Jeff Geerling did a blog post[0] and video (series) on this very thing a while ago that goes into some of the hardware and costs. Whilst the costs can be negligible, it looks like a hella lot of fun!
> It's slightly more cost-effective and usually more power-efficient to build or buy a small NUC ("Next Unit of Computing") machine that has more raw CPU performance, more RAM, a fast SSD, and more expansion capabilities.
But is building some VMs to simulate a cluster on an NUC fun?
I would say, "No." Well, not as much as building a cluster of Raspberry Pis!
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You don’t build a RPi cluster for speed or cost or efficiency. You do it because it’s fun. And that’s okay.
> It's slightly more cost-effective and usually more power-efficient to build or buy a small NUC ("Next Unit of Computing") machine that has more raw CPU performance, more RAM, a fast SSD, and more expansion capabilities.
But is building some VMs to simulate a cluster on an NUC fun?
I would say, "No." Well, not as much as building a cluster of Raspberry Pis!
---
You don’t build a RPi cluster for speed or cost or efficiency. You do it because it’s fun. And that’s okay.