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by adrian_b 1405 days ago
Yes, especially this PiBox is far too expensive.

At EUR 320, you can buy a NUC-like computer with an i3 or even an i5 CPU. For much less, even under $200, you can buy a computer with Jasper Lake, which is far more powerful than a Raspberry Pi.

For the cheapest possible server bought as new, a better choice would be one of the ODROID models, while the best performance per $ would be provided by an old NUC-like computer, either repurposed or bought 2nd hand.

2 comments

For a few hundred dollars you can get a second hand thinkpad, which will not only be better for the planet (reuse instead of buy new) but will also have integrated keyboard, mouse and screen for offline debugging and integrated battery for a cheap UPS.

The only price point that makes sense for these self hosting boxes is around 50$. More than that and the hardware already exists and is more than capable.

I recently got a couple Datto Altos for like $40 US a piece. They're basically whitelabeled Zotac NUCs, and they can run circles around anything Pi based.