[rcarmo]

I set up Proxmox on one of my Pi 4s (using an external SSD) and am quite happy with it. Runs four different LXC containers (one of which is a public-facing ActivityPub server for testing) and gives me zero headaches, so am currently looking for a beefier alternative that has a proper M.2 slot and at least 16GB of RAM...

I do wish that alternative boards had better OS support (especially the Rockchip ones, which tend to have weird kernel builds, etc),

[daneel_w]

The beefier alternative you're looking for is possibly the Radxa Rock5B, which has proper M.2 slot and comes in a 16GB version. Hardware support for it isn't entirely mainlined yet, but a lot of development is happening week by week. Debian runs well on it.

[sliken]

Or any of the Rockhip 3588 boards. Better CPU, better PCIe, some have dual 2.5gbe, 4, 8 or 16gb ram, etc. I got the NanoPi R6s.

Seems silly to save $25 on the slower CPU and half the ram.

[daneel_w]

The Rock5B is an RK3588 SBC, with up to 16GB RAM. Might not be the most "pimped" such.

[djhworld]

I moved from a Pi setup to a second hand Lenovo M900 tiny PC, with 24GB of RAM and nvme drive and it works great. The power efficiency is obviously not as good as the Pi but it's a reasonable trade off

[flyinghamster]

Tiny PCs are a good option, too - especially ones based on mobile processors. I just built up a barebone Asus PN50 (Ryzen 7 4700U equipped) and I'm quite impressed at what this little box can do. The 4700U is kind of weird - it has SMT disabled, so it kind of slots between the usual Ryzen 5s and 7s. No matter though - builds on it are quite fast. But it's still x86...

[lostlogin]

It’s a bit of a sledgehammer approach, but a Nuc with Proxmox is pretty excellent. You can even use 10gbe via thunderbolt (or the pci slot on the larger Nucs).

[doublepg23]

This is the way. An x86 NUC/Mini PC/Thin client smokes the ARM SBC market.

[sliken]

Dunno, got some numbers to back that up?

So far I'm pretty impressed with my Rk3588 board, 8gb ram, and dual 2.5gbe.

It's a bit more than half as fast as my quad core/8 thread xeon desktop, but that's abotu where I'd expect one of the cheaper x86 NUC/Mini PC/Thin clients to land.

[radiator]

Are there any boxes without a graphics card or at least with a primitive one? So that they would be more economical in case you only need them for the role of a server?

[TheCoelacanth]

None of them have a dedicated GPU, just a low-powered one built into the CPU. Using a CPU without an integrated GPU would only shave a few dollars off the cost, so I don't that is a common choice.

[lostlogin]

The weird extreme range (not really Nucs in my view) have a pci slot, seemingly for a large graphics card. They’ll take an SFP card though, and that’s a excellent, though probably the most expensive mini server one could buy.

[Saris]

Pretty much all of the small boxes just use the iGPU.

[lostlogin]

And that iGPU is great for a Plex server for transcoding, especially if it has QuickSync for hardware acceleration.

[lostlogin]

All the small Nucs just use an iGPU. Boxes like the Nuc 8 have a bit of a cult following as the iGPU is surprisingly powerful. It’s probably beaten by newer models now. The newer ones have lots of cores, and when fully loaded with memory make a handy little box for VMs.

[pella]

> has a proper M.2 slot and at least 16GB of RAM...

Orange Pi 5 16GB RK3588S (8 Core 64 Bit, 2.4GHz Frequency), PCIE Module External WiFi+BT,SSD Gigabit Ethernet Single Board Computer,Run Android Debian OS (M.2 PCIe2.0!)

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/OPI-5/1553371_4000000...

( via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33739176 )

Review:

"""

"Orange Pi 5 Review – Powerful, No WiFi" https://jamesachambers.com/orange-pi-5-review/

Pros:

- 4 GB and 8 GB RAM variants cost under $100

- M.2 slot supports high speed NVMe storage

- RAM options from 4 GB all the way up to 32 GB available

Cons

- No WiFi or Bluetooth included (requires either adapter for the M.2 slot or a USB adapter to get WiFi/Bluetooth capabilities)

- No eMMC option

- PCIe speeds are limited to 500MB/s (PCIe 2.0, benchmarks show closer to 250MB/s write or PCIe 1.0 performance) — this is slower than SATA3

"""

[kryptocannon]

Is there an official Proxmox build for the Raspberry Pi or are you using a third party?

[geerlingguy]

Most likely Pimox

[rcarmo]

Yep, Pimox.