Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
In this video, I set out to build a low-power home server using an i5-7500 and a $45 eBay motherboard. My goal was to cut down on the high electricity costs from my older Xeon DDR3 server, which idled at 120–140 watts and peaked around 220 watts.
The plan was simple:
🔧 Install i5-7500 with DDR4 RAM (64GB Crucial Pro)
🔧 Use a budget-friendly MATX case for better airflow and cable management
🔧 Keep wattage under 120W while running multiple hard drives
…but things didn’t go as planned. After hours of troubleshooting — swapping CPUs, RAM, the system just kept rebooting endlessly. My guess: faulty board or corrupted BIOS.
In the end, I returned the eBay board and swapped in a Gigabyte Z690 with an i3-12100F (and later my i5-12600K). It finally worked, showing all drives, SSDs, and 64GB of RAM in BIOS, ready for a TrueNAS to be installed.
If you enjoy PC/server builds, thrift tech finds, and hardware restoration — hit like 👍, comment 💬, and subscribe 🔔 for more builds and repairs!
#ServerBuild #HomeLab #PCRepair #TrueNAS #budgetbuild
In this video, I set out to build a low-power home server using an i5-7500 and a $45 eBay motherboard. My goal was to cut down on the high electricity costs from my older Xeon DDR3 server, which idled at 120–140 watts and peaked around 220 watts.
The plan was simple:
🔧 Install i5-7500 with DDR4 RAM (64GB Crucial Pro)
🔧 Use a budget-friendly MATX case for better airflow and cable management
🔧 Keep wattage under 120W while running multiple hard drives
…but things didn’t go as planned. After hours of troubleshooting — swapping CPUs, RAM, the system just kept rebooting endlessly. My guess: faulty board or corrupted BIOS.
In the end, I returned the eBay board and swapped in a Gigabyte Z690 with an i3-12100F (and later my i5-12600K). It finally worked, showing all drives, SSDs, and 64GB of RAM in BIOS, ready for a TrueNAS to be installed.
If you enjoy PC/server builds, thrift tech finds, and hardware restoration — hit like 👍, comment 💬, and subscribe 🔔 for more builds and repairs!
#ServerBuild #HomeLab #PCRepair #TrueNAS #budgetbuild
