileShare. He has a mobo that maxes out at 16GB RAM. I only have 8GB in there right now and it’s a bottleneck I can feel for sure.

I realized that I have this Dell XPS (i5-6400, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 500gb nvme, GTX 1660Ti) that isn’t getting used very much at all and I was wondering if I should just turn THIS into my home server. It’s just that it feels like I’d be making a server out of a gaming machine. But having all that RAM would be so nice. I’d probably build a NAS from the RAID5, and just put the 10GB HDD in the XPS along with the 500GB nvme) With 64GB of RAM I could actually make this thing sing. I also have this mobo I’m trying to repair, a P67A-GD80(b3) with an Intel i7-2600k with plenty of DIMM slots but I just can’t get it to POST.

Uhg. This is such a frustrating “hobby”.

FYI: I have a home office with a beast PC, my son is a gamer and has his own and I have an even better rig at my office. So it’s not like I’d be losing my ability to play PC gaming. It just feels weird to swap out. I also have access to an old HP ProLiant I could repurpose but those HDDs are a nightmare.

UPDATE: Well my hands are now black, covered with dust and it’s 1am. record scratch you might ask how I got here… haha. I actually pulled out that old mobo I mentioned and I figured out that the only thing wrong with it… was the power supply. I’m very excited because this board has 32GB max memory and an i7-2600k which runs hot but fast and reliably. I had 6 old Macs laying around and I decided it was time for some fun, so I just gutted an old Powermac G5 A1047 and I’m going to mod it to fit this old ATX board. I’ve always wanted to gut one of these beautiful (and heavy) silver boxes, and I just ripped out everything and I’m down to bare metal. I haven’t even Googled this yet but I’ve seen it done and hell - just ripping it apart was very therapudic. So my plan now is to build a new server out of these parts so I can keep my XPS running in tip top shape as a “guest” gaming rig for our LAN parties. That said - I’m going to go wash my hands and call it a night. Anyone have any links to mod’ing a Powermac G5 to an ATX layout? :-)