this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025

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building a single home pc (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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i posted this on linux instance, ill copy it to here too.

Hi, so I want to building a pc for a home server (?) or NAS. I dont really know whats the most appropriate term but what I intend to build is a one pc for my household. currently my requirement is one work 'pc' capable of heavy 3d modeling one light work pc. two 4k gaming tvs. (they most likely wont be used at the same time)

my knowledge of technical stuff is bretty basic so please be patient with me.

before, i used my steam deck to stream my work pc using parsec but i thought i just want to jump all in on linux and using vm to use more niche 3d softwares.

my budget is flexible as long as i dont need to use enterprise hardware. also i heard nvidia is not good for linux so i'd like to confirm if that is still the case as im thinking of using 5090 if not, i hope amd releases an equivalent capable card or if any according my quick research suggest.

as for linux, the only distro (?) i ever used is the steam deck one and i love it. im not a programmer or even remotely capable one so i'd like to avoid anything that has to be manually typing commands at terminal but im open to surface level tinkering.

thank you for your time

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[–] towerful 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Proxmox is a great place to start. It has a nice web ui, it's easy to install, and has loads of useful features for running VMs.
You can easily run windows or whatever Linux VMs you want.

Before spending big money on a beefy server that may or may-not do what you want, I'd suggest buying a cheap NUC (intel N100 nucs are cheap, and have an iGPU).
Then you can follow one of the many tutorials out there about Proxmox, Windows and GPU pass through.
Once you have a windows VM working, you can play around with remote desktop stuff, and see if it is responsive/suitable - things like Apache Guacamole or Rust Desk can make for a very nice end user experience with a bit of extra upfront config.

If remote desktop stuff isn't working for you, you could try buying some used Crestron NVX from eBay. Can't remember the exact model, but they are about £160.
They have very little latency, but they will saturate 1gbe so need a home-run to the same switch (or 10gbps+ trunk links between switches).

Once all that is feeling good, think about other services you want and get them running on the (starting to get overloaded) n100 nuc.

When you have everything feeling good, then you can invest in a beefy machine with all the bells and whistles.
Considering the n100 is for learning, with the idea of rebuilding the entire server: document what you do!
There will be lots of trial and error along the way, and you will mess things up. So make sure you take lots of notes about what you do to configure things, and take snapshots of VMs before you start tinkering with them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

thats quite the information, thank you for the share i'll start looking at those

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

you can use steam app on a tv device like android tv or nvidia shield or a laptop to stream your pc even if it's not a game. Unless you want to be able to stream and use your pc at the same time or stream to multiple clients at the same time. Multiple vms or containers with gpu is tricky, pcie passthrough is possible, but you will need multiple gpus.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

thank you for your input. I have tried streaming before, It not not exactly feel how i liked it, ill have to look at pcie passtrough though

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

You really need a wired connection if you're going to do anything remotely.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You're looking at a server but correct me if I'm wrong but there is a difference in graphics cards that you would use for heavy 3d modeling and gaming so you'd have to choose which is the most important of the two.

That said I feel as though this is why people generally have a gaming PC and then say a PC which is used for home entertainment.

I personally have a NAS on my network, just basic with 2TB of storage which is used by home devices to backup important stuff and host media, a media PC for the main TV, a gaming PC and then my work laptop.

Of course some sort of all in one system which can do it all and is running VM's for separate functions sounds awesome but that would surely be very expensive. On top of this have you ever heard the fans which come on servers? Good luck finding somewhere to put a server in your house which is going to stay cool enough that it doesn't overheat and somewhere where the noise isn't an issue.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

that does make sense, thank you for your input i'll try to figure what exactly i needed and put everything into consideration

[–] CameronDev 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Nvidia is fine on Linux, as long as you stick to the official binary drivers.

If your work PC currently works, maybe get something similar?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

my pc currently works fine, i used it to stream my work stuff on my steam deck in my office and gaming or resume work at home. but after a year sometimes the issue just outweighs the convenience so i moved my pc to my office and currently im in market for a new one and while at it might just as well try to do something that i've been dreaming about

[–] CameronDev 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you had a PC at your workplace, that you were remoting into it from home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

no problem. i apologize for not mentioning it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I'm a bit confused. You start out by saying your want to build a server and then you talk about 3D software and a beefy graphics card. Those kinds of things are usually done on desktops / workstation PCs. Which is it?

Do you want one big computer and then run a few VMs on it, which you access through the LAN?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

its basically a pc that i can access in different part of my home. after googling they said its a server or a nas so i dont really know what the exact term for it.

having one big pc and access with a vm and going through the lan also works

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Doing anything graphics intensive, like 3D modelling, tends to be really really janky and slow over a network. It's not like streaming video where a bit of latency or jitter is acceptable - with 3D work you need an instant response when you try to manipulate an object. Rethink this whole approach because even if you get it work, it'll be disappointing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

i see, for my main workstation i'll just use it directly like a normal pc. for other is it possible to use long hdmi cable for display and some kind of stuff to extend and connect the peripherals

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Ah ok, yep that sounds interesting.

The term for this is "multiseat". That's where you have one computer with N monitors and N keyboards and N mice plugged into it. Try typing "linux multiseat" into your search engine / chatgpt and see where that goes.

This isn't a common thing to do so it probably won't be easy. Also games and GPU-intensive apps might not play nice with multiseat...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

thank you for your input, thats def the kind im looking for I'll def look into it further.

[–] randombullet 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You could just RDP into the VM. That way you're not sending additional data other than just the RFP session.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

i see, thank you for the info. ill look into it