Hi, I wanted to start selfhosting and I’d like to have your opinion on something that I’m struggling to decide.

I don’t plan to tinker too much with my system, I’ve been a Linux tinkerer myself some time ago but now I’d like to setup something that’s really bulletproof and then leave it running (ofc I know I’ll have to do a bit of bugfixing now and then), not replacing hardware ideally for >= 10 years.

This is why I’m planning to use TrueNAS, and that’s why I’m planning to buy a UGREEN DXP2800: has two 3,5" HDD bays (4TB should be enough for me for the next 8-10 years, so I’ll have two 4TB disks in RAID1 or mirror or whatever is recommended). Only problem I have with this machine is that it only has 1 RAM slot, and I guess 8 GB isn’t enough if I use zfs. So I’ll have to upgrade to either 16 or 32 GB. Now I did my research and from my understanding 16GB seems to be enough, but it would be such a waste having to replace the whole RAM if it turns out it isn’t enough.

For reference, I don’t plan on having more than 7-8 services running: Immich, Nextcloud+office, firefly, audiobookshelf, paperless and a maybe few more if they’re useful. I value responsiveness but it’s ok if some things take longer to process (thinking immich ML, or stuff like transcoding)

I’m very interested to know your opinion:

  • is the dxp2800 a good choice?
  • should I go with 16 or 32 GB RAM?

And a little extra

  • how much ssd space do you recommend for high speed data? is 500gb enough?

Thank you so much!

  • bordam@feddit.itOPEnglish
    1·
    2 hours ago

    Hmm, you might be right, but if you’re talking about piracy then no, it’s ok if I don’t have much space for it. I know the piracy community is awesome and I don’t have anything against who decides to pirate, but it’s just not for me, thanks for the warning nevertheless!

    About the ZFS waste: yes, it’s definitely a waste, but I’m going to store there critical data I don’t want to lose (mainly pictures and documents). I can’t spend too much right now because I’m still a student and 4 bay systems cost at least 200 more for the same specs, while a more open, custom build has other implications that would be more difficult to control (noise, space, power consumption, heat). I know I’m kind of locking myself in this system, though, but I really think 4TB will be enough, my calculation is this: all the pics+vids I have are <40GB rn. All important files I store are <60GB. That totals 100 GB. Let’s say I collect that many GBs every year (strong assumption): I won’t fill 4 TB in 10 years. If my GF wants to use Immich, maybe she’ll store more pictures, but I doubt it will be more than 100GB/years. But let’s be pessimistic: she uploads 200GB/year. Then it would still take more than 10 years for me & my gf to fill 4TB.

    And in case I desperately need more space I can always use both drives and have more backups in the cloud. Or I can buy a DAS and connect it to the ugreen.

    Really appreciate your input anyway, it’s precious to me :) Let me know if you think I’m making mistakes !!