Cheap Windows server setup

[marktrumpet]

Recently I picked up a refurbished Windows 10 desktop for $70: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07798GCN7

Installed Logitech Media Server, Squeezelite-X, ASIO, plug in USB to my SMSL dac, and boom a great sounding streamer.

Anyone else done something similar?

 

[sweetchaos]

Did you format it yourself?
No way in hell I’m trusting a pre-installed Windows install.

Otherwise, great bargain.

 

[Chazz6]

I use MinimServer on a PC and BubbleUPnP on an Android tablet.

 

[Blumlein 88]

That is a 10 year old system. Cannot be upgraded to Win 11 or 12 (when it comes out in a year or so). Yeah, refurbed it can still do plenty for peanuts. Linux is a bit more bother for streamer use, but might be a good choice. Probably has a place for a 2nd hard drive. You could stick a cheap 500 gb SSD with linux on it and dual boot to try it out.

 

[Count Arthur]

I bought a little used Intel 6500T Mini PC a while back.

You really don't need the latest and greatest for just music.

 

[nsfgp]

Nice. Sure you can install W11 on it if you want. I have even older machine running W11 for years. Just need to bypass the couple things Win11 wants your bios to have for upgrade checks. But keeping it on W10 for now is fine.

I just pulled out an old idle 5th gen airport time capsule and hook it up as NAS(CIFS) for LMS(pCP) running on my pi2B. Perfect for that 2TB drive inside just for music NAS as it is noiseless. Will swap in a 6TB drive when the needs arise.
Love the Squeezelite/MaterialSkin/LMS eco system. Have SLX running on multiple PC too myself. (Btw WDM-KS output works better for me w/ SLX.)

 

[Graham849]

MeLE Quieter2Q fanless mini PCequipped with Intel Celeron J4125 (2GHz to 2.7GHz) Quad Core Processor, 2133 MHz, 8 gig LPDDR4 RAM, 256 gig premium on board eMMC storage, pre-installed 64-bit Windows 11 Pro, upgraded with 512 gig drive d.​

Very happy purchase. See archimago blog review. Running jriver and jremote on tablet and phone.

 

[pseudoid]

Recently I picked up a refurbished Windows 10 desktop for $70: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07798GCN7
Installed Logitech Media Server, Squeezelite-X, ASIO, plug in USB to my SMSL dac, and boom a great sounding streamer.

So, it really is not a "Windows Server" and it also is not a "Media Server" either.
And the "great sounding streamer" may all depend on what/how the $70-refurb is really doing in the chain.
And based-on your description, that is a long (4 or 5) digital-chain and the only audio is the output of the SMSL DAC.
Just tryin' to qualify.

 

[BillG]

Anyone else done something similar?

Yes, my server is a Dell Optiplex 990 MT (i7 2600/16 GB RAM /Nvidia 950 GTX) that was built in 2011. I paid ~$90USD for ~7 years ago and have been using it ever since with no issues.

I run two multimedia server applications on it currently, and simultaneously, and the CPU utilization rarely exceeds 15%

1. Emby - primarily for movies, although I do access it remotely via Symfonium for music; more on that in a moment.

2. Logitech Media Server - which I use to drive six network players of various types of here at home.

The machine is running a mesh VPN for remote access (Tailscale, to be exact) and is very secure as a result.

Regarding Emby, Symfonium and remote access, as it stands currently, the combination is more economical on my mobile data plan since it streams native content. This then has device-side DSP applied to it for IEM Correction EQ. The tradeoff is a tiny bit of battery life.

I can remotely access LMS as well with Correction EQ. However, its current server-side DSP implementation requires it to use a 24/44.1 FLAC stream, and that uses up a mobile data allocation in short order.

By the way, I've put in a request with the LMS SqueezeDSP developer to implement server-side DSP for low bandwidth mode streaming. He's given it serious thought and has tentatively agreed to do it. When that happens, I'll be using LMS exclusively for music streaming both remote and local.

 

[usern]

The machine is running a mesh VPN for remote access (Tailscale, to be exact) and is very secure as a result.

How many nodes do you have in the mesh? How does VPN make a device secure?

 

[somebodyelse]

Daphile on a used thin client for a cheap, silent media server/player. Most expensive bit in this build was the NVMe SSD, but that'll depend on the choice of thin client and storage. More details in another thread:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...cs-options-for-raspberry-pi.19259/post-693763

 

[jcarys]

I didn't buy anything new, just resourced an old laptop that I was no longer using as a Windows source. As noted above, I did eventually update it to Win11 - it's prettier.

My usual source is Tidal via USB to Topping E50 and L50 and then on to Denon AVR. Or if playing Atmos, then HDMI out directly to the AVR. I almost never playback CD or DVD on this system, but it's there if I ever need it as a backup.

 

[BillG]

How many nodes do you have in the mesh? How does VPN make a device secure?

At the moment, three: 1x PC, and 2x Android mobiles. However, I could have as many as 100 on Tailscale's free tier.

Tailscale offers public IP addresses that aren't the actual physical ones for the nodes, thus obfuscating them from the greater Internet, 2FA, and end-to-end encryption with public and private keys. It's also peer-to-peer with nodes connecting directly to each other.

