Hey all,
Newb here, but I’ve watched Level1Techs for years now. If this needs reformatting or editing, please kindly inform me.
I’m a Linux power-user, if that’s the term, and am getting into homelab stuff (slowly). I work in live performance but not television - various topics and subjects, including the arts.
I’m in a situation at work where I will be the person (likely) choosing gear for our new streaming theater (as I think of it.) I learned about streaming etc during stay-at-home and it’s fantastic, we’ve streamed a lot of live performances. I have built dozens of computers, disassembled/reassembled tens of laptops, done minor electrical repair, etc. Been using Linux since 2004 (whenever Windows started ‘phoning home’, I think.)
I need to build four (or five) computers, get lighting sound and cameras, all peripherals, etc. Ignoring almost everything except one of the computers for this question; what motherboard/cpu should I get for the file-server?
I’m going to need to have a lot of storage for this, and it will grow over time - it may become the archive for an entire department, but will be for at least two sections of that department.
I know enough to want quality equipment for this - the rest of the studio can likely go up and down as actually required. As this edges into enterprise stuff, I am a bit out of my zone. Especially as I want it to all be Linux-compatible - trying to inculcate a move away from vendor lock-in.
This server doesn’t have to be cutting-edge, merely reliable, adequate, easily serviceable and replaceable/upgradeable. It will be in an office with people working and cannot be pounding out heat and noise. It will likely not be servicing more than 3-6 clients at a time although it could be a dozen. It would be sporadic demand (backups, for instance, and normal file-transfers) It would need to endure for at least 5 years before a major upgrade. It should therefore be at least a little over-specced.
In the studio theatre itself I’m hoping for 10-gig networking. To the rest of the world it will likely be limited to 1-gig.
The things I am sure I want: some sort of IPMI access or equivalent. ECC memory. Plenty of PCI-E lanes. At least 2 NVME slots. Some SATA ports for OS/VM storage. I would prefer AMD Zen5, including EPYC but am not opposed to using Intel (especially if IPMI is Intel-specific).
It will probably be built in some sort of standard PC case, and I lean toward horizontal builds - something stackable would be ideal for simple future expansion (I love the Cooler Master HAF XB, for instance and I rock it at home.) Could possible be a 4u or something though, I’m not opposed.
Could I get some suggestions of motherboard/cpu combos I could look at? If I have to lean in any direction, efficiency will win in most contexts. The budget is decent, but, again, it doesn’t need to be top-spec, merely optimal-spec and expandable/upgradeable.