[Official] serverbuilds.net CARE PACKAGE GIVEAWAY (pfSense + more) - ends 1/1/21

ENTRY

I found this guide, along with the linked CPU list, to be extremely useful when I was planning on what the next steps for my home setup were. I had been using my old desktop (i5-2500k) but was getting very invested in all of the other things I could be running on my server and was constantly running at near CPU capacity. This guide helped me make a much better, cheaper and more informed decision when I purchased some parts to make a better server.

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ENTRY

Oh this one is easy! Yes, it’s inspired by your JDM’s Mini-ATX pfSense Build thread, but I love the fact that your post directly inspired another post which inspired me. Almost exactly a year later, I have a nearly identical 1U build that is ready to go… if only USPS would deliver my dang Pentium! Other than that, same case, same motherboard, same CPU and case fans. My nic is different, but that’s because of other posts that I’ve learned from.

Next part (for me) is that this venture was driven by so many Redditors nudging me to ditch by Unifi USG for pfSense. A bit of Googling led me here, where others have the same story. Learning about pfSense has convinced me to finally get my CompTIA Network+ cert. Testing in February.

Thank you so much to all of you!

Prize? THAT KEYBOARD! But honestly, I need to be donating to this community, not the other way around. Thank you.

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ENTRY

This has been my favourite comment so far!

I’m specifically looking for a MicroATX or Mini ITX build, with as few components as possible, and as inexpensively as I can get it.
After my ASRock rack hosting my FreeNAS died today, I frantically got to searching, and stumbled across this fantastic website.

I’m hoping that within the next few days, I’ll have found what I need!

Thanks for doing this awesome giveaway / care package!

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ENTRY

I needed an upgrade to my Nas Killer 1.0-based build, and this is the build I ended up basing mine off of, albeit loosely. It was very useful, despite half the parts on his list being sold out.

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ENTRY

The venerable NK4.0 guide led me to serverbuilds and has been of tremendous help as I piece together my home server — although I’ve got to say that seeing in this thread what other users find valuable is giving me many more rabbit holes to dive down…

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ENTRY

The NAS Killer 4.0 build inspired to build my first home lab. I’ve relied on the SB discord for all my homelab related questions and I’ve always been answered by someone who has been there done that before. It is an amazing community and I hope it keeps getting better every day.

Preference: Package 1

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ENTRY

This little box is awesome, and I only regret I didn’t pick up another (or two). I’ve since upgraded it with an i5-9400T, some more RAM, and an SSD, and it’s a screaming little machine.

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Entry

This would be officially my second build on this site as my first one was the NK4 turned into a Unraid gaming PC. The BLU-NAS was my favorite so far in builds as it really challenged me this time since not all the parts fit, some parts were bad, and I actually really liked the blue case I ended up with. Looking forward to posting more photos on that and onto my next project (pfsense box). If I won my preference would be the HP 290 (Package 1) so I could get that project underway :D.

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ENTRY

I want to call out BitDeals for their killer disk deals. I had always balked at the deals with 5+ disks as I’m not quite ready to sign up for that (yet) but it was great that they also had single disk deals like this. I hope they can recover from the fire.

ENTRY

I was following JDM_WAAAT on Reddit for awhile. He turned me on to using an HP z420 for a Plex server. Did that. Now have 60+TB in the box and used this DAS guide for the future. Still running great. on 24/7 even using as a gaming computer. Time for a backup rig though. Thanks for the opportunity to take these off your hands. Here’s to a better 2021!

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Entry

I was close to spending an arm and a leg on a Synology NAS when I stumbled on a reddit post mentioning this guide. It’s lead me down a big, fun rabbit hole exploring all the guides and resources in this community. I have really enjoyed reading through things here and putting together my first server. Excited to finish the build soon and share. Thank you!

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Just wishing I’d actually come and found this site before I went and foolishly built my own rather badly.

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Entry

im going to say its this one.

i love listening to the selfhosted podcast… I built my home server with help from the subreddit and from ironicbadgers howto over on linuxserver.io several years ago.

So with this podcast, two separate folks that had a huge impact on my life and many of my close family and friends came together to spread the gospel of selfhosting and server building.

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ENTRY

Thank you for this guide. I used it to build a monster in my basement and learn a ton! Which has helped me tremendously professionally. I have referred so many people to this site and these guides it’s a huge help. Also the comment section on this post and the community is very helpful. If you want to learn how to build your own server and want to source powerful parts and don’t want to buy off the rack - this is your guide. The best part is, the hardware is just the start. Once you stand up your machine, there is so much you can do with it. I went unraid and I’m having a blast moving to the self hosted web. Thank you everyone for the help

Prize package #1 please, I would not have use for 2

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ENTRY

Honestly, there isn’t much there yet, but it was super helpful in directing me toward finding details on getting these cards up and running in Unraid. I haven’t gotten it all set up just yet, but at the very least I know it’s doable. @Juchong on the Unraid forums is making awesome headway, and hopefully, someone can create a plugin similar to the Nvidia/DVB one for the drivers.

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ENTRY

learning about DAS to cheaply and efficiently expand my local storage has been amazing. the efficient part of the equation is where it gets interesting because you can tailor things to your needs instead of throwing everything at a problem. thanks for the advice!

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Favorite thread:

10G budget networking

I wanted 10g in my house mostly between my computer and my unraid server. I did not want to pay $1000+ just for two computers connected. Additionally, I have the 10g ethernet cable ran up in the attic and I have ethernet ports installed in the wall. I liked how this switch also was capable of PoE for future PoE cameras and Ubiquiti AP. I learned that the Aruba switch did not like RJ45 10G modules. So I picked up the recommended meroik 10g switch as well.

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ENTRY

Favourite thread:

This guide was extremely helpful for me to help get my appdata onto a separate SSD, and Mthrboard has supported the thread on the forum and Discord with any questions. Now my cache is strictly for files to pass through and I have no slowdowns on any Docker containers.

Would prefer prize 1 if selected!

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ENTRY

I loved this guide as it taught me what to put in my first Unraid build. Dual xeon e5-2650 v2, 48Gb ram, and a total of 66Tb or HDDs. This guide lead me to Unraid which has been the best server OS i have ever used.

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ENTRY

Favorite thread:
NAS Killer 4.0

Honestly, I’m still a bit of a server noob, so the NAS killer guide is good for me to see what a “standard” build looks like, and to give me some ideas for my server. Although, I’m constantly bouncing between potential future projects.

Prize preference: definitely Package 1. The HP 290 would be great for transcoding - right now, my server uses an Athlon X2 245, so transcodes are unbearably slow.

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