In title, can elaborate if needed.
Edit: thanks everyone, I ended up deciding on an m920q for the server.
Server serves a specific application(s). PC is general day to day usage.
Both are computers. Pc hardware can be used as a server. Server hardware can be used as a pc.
Using a computer for day to day tasks - call it a pc. Use it to run a web server application or host a game - that one or more users will access - call it a server
Hardware can be configured to optimise it for its function. E.g pc can have latest GPUs and “servers” can have multicore cpus and loads of ram, rack mounting form factor and dual power supplies for redundancy.
But it could also be weak - i have raspberry pi’s and old laptops set up as a servers
Thanks for the reply. This much I understand, I guess a better way to ask would be, what are the differences in “advertised”(for lack of a better word) server hardware that more effectively accomplish the task of serving?
If I were to build a server at home for media hosting, what are the areas I should focus on? I guess a good example is error correcting memory (hopefully I’m remembering that right)
Is that something that’s just going to have slightly better performance or is that crucial? And are there other examples of hardware that I should be focusing on?
Honestly depends on whats being served. As i say people can run servers on enterprise grade multi thousand £ systems or a £50 pi or mini pc.
Since you have a specific usage in mind, media server, you basically want hardware that will allow optimised performance so you can have a lag/ buffer free experience.
Say,
hardware thats good for on the fly encoding/ decoding
Lots of ram for multitasking.
Lots of storage to store the media.
Maybe gigabit network cards for multiuser streaming without bandwidth bottlenecks.
It really depends on the experience and chokepoints
ECC ram ill let someone more familiar answer but im leaning towards non critical and nice to have
Nothing you couldnt upgrade on your typical PC. Just makes life easier…at a cost.
If I understand correctly your asking about hardware sold as for “servers”. “Server” hardware features focus on scalability and redundancy. If you’re running a service that’s generating income and the powers that be therefore say it “can’t” go down then you’re starting to pay for redundant systems. Multiple hotswapable power supplies for example.
Most folks self hosting don’t really need to worry about this level of availability as they’re hosting services as a hobby or for friends at most; not paying customers with a boss demanding high availability.
Consumer grade vs business grade
You could get something that will work for a certain period of time on and off intermittent usage; that’s consumer grade.
Want something that will have power redundancy (hot swappable), ethernet redundancy, RAID storage (for redundancy and switching out bad drives), and so on… for staying powered on for 24/7/365 that would be business grade. It’s all about the uptime and reaching 5 9s or HA (high availability) .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability#Percentage_calculation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_nines
For a home server, go get a Thinkcentre tiny m710q for 80€.
Cheap, uses very low power, easy to upgrade and maintain (one nvme, one 2"5 slot, two DDR4 SODIMM 32GB max but people say it’s actually 64GB, lots of usb & video ports).
For a business, where the server/PC will run at full speed, generate heat, and eventually break down, you need beefier hardware and redundance.
You all need a backup plan of course but if you lose your home PC it’s not the same thing than losing your business…
It’s not really the hardware, it’s what you do with it. Encode lots of stuff? Don’t buy that thinkcentre for example.
Anything can be a server really, including your toaster: https://laughingsquid.com/netbsd-toaster/
But typically, servers are built with more performant and reliable hardware in mind. The kinds of servers your PC or phone talk to when checking your email or watching a video are rack mounted and basically look like a pizza box
And a rack can have dozens of these stack on top of one another, and a data center can have hundreds or thousands of racks.
But nothing is stopping you from treating your home PC as a server. The software is the same since the same kinds of chips are in both your PC and the rackmount servers (generally). Running Linux on your desktop/laptop can allow you to do normal computer stuff, AND also share files, host a personal blog, share a printer, run a bittorrent tracker, or a tor relay, or even your own email. Some of this is even possible in Windows versions that aren’t “Server”.
“Server” is a really terrible word. There’s server software, which is often referred to as just “server”. And then there’s hardware, which happens to run server software, so it also gets referred to as “server”. There’s also hardware that’s specifically built for the purpose of running server software, so even if it does not currently do so, folks would likely still refer to it as “server”.
But yeah, in principle you can run server software on your desktop PC or even your phone, and then someone might refer to that hardware as “server”.
So long as it serves something on a networking port, you can technically call it a “server”.I’d define a server as a computer that is primarily interacted with through other networked devices.
Hardware/software doesn’t have much to do with it; you can have a server do basically everything you’d need running on windows 11 if you’re a masochist.
A PC can be a server. A server can be a PC.
Famously Google use commodity PC hardware to build the v1 version of its search engine:
On a server, you usually don’t use a graphical user interface (GUI), so you just don’t install it. On the other hand, apart from the software that actually does the serving (fileserver need different software than mailservers or webservers), you’ll probably install a remote administration service.