Asrock H97M-ITX/ac with an i3-4170. 8GB RAM, 2TB Crucial BX500 SATA SSD. GTX 750ti that refused to let HDMI work, but DVI got an image on the display. I’ve got one or two hiccups that may be related to the fact I’m on my own hardware, I’ll make a separate post for those.
EDIT: Also an old Lenovo IdeaPad P500. Plug-and-play for that one.
My node is running on bare metal Dell Optiplex MFF 3070 | i5-9thGen 6 core | 32GB DDR4 | 2TB NVMe Gen 4 | 1 GbE Ethernet. Optional SATA 2.5" SSD can be plugged in if StartOS can utilise multiple disks in the future. I synced a full node in 11-12hrs on a 100Mbps ISP connection, twice lol.
Mine is similar to the below but with RAM and SSD Upgrades.
Pro’s = relatively low cost for allot of performance. It’s not far off the Start9’s own NUC’s specs but at a quarter of the price!
Con’s = General purpose Desktop so no Hardware RAID, thus no redundancy against disk failure, unless you manually image the disk periodically.
I don’t know how many people are considering/using HP micro servers, but these were very popular in the AV community several years back as a powerful home NAS/DLNA server. Bang for buck (with upgrades) is very high. I’ve had 2 of these for over 5 years, built and upgraded to about £400 TOC each. They haven’t missed a beat in that time, just updates and reboots.
HP Microserver Gen 8 | Xeon E3-1265L V2 (CPU is an upgrade) | 16GB RAM (also upgrade) | 4 x 3.5" SATA HDD | Hardware RAID Controller | ILO (headless management) | Dual 1GbE LAN (w/VLAN) + 1 ILO LAN) | CD/DVD (which with a cable adapter can be converted to a SATA bootable SSD)
Pro’s = Small form factor, enterprise grade + ILO, quiet, can pack allot of kit all in one box (I have 2 equivalent spec running Hyper-V Core in a home lab). Lots of storage, iirc up to 6TB disks supported. The CPU is socket based so can install a Xeon if required. Has extra PCIe sockets for extra/faster RAID or other adapters. Just tested that can host StartOS as a VM without a problem.
Con’s = Old enough that supports 16GB RAM max. The Sata ports are 2 x 3Gbps + 2 x 6Gbps, + 1 x 6Gbps (CD-DVD/extra SSD). Setup requires a bit of effort especially if running Windows core server.
From what I’ve seen the CPU isn’t the limiting factor running a node the Storage is, so the Gen10 Microserver may be a better bet, it’s CPU is not upgradeable and drops ILO, but otherwise it’s a step up form the Gen8 and supports up to 32GB RAM.
My setups are 1TB SATA SSD running of the CD/DVD controller as a storage disk, partitioned for various things. 2 x 6TB HDD’s RAID 1 on the SATA 6Gbps controller with the 2 x 3Gbps slots not used yet). Same for the other one but running 2 x 4TB disks. This is a 5 year old setup.
Nowadays you can install 2 x 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD’s in 3.5" caddys, plug them in and setup RAID 1 and you are off. If you wanted more disks the options are there if the OS can utilise them.
If you want, you can install VMWare on a microSD, plug it inside the server and run a VM hypervisor. Or Hyper-V off a Bootable USB. Its a very versatile bare metal.
successfully running Start9 since OCT24
ASUS PN64 13th Gen Intel Core i5 Barebones Mini PC
Crucial 16GB Single (1x16GB) DDR5 SO-DIMM C40 4800MHz
Crucial P3 Plus PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD - 4TB
Possibly overpowered?! Enjoying very smooth operation, no hiccups to date!!
When Blossom either sideload or marketplace so we can host our own media on NOSTR?
I successfully installed start9 OS v0.3.5~1 on a:
Dell Latitude 5590. 32gb Ram. I7-8650. 1Tb SSD
Was very easy. No problems so far, other than me not doing initial setup on a different client PC which made it tricky to get the security certificate off the server later on.
If you remove the s from
https://adjective-noun.local, on machine that does not trust the certificate, it will take you to an instruction page that has a download link for your certificate.
Installed Start9 0.3.5.1 on a HP Elitedesk 800 G3 with the following specifications:
CPU: INTEL CORE I5-6500T
RAM: 16GB
STORAGE: SSD NVME 2TB
The installation took only a few minutes and then I was able to set up the Bitcoin Core to sync that took ~30h for finish.
After that I was also able to install electrs and synchronize, process that took only a few hours.
The only question I have is after installing and fully synchronizing Bitcoin Core + Electrs, is it expected to occupy approximately 875GB of disk space ?
Yes that amount of storage sounds about right for Bitcoin Core and Electrs.
Successfully installed Start9 OSv0.3.5~1 on a Thinkpad P53. Process was really straightforward. Lower resource usage and better temperatures than in my previous setup on Debian on the same laptop( on stock Debian I had to undervolt the processor to keep temps low lol). I have just noticed that when the lid is closed fans go crazy but I have seen other topics about that. I will try those solutions and edit this post if the problem is solved.
Failed to install on 2019 Macbook Pro.
How did you install it on the Mac? In VM ?
Start9 runs beautifully on the popular MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2012, MD101LL/A*, MacBookPro9,2, A1278.
I’ve used the following configuration with no issues:
2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 16 Gb 1600MHz DDR3 memory, Samsung 870 QVO 2 TB
The Lenovo X270 is on the list of capable hardware running StartOS. Yet I have tried to boot from an existing StartOS-drive as well as installing it on a different SSD on an X250 and it didn’t work (it installed, but didn’t boot). I’m struggling to understand how this is possible since the machines are so similar. Any pointers? And can I be sure it’ll work if I get a X270? Thanks!
In your case, try using the x86_64-nonfree.iso version of StartOS. It includes extra firmware that is needed when flashing DIY devices.
Also make sure to follow our documentation:
https://docs.start9.com/0.3.5.x/flashing-guides/os-x86#startos-x86-arm
Thanks, I’ll give that a try!
Should I even bother fiddling with a machine that supports 8 Gb of memory tops?
The X250 won’t boot using the x86_64-nonfree.iso as well. I’m open to the idea of this being user error but knowing how many BIOS-settings I’ve tried to make this work I find it unlikely. For now, I’ll abstain for trying to make the X250 work with StartOS.
If you’re just transferring a drive from a working StartOS, check the BIOS/UEFI settings on both, and make sure the destination matches the source. Example, if one was set to EFI, and the other to legacy, the system won’t boot.
Macs use UEFI only; I’ve tried both options multiple times with different other settings.
This is not the thread to be troubleshooting your individual issues.
My sincere apologies!
Just booted StartOS on a Lenovo X270 first go. The X250 seems to be cursed. I mourn the hours I have spent trying to get it to work but am also happy I am not the issue. I hope sharing my experience helps someone with choosing their machine.