Beyond that, my server is firewalled to reject any and all incoming connections except for those from my LAN and VPN addresses. Even if someone had the physical IP of my server, to an external port scanner everything is closed.

Could I still be hacked? In theory if someone, somehow got into my LAN and spoofed my addresses, they could try. However, without my passwords and encryption keys they're not getting very far. The private encryption keys are stored on-device as well, thus further obfuscating the process.

 

[Prana Ferox]

So, it really is not a "Windows Server" and it also is not a "Media Server" either.
And the "great sounding streamer" may all depend on what/how the $70-refurb is really doing in the chain.
And based-on your description, that is a long (4 or 5) digital-chain and the only audio is the output of the SMSL DAC.
Just tryin' to qualify.

Technically it's the media server and the client on the same box, that runs Windows... and it should be bit-perfect to the DAC, given a few other details.

I agree that that the linked Lenovo is too old and inefficient to bother with if you don't already own it, though. I wouldn't recommend paying money today for anything older than Skylake (6th gen Intel) or with a spinning HDD, it will fail over time and use a lot of power till it does. Ideally you don't want a 10-year old full-ATX PSU either.

LMS / Squeezelite have the hardware requirements of a pocket calculator. A Raspberry Pi will do this, although putting one together with case and PSU for $70 is still difficult. I picked up some Wyse 3040 thin clients (mine were $25 each) that are good for this, fanless and low power, thin clients are good for this, but older units can be quirky. Lower-end Amazon / AliExpress mini-PCs (I like the Beelinks) are around the ~100-130$ mark, at beginning of service life, and their hardware is total overkill for this app.

 

[BillG]

So, it really is not a "Windows Server" and it also is not a "Media Server" either.

His setup is quite similar to my own: a Windows 10 Pro machine running LMS, and its Local Player and Material Skin plug-ins. It's also connected to an integrated amplifier via Toslink and another via WiFi.

When I'm act my desk actually using the machine for general computing and listening to music via LMS, it's acting as the server, client, control point and local player. If I happen to be using LMS to access an external source, the machine is then acting as a client to a remote server, a server since it's going to process the stream itself with its DSP engine and retrieve any relavent metadata, a control point and local player.

The machine's most frequent uses are when I'm not at my desk, though. Then it's acting as a server via WiFi to my client control points and network players.

I wouldn't call my machine a Windows server simply because it runs Windows as a host OS. I'm not actually using any of the operating systems native server functionality such network drives and file sharing.

However, I think it was easy for everyone else to surmise what the OP was referring to when their setup was clarified - A Windows hosted Logitech Media Server that's also used as a network and local player dependent upon the circumstances.

 

[TonyJZX]

where i am 4th gen desktops start from $50

what is most saught after is USFF units... ie. units powered off laptop chargers

BUT some of you may find the optical drive useful?

maybe $75-$100 for 6th gen

price goes up hard after 7th gen due to Win 11 OOTB compatibility but I feel this isnt that important if you're after a single task box... I dont think the 2025 deadline for Win10 matters too much

also all these ex corp boxes have free Win10 certs inside so.

I would go with a USFF... many have M2 Nvme as a boot drive AND sata 2.5 as a 2nd drive.,.. say you buy a 2tb nvme booter and 2tb sata you have a lot of room for internal storage before you get a usb drive.

Video card inside could even work well as a video output device.


btw. one of the ironies is that for some folks and some places, this kind of reuse of a 6th gen pc is cheaper and easier than a PI... and with vastly more power

 

[pseudoid]

@TonyJZX, Does Intel NUCs qualilfy for your definition of USFF?
USB3 as GFX/video out is clever.

 

[widemediaphotography]

I'm going to do something like that:
I am making 2.0 version of my network streamer, the first one is based on Volumio and Raspberry Pi4B with DIGI+ pro board.

The second one is based on MELE Quieter HD3 Q fanless mini pc, powered by linear low noise audio grade PU, with an integrated SMSL DO300 DAC, 12.6" touch display and a "insane" 200mm NOCTUA internal fan (but really zero noise )

Even if there is x86 version of Volumio that works well on Raspberry, I would like to replicate all the features of Volumio using FREE software for Windows 11 platform (already installed on mini PC)

I had hypothesized to use Hysolid in KIOSK mode, but it has the drawback that the app only works for iphones or very old versions of Android (max 6.0 or earlier). Hysolid I tried it and it sounds good too. So in your opinion what would be the set of software to use considering that you necessarily need control via an Androi / IOS smartphone?
What do you think of the KIOSK mode?

 

[kemmler3D]

I use a Lenovo mini-PC with W10 sort of like a streamer, although I actually just use it for EQ and feed my Nvidia Shield into it via my TV. Spotify for streaming and Jellyfin for lazy GUI-friendly streaming of owned content from the other PC.

 

[pseudoid]

I use a Lenovo mini-PC with W10 sort of like a streamer, although I actually just use it for EQ and feed my Nvidia Shield into it via my TV. Spotify for streaming and Jellyfin for lazy GUI-friendly streaming of owned content from the other PC.

if someone - other than us - were to read what you stated; they would most likely pop a few fuses... yet - to most of us - it makes perfect sense...