[moondev]

One Intel NUC supports 2x32GB SoDIMM. So 64GB per host. Each host also needs storage networking space and power.

If part of your motivation is the act of physical clustering then you can't beat those as nodes.

If you want cores with your RAM with more performance and less hassle, a modern Mobo with 8 dimm slots for 256GB RAM running vms across is faster cheaper and way more versatile.

How much RAM do you need? More than 256GB a host is basically the max for consumer hardware

[harrymit907]

I am looking at more than 2TB of RAM which will grow as more data is ingested. More cores is not a requirement for me. Right now I manage this using cheap dedicated servers and cluster them. But I spend close to 1.5k USD per month on this, so figured building this would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

[magixx]

I could be totally off, but would it be possible to use fast storage such as multiple m.2 SSDs on an addin card like the Apex Storage X21/HighPoint SSD7540/ASRock Blazing Quad M.2 Card? If latency is of high priority these options might still be lacking compared to RAM.