Hi all,

I want to spin up a small home server. Nothing crazy, maybe 4 or 8GB ram at most. 1 Docker instance running a few privacy frontends (Invidious, Redlib, Xcancel, SearxNG, etc.) and split tunneling VPN connections for each one.

Obviously, a Raspberry Pi 4 or higher is the internet’s favorite choice, but I don’t need wireless connectivity, I just need a single HDMI and 2 USB ports to get everything set up, one ethernet port, and a dream in my heart.

Has anyone use alternatives like Le Potato or Orange Pi? I’m curious what their community support is like, and if there’s a FOSS-friendly standard.

Thanks!

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    5·
    1 hour ago

    I’ve owned a few devices like Orange Pi but really more as a curiosity that I never did much with. I have, however, seen discussions suggesting that when you move away from the RasPi ecosystem, support for various tooling gets more complicated because you’re in a much smaller pool of hardware and this makes them more effort to setup. I don’t know the validity of that, but it sounded plausible to me.

    Just get a Pi. Just because you don’t need wifi doesn’t mean it won’t potentially be useful down the road.

  • SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zoneEnglish
    1·
    45 minutes ago

    I have a RPI 4b and 3 lenovos (m93p, m710q, p330).

    You can’t beat the RPI for power draw (~2w idle and ~7w under max load) but I suspect if you wanted to look at $ to utility measure you’d probably prefer the Lenovo M93P. $50 USD. Mine has i7-4785t, 16GB ddr3 (2x8iirc?) with ethernet, USB etc. Bought 2023/4. I expect base model is still that price now (mines upgraded). The only caveat is that it doesn’t have HDMI, it has display port out, but that’s just a $5 dongle or SSH issue. M73 would be a touch cheaper.

    Iirc the TDP is 35w max and can be lowered / undervolted a touch (don’t update the BIOS - it blocks throtlestop).

    I turned mine into a retro PC slash game server for the kids (luanti etc). But the siren call of doing truly impossible things with the RPI is too beguiling :)

    Eg: running diet pi (headless) with all of my services (media stack, privacy, docs, search, images etc) takes about 300 megabytes (or 650mb if I have to boot into xfce).

    300mb, 2-3w.

    That shouldn’t be possible. I love it.

    My next goal is to create an expert system / pseudo llm that sources answers based on user provided markdown or PDF, ZIM files and 4get search or Tavily.

    The advantage here is that 1) speed will be stupid fast as no neural network crap (outside of optional extra Markov chain garnish) 2) not stochastic (but allow for llm as optional “plug in module” - pi might actually run a 135M at non glacial speeds) 3) still serves openAI compat endpoint.

  • dihutenosa@piefed.socialEnglish
    5·
    7 hours ago

    Get an old Android phone, possibly with a dead screen (bootloader must be unlocked). Flash PostmarketOS on it, or (if not supported) Termux. Its idle usage (with WiFi on, screen off) may be considerably less than 1w. It’ll have considerable amounts of CPU cores and RAM, more than a cheap VPS.

  • Fedegenerate@fedinsfw.appEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    I went rpi4>n100> a couple n100s and that pi> the dxp4800, I think it’s a pentium, and those n100s. I think I’m ok here, I have networking, compute + local backup, and storage all in their own box.

  • Telodzrum@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    15 hours ago

    Used micro PC is often the best deal. Companies offload old SFF i5 and lower machines all the time. They’re all over eBay.

    • GreenShimada@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      7 hours ago

      Yeah, I was looking earlier, and sort of didn’t know what to even look for, but then everyone here made suggestions of what to look for. I’m all over this!

    • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      14 hours ago

      I used to be of the erroneous mind set that a server had to be some big honkin’, dim the lights, piece of equipment, but that’s not necessarily true now days with modern architecture. Doesn’t take a lot to get a lot back.

      • Telodzrum@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        14 hours ago

        Dude same. Back in the day I was dead set on getting older blades and a couple Dell 710 in a rack and “that’s what a real homelab is.”

        Now, I still got the rack because I think they look cool, but it’s all decommissioned workstations, a white box unRaid server, and micro/mini PCs; there’s not a single traditional server box in place.

        • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          12 hours ago

          Now, I still got the rack because I think they look cool

          I recently decommissioned one of my Dell T320s, and replaced it with the Dell Optiplex 7020 SFF with the i7-4790 and maxed out to 32 gb RAM. I paid $117 USD for the Optiplex 7020 SFF which came with 8GB RAM, and I maxed it out with three more 8 GB RAM sticks for about $75 USD.

