The Server v3

In September 2025, I switched to the n150 based Aoostar R1. It went unavailable in that form less than a month after I purchased it. Let's compare the specs of all 3 servers to date.

CPU Memory Storage OS
RPi 4 Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.8GHz 4Gb DDR4-3200 64 Gb SD Card DietPi
GK-41 Celeron J4125 8Gb DDR4 M.2 2280 128GB SATA SSD Debian 10 -> 11 -> 12
Aoostar R1 Intel N150 16Gb DDR4 512 Gb NVME, 2x8TB spinners in RAID mirror TrueNAS Scale 25.04 (Debian 10 based!?)

And here's what it looks like:


The less little server that could


Server 2: Deb-oogaloo

Then, I upgraded. The RPi4, while a fine machine, lacked encode hardware, meaning I had to transcode every media file to be directly streamable. Obviously, I needed some serious, big iron compute power. Enter the Celeron J4125 based MinisForum GK41. Much better performance in the same power foot print, twice the RAM, and SATA built in. I ran 8 - 10 services depending on the day, including Plex and AudioBookShelf, with no issues. The most annoying part? Plex logs filling the hard drive. Here's the neofetch from not long before I migrated to Server V3:
Encoding level 9000
The little server that could

Server 1: The Dawn of Server-ing

Specifically, that box in the bottom right hand corner. It's a 4Gb Raspberry Pi 4 in a case with touch screen and a disconnected camera. I actually don't remember if I disconnected it, so I've since also thrown black tape over it. Here's a list of parts:

• Raspberry Pi 4 Gb

•SmartPi Touch 2

•Pi Foundation 7" Touchscreen

•Power Supply


Here's the stripped down neofetch:

Source file 

root@debian 
----------- 
OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) x86_64 
Host: GK41 
Kernel: 5.10.0-25-amd64 
Uptime: 316 days, 3 hours, 2 mins 
Packages: 1472 (dpkg) 
Shell: bash 5.2.15 
Terminal: run-parts 
CPU: Intel Celeron J4125 (4) @ 2.700GHz 
GPU: Intel GeminiLake [UHD Graphics 600] 
Memory: 2895MiB / 7766MiB

The Services