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I got a 2018 laptop that I want to use as my first homelab. Which parts to upgrade? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by Sleezebag@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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I was given a Dell G5 5587 from 2018 with an i5 8300H. Screen is broken, but I guess that doesn't matter. There are:

2 ram slots
1 SATA
1 m.2
3 usb 3.1@5gbps
1 gigabit Ethernet port
1 Thunderbolt 3 @40gbps

I want to use it as a server for backups, file server, host a homepage, run git to sync logseq, if possible use it as a mediaserver, spin up VMS to learn sysadmin stuff, learn to deploy code, try out different operating systems like plan9, freebsd, nixos.

I'm thinking that there are probably some storage solutions that let me connect a bunch of hdds to the Thunderbolt connector. So is that what I should do? Any suggestions appreciated!

I also got my old desktop, i7 920, 24GB ram, but I'm worried about power draw. Better to use the laptop?

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[–] Sleezebag@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wow, thanks for the amazing reply!

and wow! I did not expect to have to shell out 400-500 before disks. So I think I'll go along with your suggestion. I'm located in the nordics, so stuff is more expensive, and things are not as available. In the 200-300 range, I mostly find 6th gen intel gaming rigs. I did find a ryzen 3900x rig for 400, that comes with a gpu and 6 sata slots. So I think that would be better value than an external 5 bay enclosure.

I just thought I could drop 100-200usd and have a nice setup, but I guess I didn't know the cost of stuff. Thanks for steering me in the right direction!

[–] MentalDV8@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I think over in the EU you're going to find that the stuff I buy on the low end on Amazon and eBay here in the States is likely even more money for you. That Ryzen 3900x if you can get it pretty cheap will do everything you need to do and so much more. And you'll save money over an external bay which is the big cost hog in this whole mess.

And if it has a decent GPU you could use that for transcoding in Plex and jelly then if that's an interest and you could also make good use of those SATA slots.