          The Dell T320 costs ~$40/month in electrical costs in my locale to run. The Dell Optiplex 7020 SFF costs $5-8/month to run. So, less than the duration of this year, I will have recouped my initial $200 investment in the Optiplex 7020 SFF just in power consumption alone, and I’ll have ‘left over’ money if I wanted to get yet another Optiplex 7020 SFF. I have 40+ containers running on the Optiplex 7020 SFF, and it hasn’t broke a sweat yet. Far more quieter than the Dell T320 and less heat funneling into the server room.

          I’m going to sell the T320 which is also maxed out at 32 GB RAM, so I’ll have more $$ to replace the other T320. Winner winner chicken dinner.

      • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        3·
        13 hours ago

        I’m shocked with what I’ve been able to do with an old Dell SFF desktop.

        Upgraded to 48GB of ram it’s running ESXi hosting a couple Debian VMs, a DietPi VM, 3 Windows VMs, a massive data drive, idles under 20w and peaks at 80w when I’m doing video conversion.

        At this point I’m shopping for some old mini PCs to run the VMs as independent servers because their idle power is so low.

  • Monument@piefed.worldEnglish
    7·
    12 hours ago

    I just bought a Mac mini for $50 from a local university’s surplus store. I plan to use it as spare hdd space for another device (it came with a 1tb drive), but even being older, it’s still very capable.
    Perhaps a similar device could work for you?

    • GreenShimada@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      7 hours ago

      Yep, I forgot we have an older MBP that can still manage minimums for Docker. Already had redlib up on it.

    • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      11 hours ago

      We have two very prominent universities in the area. Around graduation I discreetly dumpster dive their trash bins. You’d be surprised what I’ve found. Laptops, desktops usually small form factor, monitors, you name it.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    11 hours ago

    There are companies dealing with used and refurbished hardware. There are loads of PCs around that are not bloated enough for Win11, but still make good home servers. Depending on specs and prices, buy more than one for extra RAM, a second SSD, and spare parts.

    • blargh513@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      An old laptop from about 13 years ago barely breaks a sweat running proxmox and a handful of containers and two vms.

      Waste not want not. Plus it comes with a keyboard, touchpad and monitor. Plus, built in ups. You might need to add a USB Ethernet dongle but you don’t have to.

      I bet just about anyone you know has their old laptop in a drawer somewhere. They’d probably give it to you.

  • exu@feditown.comEnglish
    49·
    19 hours ago

    Get a NUC or old laptop and install your distro of choice on it. Much less hassle than barely supported ARM boards with ancient kernels.

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    6·
    13 hours ago

    This was just posted to selfhosted, and does a great job showing what RPi is competing with.

    It’s a tool for seeing actual idle wattage draw for a lot of mini-PCs.

    Many are in the single-digit idle power - the RPi claim to fame - but have a lot more capability than Pi, plus come in useful packages.

    Just thought it would be a useful link for here.

  • Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.netEnglish
    6·
    13 hours ago

    If you don’t mind some low specs, and are focused on lowest price, a potato pi runs for about $30 IIRC, and is plenty to do small stuff like an openvpn server.

  • zergtoshi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    14 hours ago

    As others mentioned used SFF PCs, here’s my recommendation based on my own experience.

    I bought several used Dell Wyse 5070. The 5070 was announced in May 2018 and used as thin client.
    They’re tiny, silent (no fan) and you can fit a NVMe SSD via adapter (PCIe A/E key -> M key) in the WiFi card slot next to a SATA SSD. I picked the ones with Intel Celeron J4105 (Quad Core) with 1.5GHz, up to 2.5GHz burst and put 32 GB RAM in one of them (that was before prices went nuts).
    Beware, only if you pick the right dual ranked RAM modules (e.g. Patriot PSD416G26662S), you can have a max. of 2x16 GB. To start your journey, 4 or 8 GB might just be enough and don’t cost an arm and a leg.
    Now I have a PVE (Proxmox Virtual Environment) running with several virtual servers and lxc, one 5070 hosts a PBS (Proxmox Backup Server) and both devices are far from their limit. In case of hardware failure I have spare 5070s.
    Each 5070 cost around $65 and runs at around 8 watts at average. Dunno about current prices though.

    It fits my needs and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
    Maybe it fits your needs as well?

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      2·
      13 hours ago

      8 watts… That’s RPi territory but with lots more actual horsepower when needed, in a useful package.

      I love the concept of the Pi, but this stuff is so hard to compete with.

      • zergtoshi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 hours ago

        It can go higher than the 8 watts, though.
        The 8 watts are with rather low CPU load, but with 1 SATA SSD and 1 NVMe SSD.
        At full CPU load I expect it to be closer to 15 watts. With what the device is runningn high load happens rarely and not for long.