4 ms·

You’re paying a premium to get old macs instead of old NUCs. Best value is a NUC or SFF/thin client from Dell, HP or Lenovo.

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
NUCs I can see, but are thin clients good value for anything but low-power always-on workloads? I would naively expect them to be cheap but have weak CPUs and insufficient memory for running anything that uses significant compute (either fewer large things, which is painfully common, or many smaller services).
- Tsiklon 4y ago
  Given the level of compute power in a thin client now a days, are they much different from a NUC? What my work (financial services) calls a thin client is really just a super small form factor PC.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
    Ah, perhaps I'm out of date then; when I say thin client I'm still thinking of the old Wyse box in my junk box with a Celeron, but that thing is ancient so maybe technology has advanced enough to blur the lines?
    - fragmede 4y ago
      If your alternative is an unavailable raspberry pi, a Wyse with a Celeron for $30 is comparable.
      - doubled112 4y ago
        Not only comparable right now, but a great deal in comparison.
      - eropple 4y ago
        There exists a small army of SBCs not named "Raspberry Pi" worth considering over them for many use cases.
        metadat 4y ago
        The off-brand options usually have serious compatibility issues compared to x86.
        eropple 4y ago
        This does not match my experience unless you buy them day-and-date of release from a manufacturer who's slow to upstream system definitions. In my house I've got Rock64s, Orange Pi 3 LTSes, and just got an Orange Pi 5 (which stretches the definition of "SBC" in a lot of ways), along with a couple RPi3's and RPi4's. All have excellent Armbian support and, once you have Armbian installed, it's a bog-standard system. They're also smaller, use less power, and tend to be less noisy. You trade off PCIe for most of them, granted, but more and more stuff is just "and I need a USB host over here" and for that they're excellent.
    - gymbeaux 4y ago
      I wouldn’t go all the way down to “thin-client” like the Wyse stuff. NUCs and SFF/micro PCs are the next step up and usually have i3/i5/i7 CPUs… but depending on your needs, a thin-client isn’t out of the question.
metadat 4y ago
Any links to decent examples of these for $100 or less? A hundred bucks for a complete working system that can run x86 and docker seems like a bargain.
- exitb 4y ago
  Dell Wyse 5060 sells for ~$50 and is a decent machine. But there’s lots of others, this is a good resource: https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hware/hardware.shtml https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hware/hardware.shtml
- rr808 4y ago
  https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-wyse-5070-thin-client-4gb-32gb-3 https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-wyse-5070-thin-client... . Probably worth paying more for better specs https://computers.woot.com/offers/lenovo-m710q-tiny-i5-ssd-desktop-10 https://computers.woot.com/offers/lenovo-m710q-tiny-i5-ssd-d...

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago

NUCs I can see, but are thin clients good value for anything but low-power always-on workloads? I would naively expect them to be cheap but have weak CPUs and insufficient memory for running anything that uses significant compute (either fewer large things, which is painfully common, or many smaller services).

Tsiklon 4y ago
Given the level of compute power in a thin client now a days, are they much different from a NUC? What my work (financial services) calls a thin client is really just a super small form factor PC.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  Ah, perhaps I'm out of date then; when I say thin client I'm still thinking of the old Wyse box in my junk box with a Celeron, but that thing is ancient so maybe technology has advanced enough to blur the lines?
  - fragmede 4y ago
    If your alternative is an unavailable raspberry pi, a Wyse with a Celeron for $30 is comparable.
    - doubled112 4y ago
      Not only comparable right now, but a great deal in comparison.
    - eropple 4y ago
      There exists a small army of SBCs not named "Raspberry Pi" worth considering over them for many use cases.
      - metadat 4y ago
        The off-brand options usually have serious compatibility issues compared to x86.
        eropple 4y ago
        This does not match my experience unless you buy them day-and-date of release from a manufacturer who's slow to upstream system definitions. In my house I've got Rock64s, Orange Pi 3 LTSes, and just got an Orange Pi 5 (which stretches the definition of "SBC" in a lot of ways), along with a couple RPi3's and RPi4's. All have excellent Armbian support and, once you have Armbian installed, it's a bog-standard system. They're also smaller, use less power, and tend to be less noisy. You trade off PCIe for most of them, granted, but more and more stuff is just "and I need a USB host over here" and for that they're excellent.
  - gymbeaux 4y ago
    I wouldn’t go all the way down to “thin-client” like the Wyse stuff. NUCs and SFF/micro PCs are the next step up and usually have i3/i5/i7 CPUs… but depending on your needs, a thin-client isn’t out of the question.

metadat 4y ago

Any links to decent examples of these for $100 or less? A hundred bucks for a complete working system that can run x86 and docker seems like a bargain.

exitb 4y ago
Dell Wyse 5060 sells for ~$50 and is a decent machine. But there’s lots of others, this is a good resource: https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hware/hardware.shtml https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hware/hardware.shtml
rr808 4y ago
https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-wyse-5070-thin-client-4gb-32gb-3 https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-wyse-5070-thin-client... . Probably worth paying more for better specs https://computers.woot.com/offers/lenovo-m710q-tiny-i5-ssd-desktop-10 https://computers.woot.com/offers/lenovo-m710q-tiny-i5-ssd-d...