5 ms·

So.. what kind of hardware did they buy?

IshKebab 10mo ago
Yeah kind of conspicuously absent! They said > The previous server was 12 year old hardware which is pretty mad. You can buy a second hand system with tons of ram and a 16-core Ryzen for like $400. 12-year old hardware is only marginally faster than a RPi 5.
- cvwright 10mo ago
  Unfortunately you can’t even get the RAM for $400 anymore.
  - neogodless 10mo ago
    I was able to find 2 x 16GB DDR4 for $150... Building a budget AM4 system for roughly $500 would be within the realm of reason. ($150 mobo, $100 cpu, $150 RAM, that leaves $100 for storage, still likely need power and case.) https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-Premium-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-Computer/dp/B0FZTN2381 https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-Premium-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-... https://www.amazon.com/MSI-MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK-Motherboard/dp/B089CWDHFZ https://www.amazon.com/MSI-MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK-Motherboard/dp/... For a server that's replacing a 12 year old system, you don't need DDR5 and other bleeding edge hardware.
    - kiddico 10mo ago
      I don't think 32GB is going to be enough lol
      - calgoo 10mo ago
        Also, you would want ECC for something this important.
        krautsauer 10mo ago
        I seriously wonder if doing the same build twice by two people in two locations wouldn't provide the same benefit and others for less money. (I might be spoiled by sane reproducible build systems. Maybe F-droid isn't.)
- DaSHacka 10mo ago
  > 12-year old hardware is only marginally faster than a RPi 5. A Dell R620 is over 12 years old and WAY faster than a RPi 5 though... Sure, it'll be way less power efficient, but I'd definitely trust it to serve more concurrent users than a RPi.
- phantom784 10mo ago
  Plus the fact that it's been running for 5 years. Does that mean they bought 7 year old hardware back then? Or is that just when it was last restarted?
- lucb1e 10mo ago
  > 12-year old hardware is only marginally faster than a RPi 5 My 14yo laptop-used-as-server disagrees. Also keep in mind that CPU speeds barely improved between about 2012 and 2017, and 2025 is again a lull https://www.cpubenchmark.net/year-on-year.html https://www.cpubenchmark.net/year-on-year.html I'm also factoring in the ability to use battery bypass in phones I buy now because they are so powerful, I might want to use them as free noiseless server in the future. You can do a heck of a lot on phone hardware nowadays, paying next to nothing for power and no additional cost on your existing internet connection. A RPi 5 is that same ballpark

Yeah kind of conspicuously absent! They said > The previous server was 12 year old hardware which is pretty mad. You can buy a second hand system with tons of ram and a 16-core Ryzen for like $400. 12-year old hardware is only marginally faster than a RPi 5.

cvwright 10mo ago
Unfortunately you can’t even get the RAM for $400 anymore.
- neogodless 10mo ago
  I was able to find 2 x 16GB DDR4 for $150... Building a budget AM4 system for roughly $500 would be within the realm of reason. ($150 mobo, $100 cpu, $150 RAM, that leaves $100 for storage, still likely need power and case.) https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-Premium-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-Computer/dp/B0FZTN2381 https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-Premium-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-... https://www.amazon.com/MSI-MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK-Motherboard/dp/B089CWDHFZ https://www.amazon.com/MSI-MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK-Motherboard/dp/... For a server that's replacing a 12 year old system, you don't need DDR5 and other bleeding edge hardware.
  - kiddico 10mo ago
    I don't think 32GB is going to be enough lol
    - calgoo 10mo ago
      Also, you would want ECC for something this important.
      - krautsauer 10mo ago
        I seriously wonder if doing the same build twice by two people in two locations wouldn't provide the same benefit and others for less money. (I might be spoiled by sane reproducible build systems. Maybe F-droid isn't.)
DaSHacka 10mo ago
> 12-year old hardware is only marginally faster than a RPi 5. A Dell R620 is over 12 years old and WAY faster than a RPi 5 though... Sure, it'll be way less power efficient, but I'd definitely trust it to serve more concurrent users than a RPi.
phantom784 10mo ago
Plus the fact that it's been running for 5 years. Does that mean they bought 7 year old hardware back then? Or is that just when it was last restarted?
lucb1e 10mo ago
> 12-year old hardware is only marginally faster than a RPi 5 My 14yo laptop-used-as-server disagrees. Also keep in mind that CPU speeds barely improved between about 2012 and 2017, and 2025 is again a lull https://www.cpubenchmark.net/year-on-year.html https://www.cpubenchmark.net/year-on-year.html I'm also factoring in the ability to use battery bypass in phones I buy now because they are so powerful, I might want to use them as free noiseless server in the future. You can do a heck of a lot on phone hardware nowadays, paying next to nothing for power and no additional cost on your existing internet connection. A RPi 5 is that same ballpark