I’m thinking of picking up an old HP Microserver (gen8) and was wondering if it is a bad idea from a security standpoint.
I mean it’s only 10 years old - is there any exploit or something like that?
What about a N36L Microserver?
I’d probably run Debian headless on it.
I’d only use it for Syncthing and as a backup NAS.
UPDATE
Everybody made really good arguments against the microserver and I won’t be getting one. Thank you for your inputs
What would you get nowadays looking at that 5 year mark?
Uh, that really depends on the use-case.
I like to follow the recommendations of the German PC magazine c’t: https://www.heise.de/ratgeber/Bauvorschlag-fuer-einen-sparsamen-Heimserver-aus-c-t-3-2024-9587594.html
Other than that: An Intel NUC, one of those cheap chinese Mini-PCs from Amazon where you get 16GB of RAM, a fairly recent processor generation and 512GB SSD for like $250 or my advice: get a refurbished laptop for $250. That’s energy efficient by design and has everything on board. And available in abundance.
Downsides of these approaches: You don’t get a lot of SATA ports for harddisks, if at all… So for storage, I wouldn’t consider those. So it’s gonna be an old PC, Server or NAS. Comparing mainboards and energy efficiency isn’t easy. That’s why I rely on PC magazines. But that’s for new stuff… Not used components. So tipps from the internet are probably your best bet.
If you’re not from a country where electricity is that expensive, you might want to have a look at some of those refurbished PC shops. An server or a Dell Workstation from 5 years ago should be affordable.