> But if I told even most of my fellow HNers that "they're cheap" and "everyone should have this" they'd think I fell on my head one too many times. :) Ssshh.

> But if I told even most of my fellow HNers that "they're cheap" and "everyone should have this" they'd think I fell on my head one too many times. :) Ssshh. If too many people find out buying fairly modern hardware on eBay is affordable and easy it will stop being so :) Seriously though, in the US there’s been a recent flood of 12th gen Dell servers hitting the market with Sandy/Ivy Bridge chips in them. Sure, it’s not gonna perform as well as newer systems, but at $200-300 with power usage that even somebody in California can stomach (a fairly well specced system can consume around 100W at idle/low load) - homelabs are fun and not outrageously expensive hobbies for those that want in.