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Funnily enough my trusty Pi2 which has been running continuously for several years now stopped working last night. At first I thought it must be the SD card, as

Funnily enough my trusty Pi2 which has been running continuously for several years now stopped working last night. At first I thought it must be the SD card, as those are known to fail. Nope. So I thought it must be the Pi itself. I suppose they weren't really designed to be left on for several years? I was sure it couldn't be the power supply, but somehow it was. It will now power up a Pi1, but not a 2 or 3. I've no idea why but it's gone in the bin and the Pi2 works again on a new one. People really should consider a refurbished Dell Optiplex FX160 instead of a Pi if it's going to be in a headless server role, though. You can get one for about half the price of a new Pi4 on eBay and it comes with a proper power supply unit, high quality case, and of course an Atom CPU which I'm sure compares favourably even to the new Pi4. There was an article about them on HN a while back. Mine has been running happily for almost two years now.

snovv_crash 7y ago
Atom CPUs are core-for-core comparable to the A72 cores in the RPi4. ICP isn't really comparable since the instruction set is different, but performance is similar. The RPi has 4 of them, only the most modern Atoms have that.
- Narishma 7y ago
  'Atom' is pretty vague. There are several different micro-architectures under that name, with different performance characteristics.
- marble-drink 7y ago
  Yeah, well I don't think you'd get a 4-core Atom for the same price, so maybe not so good compared to the Pi4 then.
- asark 7y ago
  I'm not seeing USB 3 on that particular Optiplex, either. Gigabit ethernet, yes. No HDMI. DVI, VGA. Maybe displayport? Hard to tell. Do have PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, which is kinda nice.
  - marble-drink 7y ago
    No USB3. I don't think it's any good as a thin client any more, it's only good as a low power server. Before the Pi4 it was much more attractive, especially because of GigE and because the Atom chip in it is pretty good compared to the ARM in the Pi3. But after reading the replies here I'm thinking it's not as good a choice as it once was.
sciurus 7y ago
I wouldn't be sure sure that a decade old Intel ATOM CPU would compare favorably to a modern ARM CPU. Also, the optiplex would use more power, which might eventually negate the savings from buying a power supply and case for the pi. http://www.toughdev.com/content/2018/01/dell-optiplex-fx160-intel-atom-230-tiny-desktop-pc/ http://www.toughdev.com/content/2018/01/dell-optiplex-fx160-... suggests 15-20 watts.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
vardump 7y ago
I think that Dell Optiplex FX160 CPU (single core in-order narrow Atom 230 @1.6 GHz) is going to be ~10-20x slower than RPi4 (4 core out-of-order wide Cortex A72 @1.5 GHz). Much slower graphics. No USB 3, 802.11ac WiFi nor GPIO.
nwallin 7y ago
Power supplies are notoriously failure prone across all possible uses. 1. By definition, they're the device with the most current running through it, and typically generating the most heat. Switched mode power supplies have efficiencies up to around 80%, linear mode power supplies closer to 50%. They need to be cooled, but typically aren't or have insufficient cooling. 2. They're typically chock-full of electrolytic capacitors. 3. Power supplies have been engaged in a race to the bottom for decades. You're almost always getting the cheapest part from the cheapest factory. The power supply should always be the part you troubleshoot first, even if you see something else smoking. Chances are pretty good the reason the other thing is smoking is because the power supply is putting out too much voltage.
- marble-drink 7y ago
  The power supply in this case was just a wall-wart plug and I always thought they were just transformers which are too simple to fail. But thinking about it now, there must also be a rectifier in there at least. Maybe there's much more than that...
  - Moru 7y ago
    At a previous job the most exchanged part was powersupplies for routers and fiberconverters. For some shipments we had more than 50% failure.
  - NikkiA 7y ago
    Transformers often fail after a given 'long time', they are usually made out of many laminated plates glued together, and over time the glue will fail, plus they tend to vibrate at the mains frequency, which can shift things around over time and cause failure too.

snovv_crash 7y ago

Atom CPUs are core-for-core comparable to the A72 cores in the RPi4. ICP isn't really comparable since the instruction set is different, but performance is similar. The RPi has 4 of them, only the most modern Atoms have that.

Narishma 7y ago
'Atom' is pretty vague. There are several different micro-architectures under that name, with different performance characteristics.
marble-drink 7y ago
Yeah, well I don't think you'd get a 4-core Atom for the same price, so maybe not so good compared to the Pi4 then.
asark 7y ago
I'm not seeing USB 3 on that particular Optiplex, either. Gigabit ethernet, yes. No HDMI. DVI, VGA. Maybe displayport? Hard to tell. Do have PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, which is kinda nice.
- marble-drink 7y ago
  No USB3. I don't think it's any good as a thin client any more, it's only good as a low power server. Before the Pi4 it was much more attractive, especially because of GigE and because the Atom chip in it is pretty good compared to the ARM in the Pi3. But after reading the replies here I'm thinking it's not as good a choice as it once was.

sciurus 7y ago

I wouldn't be sure sure that a decade old Intel ATOM CPU would compare favorably to a modern ARM CPU. Also, the optiplex would use more power, which might eventually negate the savings from buying a power supply and case for the pi. http://www.toughdev.com/content/2018/01/dell-optiplex-fx160-intel-atom-230-tiny-desktop-pc/ http://www.toughdev.com/content/2018/01/dell-optiplex-fx160-... suggests 15-20 watts.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

vardump 7y ago

I think that Dell Optiplex FX160 CPU (single core in-order narrow Atom 230 @1.6 GHz) is going to be ~10-20x slower than RPi4 (4 core out-of-order wide Cortex A72 @1.5 GHz). Much slower graphics. No USB 3, 802.11ac WiFi nor GPIO.

nwallin 7y ago

Power supplies are notoriously failure prone across all possible uses. 1. By definition, they're the device with the most current running through it, and typically generating the most heat. Switched mode power supplies have efficiencies up to around 80%, linear mode power supplies closer to 50%. They need to be cooled, but typically aren't or have insufficient cooling. 2. They're typically chock-full of electrolytic capacitors. 3. Power supplies have been engaged in a race to the bottom for decades. You're almost always getting the cheapest part from the cheapest factory. The power supply should always be the part you troubleshoot first, even if you see something else smoking. Chances are pretty good the reason the other thing is smoking is because the power supply is putting out too much voltage.

marble-drink 7y ago
The power supply in this case was just a wall-wart plug and I always thought they were just transformers which are too simple to fail. But thinking about it now, there must also be a rectifier in there at least. Maybe there's much more than that...
- Moru 7y ago
  At a previous job the most exchanged part was powersupplies for routers and fiberconverters. For some shipments we had more than 50% failure.
- NikkiA 7y ago
  Transformers often fail after a given 'long time', they are usually made out of many laminated plates glued together, and over time the glue will fail, plus they tend to vibrate at the mains frequency, which can shift things around over time and cause failure too.