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Question: What are some alternatives to a Raspberry Pi good for a small home server? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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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!

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[–] 9 points 5 months ago (5 children)

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.

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  • [+] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months 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.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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