I have never homelabbed, and this is going to be my first experience. I want to set up a home server. My current goals are to set up a gallery using Immich, an ad blocker/DNS using Pi-hole, and a cloud service.
I want you to suggest what second-hand PC or laptop I should get. I researched a bit and found out that a PC is better because of 24/7 reliability, better cooling, no risk of laptop battery swelling, easy RAM and storage expandability, and low idle power consumption.
What I think the specs should be for me is 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. And my budget is 10k INR.
I want to hear your thoughts. Thank you! :)


Which part do you want to spend the least time maintaining: photo backups, remote access, or updates? I’m designing Doomsday Box, a home-server concept, and trying to understand what should work without constant attention. Your planned setup is relevant. Would you mind giving blunt feedback on the idea? https://heyeddi.com/projects/doomsday-box