[devonhk]

> I wish someone would just tell me exactly what to buy.

I’ll bite. You can save a lot of money by buying used hardware. I recommend looking for old Dell OptiPlex towers on Facebook Marketplace or from local used computer stores. Lenovo ThinkCentres (e.g., m700 tiny) are also a great option if you prefer something with a smaller form factor.

I’d recommend disregarding advice from non-technical folks recommending brand new, expensive hardware, because it’s usually overkill.

[SchemaLoad]

I spent so long trying to make Raspberry Pis work but they just kind of suck and everything is harder on them. I only just discovered that there are an infinite supply of these micro desktops second hand from offices/government. I was able to pick up a 9th gen intel with 16gb ram for less than the cost of a Pi 5, and it's massively more powerful.

[devonhk]

Yeah, they’re amazing value. I paid $125 CAD for a 4th gen i7 with 16GB of RAM about 5 years ago. It’s been running almost 24/7 ever since with no issues.

[SchemaLoad]

You also don't have to deal with the usual annoyance of second hand gear like facebook marketplace and no delivery. These companies / governments have contracts with reseller companies who will buy the entire stock and sell them online just like buying new.

[jacobthesnakob]

Pi’s are incredible little basic home servers but they can’t handle transcoding. Great option for places with very expensive electricity too.

[SchemaLoad]

I just found their proprietary hardware and being ARM too limiting. I wanted to set up full disk encryption to set up nextcloud on, and found that on the pi this is an incredibly complex process. While on an x86 PC it's just a checkbox on install.

And then you can only use distros which have a raspberry pi specific build. Generic ARM ones won't work.

[jacobthesnakob]

Yeah the complaints are fair. I stick to RPi OS for maximum compatibility. People have been crying for a Google Drive client for Linux for over a decade, but still have to set it up in rclone.

I build out my server in Docker and I’ve been surprised that every image I’ve ever wanted to download has an ARM image.

[drnick1]

Way too expensive for their moderate performance. All serious self-hosters (not Youtube home-labbers) use x86 machines, often retired desktop/gaming rigs or used datacenter hardware.

[jacobthesnakob]

What is a “serious self hoster”? How many Docker containers do I need to be running on my Pi 5 to get into the club?

[lucb1e]

What's the power consumption on those?

I'm not familiar with Dell product names specifically but 'tower' sounds like it'll sit there burning 200W idle. Old laptops (sliding out the battery) is what I've been opting for, which use barely anything more than the router it sits next to. Especially if you just want to serve static files as GP seems to be looking for, an old smartphone will be enough but there you can't remove the battery (since it won't run off of just the charger)

[notesinthefield]

Old optiplex’es sff or not idled between 15w and 30w. Id aim for sff’s specifically. I have run an ftp server for lab iso’s on a very old android phone - not fun.

[notesinthefield]

I forgot all about these after I stopped doing desktop support, thanks!