How I turned a Gaming Mini-PC into my first dwelling server

Every few months, I begin a brand new undertaking and go deep down a brand new rabbit gap, as a result of I haven’t got sufficient of them within the first place.

The final couple of days, I in all probability spent manner too many hours getting a house server up and operating, and configuring it the best way I like. It was a undertaking I wished to do for a very long time however at all times struggled to begin since the entire thing felt like a mountain to climb. I additionally had no freaking clue the place to start.

But because of a good friend who visited final weekend, we managed to put in a GUI-less model of Ubuntu on my “old” AYANEO AM02 for this. After some setup and loads of explanations by mentioned good friend (like so much, sorry Jakob), I proceeded to put in a bunch of self-hosted apps. Now every little thing runs easily sufficient that I can fake I do know what I’m doing.

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The Hardware

I’ve reviewed the AYANEO AM02 beforehand, however again then solely checked out it from a gaming standpoint.

This small factor additionally makes for an amazing dwelling server. The model I personal got here with 32 GB of inner reminiscence, 1 TB of storage, and has two Ethernet ports, one with speeds as much as 2.5 Gbps. It runs an AMD 7840U, which is much from the very best chip for such a setup, because it’s too highly effective (and thus power-hungry) to simply run a bunch of internet apps. Other folks use Raspberry Pis for this.

But I already owned it, so that is the best way I went. Also, that energy will come in useful, however extra about that later.

And extra importantly, the mini PC was unused. It initially served as a machine for Bazzite, however since upgrading my PC, I related a 10-meter lively HDMI cable instantly from my PC to the TV, making the AM02 pointless.

So I repurposed the AM02 into this dwelling server, naming it Hebe.

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Currently, it is dwelling in my mini server rack (sure, I’ve a server rack), related on to my router, which itself is related by way of a swap to a number of RJ45 plugs unfold all through my condo.

(I would like some upgrades for the server rack as a result of proper now it’s a cable catastrophe.)

It runs principally silently, and if the graphs in Glance are to be believed, it barely makes use of any energy.

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Currently, I’m operating the machine as is, however I plan to attach some kind of enclosure to the USB4 port so I can connect a number of exterior arduous drives and develop the storage that manner.

The objective is to remodel this right into a NAS-like system down the road, mainly having many terabytes of storage accessible on my units because of the facility of the cloud™. Then I’ll begin excited about backups. (As of now, I run precisely 0 backups. Don’t @ me.)

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The System

As talked about, we used the newest secure model of Ubuntu (on the time of writing, it was 25.10) with out a GUI. This means the PC is simply usable by way of the command line, which formally makes me a hacker and a protagonist in Mr. Robot.

I primarily use the house server by connecting to it from my Mac by way of Tailscale and SSH. I used to be beforehand unaware of Tailscale, however this would possibly simply be the good app ever.

In essence, it makes all of your units assume they’re on the identical Wi-Fi, irrespective of the place you’re. Even if you happen to’re not at dwelling, or not even on the identical continent, you may have entry to all of your units.

Tailscale is such an amazing device that I’m planning to put in it on my gaming PC and see if I can use it to remodel the PC into my very own little GeForce NOW machine utilizing Sunshine and Moonlight.

With Tailscale, I ought to have the ability to stream video games from the PC to any of my handhelds, even after I’m not dwelling. I’m happening a visit to France in a number of weeks and will certainly take a look at this setup.

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One extra nerdy factor: I arrange Hebe as an exit node, so I’m internet hosting my very own VPN device. Whenever I hook up with public Wi-Fi and my paranoia kicks in, I simply click on one button, and growth, protected browsing.

I’d even use the Mullvad integration down the road, however the level of this setup is to have fewer month-to-month subscriptions, no more.

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The Apps

All the net apps I’m operating are put in by Docker. Docker was a type of instruments I had heard of typically however by no means obtained round to utilizing. It enables you to run apps in little, simply installable containers so that they don’t mess with one another. docker compose is my new greatest good friend.

As for instruments, right here’s what I’ve put in:

• Immich: Before putting in Immich, my photographs had been cut up between Apple Photos (primarily snapshots and screenshots) and Lightroom. Now, all the pictures I really deem good dwell in Immich.
• Pi-Hole: An advert blocker that lives earlier than the browser.
• Glance: A customizable dashboard that I set as my browser begin web page.
• Calibre-Web-Automated: A greater model of the net e-book library administration factor.
• Caddy: This permits me to create domains for the totally different apps.
• OpenWebUI: While I feel AI is a bane to creativity, it may be a boon to productiveness. This lets me mess around with totally different fashions with out creating accounts for each platform. I join OpenWebUI to OpenRouter.

I run all providers by a reverse proxy (because of Caddy), which implies I don’t want to recollect IP addresses and port numbers. Instead, I’ve a bunch of domains which are solely reachable if you happen to’re a part of my tailnet (that is what Tailscale calls its community thingy). So I sort one thing.instance.com and find yourself on the net app as an alternative of typing 123.456.789:8080.

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There are extra issues I’d like to put in later, some simply to fiddle with, others as a result of they appear genuinely helpful, for instance romM.

This would possibly even turn into its personal information since romM is a ROM supervisor that integrates instantly with Android, Playnite, and muOS, which inserts properly with all my handheld critiques on overkill.

Right now, I principally use Hebe to host my picture library, block adverts, and fake I’m operating my very own knowledge middle. (And feeling typically like a hacker. Never underestimate the enjoyable you may have doing stuff like this.)

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What’s Next

The objective of this complete factor was twofold: do one thing cool as a result of I can, and begin changing a few of my numerous ongoing subscriptions with self-hosted alternate options.

For instance, I’m presently icloudpd, a device that downloads all the pictures in your iCloud library after which both retains a duplicate or deletes them off iCloud. That manner, I might downgrade my paid storage from 2 TB to 200 GB.

But there’s yet one more factor I need to do:

Playing round with this setup has woke up my interior nerd, and I need to discover Linux far more. The final time I mained a Linux model was over 15 years in the past, after I fried my Windows set up and was so fed up that I ran openSUSE and Linux Mint for a number of months. Then I purchased a Mac and by no means regarded again.

But between taking part in round on the Steam Deck, putting in Bazzite on a bunch of units, and now this undertaking, my curiosity in Linux has solely grown. Add to that the truth that macOS Tahoe appears to be like horrible, and Windows is simply good as a gaming platform, attempting Linux would possibly really be a viable choice. Especially since about 80% of my work occurs in a browser.

So, as I’m penning this, I’m downloading some Linux-distros to the mini PC and plan to make use of the untapped energy of the 7840U (for the reason that internet apps I’m operating barely tickle Hebe) to run a digital machine I can hook up with after I’m on the go.

As talked about, my major work machine is a MacE book Pro operating Apple Silicon, so whereas I might use Asahi Linux, this technique looks like the perfect of each worlds. When I would like one thing that doesn’t run on Linux, I can swap to macOS, and after I need to really feel like Elliot Alderson, I simply remotely hook up with Hebe.

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So 2025 would possibly simply be my 12 months of Linux on the Desktop.
Or at the very least the 12 months of pretending I do know what I’m doing.

And if all of it breaks tomorrow, at the very least I’ll have a narrative.