Raspberry Pi 5 Home Server

Honami Pi 5, “Honami” for Mochizuki Honami (望月もちづき穂波ほなみ) from Project SEKAI

Before using Raspberry Pi

• I used to use Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ since Mid 2021, it did fine running Discord Bots. Others detail I forgot, its too long.
• Since Mid 2022, I start using Microsoft Azure B2s (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM) as my personal VM for Discord Bots and some web application that need backend. For the price of $12.86/month (Inc. VAT) (fyi: I gave my Pi 3 A+ to my friend)
• Once my Azure for Students expired (1 Year later), to prevent my bill from skyrocket, I moved to Contabo VPS (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM) for the price of around €8-9/month which later reduced to €4.5/month from Black Friday production
• After using Contabo for half a year. One day, Contabo physical SSD failed and cause my VM to be down. Being unsatisfied of speed and SLA of Contabo, I decided to buy a Raspberry Pi 5.

Is Raspberry Pi 5 cheaper than Contabo VPS?

At first glance, yes! At second glance, no after I bought too much accessories 💀.

But major advantage of Raspberry Pi 5 is that I can use it as a home server, because it’s in your home!

My Setup

• Raspberry Pi 5 8GB RAM
• SSD 250GB (WD Black SN770 via PCIe 3.0 x1)

What I use Raspberry Pi 5 for?

Running Docker Container

As of writing this updated blog, there are 31 Docker Containers running

Hosting Website with Cloudflare Tunnel

No need to worry about not having public IP address, Cloudflare Tunnel can be used and it is much simpler than configuring nginx.

Visit Uptime Kuma page of this Raspberry Pi 5 at https://kuma.leomotors.me/status/honamipi5

Home Project

• leomotors/home-env - Moving to On-Premise is a huge advantage for this project as ESP32 no longer need to send request to other country for metrics and all data is within home’s local network

Backup and GitOps

• leomotors/honami-backup - Backup files to Blob Storage
• (Private Repo) - Defining Docker Compose with version and all tokens and api keys
• leomotors/honami-gitops - My custom GitOps

Plex and Jellyfin

Plex is there for compatibility with cheap chinese TV that is not Android TV

VPN (WireGuard)

Of course I don’t expose Jellyfin or Postgres to internet

Raspberry Pi 5 (Updated) Guide

Useful stuff you need to know if you are planning to buy Raspberry Pi 5

• Don’t install GUI, cause you are going to use it as Home Server. Also Raspbian GUI is cursed.
• Even though Raspbian OS is cursed, it is the only OS that you can update Bootloader from inside.
• Buy Official PSU, it is mandatory for USB Boot or NVMe SSD. Regular PD charger won’t work as most PD charger only support up to 3A at 5V but Pi 5 needs 5.1V 5A
• WLAN Country Config is buggy in Ubuntu Server, avoid connecting to 5GHz network, for best network performance, use LAN cable, it is fast, low latency and more reliable
• You need to change netplan renderer to NetworkManager, See: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/change-netplan-renderer-from-networkd-to-networkmanager. Otherwise it might not be able to connect to ethernet even you plugged in the LAN cable.
• Buy Micro HDMI to HDMI cable, you might will need it

Common Mistakes

• Be aware of what you plugged in to USB port, your Pi 5 maybe trying to boot from your keyboard 💀

Costs

In Use Parts

• Raspberry Pi 5 8GB RAM - 3550 THB
• Raspberry Pi 5 27W PSU - 510 THB
• SSD M.2 PCIe 4.0 WD BLACK SN770 250GB - 1108 THB (Used Code 9ARM)
• Pironman 5 NVMe M.2 SSD PCIe Mini PC Case (Has RGB) - 2918 THB
• (Cable) HDMI to HDMI Cable - 125 THB

Retired Parts

• Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler - 216 THB
• SSD SATA WD BLUE SA510 250GB - 1190 THB
• UGREEN USB 3.0 HDD Enclosure - 390 THB
• Geekworm X1001 PCIe to M.2 Key-M NVMe SSD - 652 THB
• Geekworm P579 Metal Case - 399 THB
• Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVME PCIE Case - 1555 THB
• (Cable) Micro-HDMI to HDMI Cable - 122 THB

Total Active Parts: 8211 THB
Total Retired Parts: 4524 THB
Total Money Spent: 12735 THB

Note 1: Cytron has 3% Cashback which is not included here
Note 2: LAN Cable, Electric Bill is not included here

Case Review

Coming soon

Naked Pi 5 on a quick start guide paper

3D Printed Case (Bottom Only)

Full 3D Printed Case

very hot

Naked Pi 5 with Geekworm SSD Hat

Pi 5 with Geekworm SSD Hat and Geekworm Metal Case

very hot

Pi 5 with Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVME PCIE Case

currently no more

Pironman 5 NVMe M.2 SSD PCIe Mini PC Case

bought will write review soon