3 ms·
It's probably been mentioned before, but if you want something that is: * A fair bit more grunty than a Pi * Fairly power efficient * x86 * More of a standa
by kn100 4y ago
It's probably been mentioned before, but if you want something that is:
* A fair bit more grunty than a Pi
* Fairly power efficient
* x86
* More of a standard computer
You should consider picking up what Servethehome has coined the TinyMiniMicro nodes. They're the kind of computers you typically find strapped to the back of a monitor in a doctors office and usually are fairly power efficient machines. I, for example, have a Lenovo m710q - which has an Intel 6500t (a quad core CPU), 16gb of ram, and a 512GB SSD, which I paid around 200USD for, that is significantly easier to manage than a Pi (since it's 'just' a computer) and sucks back around 10w of power at idle (which is roughly triple a Single Pi 4) - but still in the realm of negligible. It actually replaced a Pi 4 for my self hosted home stuff, and it was a fantastic choice that I do not regret.
Lots of this type of computer are available in all sorts of configurations, and the more 'standard' nature of the machine opens up a lot of possibilities the Pi either makes more difficult, or impossible. For example, my node hosts a bunch of services for me, but it also acts as a Steam In Home Streaming machine that I have connected to my living room television, which allows me to stream games from my desktop to the TV fairly effortlessly.
- alexchantavy 4y agoHow about things like old Macbooks?
- kn100 4y agoWhy not! I'm not particularly familiar with Macbooks personally, but If it can run what you need it to run, then it's an absolutely fine use for one! I'd consider removing the battery and running without it for safety reasons, but I'm not certain if you can do that with Macbooks - and besides, a laptop with a battery installed could be considered a home server with a UPS :P The only more specific advice I have is to stick to stuff 7th Generation or newer on the Intel side if you plan on a media center use case, since 7th Gen intel stuff is when they introduced x265 hardware accelerated decoding/encoding into the GPU found on those CPUs, which is a great help. I love repurposing EOL hardware for this kind of use case, since it's imo a better solution than buying yet more electronics, and it also saves something from the e-waste trash heap.