my home server that does everything died many weeks ago so i’ve been making due with VASTLY inferior backups that literally haven’t received updates in over a decade because the manufacturers stop supported them.

i’ve rebuilt this server many times from old e-waste i had laying around and my last attempt to solicit feedback on the last rebuild yeilded some VERY useful advice so i’m hoping to lightening strikes twice.

my constraints are that i can only use hardware that i have on hand; with the exception of a motherboard since i don’t have a functional one this time around, so i plan on buying one used off of craigslist or one of the many local repair shops.

also: deepseek tells me that this hardware are the only things i have on hand that are compatible with each other (and i’m crossing my fingers in the hopes that some of them still work):

• CPU: socket LGA1200 era Intel Celeron
• RAM: 64 gigs DDR4 3200 on 2 128 pin sticks
• CASE: mini itx steel case
• POWER: ATX standard
• DRIVES: 4 SATA, 1 PATA, 2 NVME

i also have a wifi3 router/ap and a wifi4 router/ap combo boxes; these are the backups i’m currently using and they are crazy slow.

i need this build to do the same thing its predecessor did which were (ranked in order of importance):

• router (i used a pfsense virtual machine last time)
• wifi access point (i last used a wifi nic in AP mode)
• DNS adblocking (i used pfBlockerNG last time)
• live kernel patching (used ubuntu last time)
• vlan segmentation (via pfsense)
• vpn routing (via pfsense)
• jbod drives (aka no raid nor HA and permanently mounted on the host)
• backup capabilities (last used rsync initiated server side to laptops & - gmail)
• per device firewall rules (for the robot vacuum and security cameras)
• IDS & IPS (via pfsense)
• home cloud storage (last used pfsense + nfs + sshfs + ddns)
• multimedia system (last used kodi + old plasma tv)