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I spent so long trying to make Raspberry Pis work but they just kind of suck and everything is harder on them. I only just discovered that there are an infinite

I spent so long trying to make Raspberry Pis work but they just kind of suck and everything is harder on them. I only just discovered that there are an infinite supply of these micro desktops second hand from offices/government. I was able to pick up a 9th gen intel with 16gb ram for less than the cost of a Pi 5, and it's massively more powerful.

jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
Pi’s are incredible little basic home servers but they can’t handle transcoding. Great option for places with very expensive electricity too.
- SchemaLoad 9mo ago
  I just found their proprietary hardware and being ARM too limiting. I wanted to set up full disk encryption to set up nextcloud on, and found that on the pi this is an incredibly complex process. While on an x86 PC it's just a checkbox on install. And then you can only use distros which have a raspberry pi specific build. Generic ARM ones won't work.
  - jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
    Yeah the complaints are fair. I stick to RPi OS for maximum compatibility. People have been crying for a Google Drive client for Linux for over a decade, but still have to set it up in rclone. I build out my server in Docker and I’ve been surprised that every image I’ve ever wanted to download has an ARM image.
- drnick1 9mo ago
  Way too expensive for their moderate performance. All serious self-hosters (not Youtube home-labbers) use x86 machines, often retired desktop/gaming rigs or used datacenter hardware.
  - jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
    What is a “serious self hoster”? How many Docker containers do I need to be running on my Pi 5 to get into the club?
devonhk 9mo ago
Yeah, they’re amazing value. I paid $125 CAD for a 4th gen i7 with 16GB of RAM about 5 years ago. It’s been running almost 24/7 ever since with no issues.
- SchemaLoad 9mo ago
  You also don't have to deal with the usual annoyance of second hand gear like facebook marketplace and no delivery. These companies / governments have contracts with reseller companies who will buy the entire stock and sell them online just like buying new.

jacobthesnakob 9mo ago

Pi’s are incredible little basic home servers but they can’t handle transcoding. Great option for places with very expensive electricity too.

SchemaLoad 9mo ago
I just found their proprietary hardware and being ARM too limiting. I wanted to set up full disk encryption to set up nextcloud on, and found that on the pi this is an incredibly complex process. While on an x86 PC it's just a checkbox on install. And then you can only use distros which have a raspberry pi specific build. Generic ARM ones won't work.
- jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
  Yeah the complaints are fair. I stick to RPi OS for maximum compatibility. People have been crying for a Google Drive client for Linux for over a decade, but still have to set it up in rclone. I build out my server in Docker and I’ve been surprised that every image I’ve ever wanted to download has an ARM image.
drnick1 9mo ago
Way too expensive for their moderate performance. All serious self-hosters (not Youtube home-labbers) use x86 machines, often retired desktop/gaming rigs or used datacenter hardware.
- jacobthesnakob 9mo ago
  What is a “serious self hoster”? How many Docker containers do I need to be running on my Pi 5 to get into the club?

devonhk 9mo ago

Yeah, they’re amazing value. I paid $125 CAD for a 4th gen i7 with 16GB of RAM about 5 years ago. It’s been running almost 24/7 ever since with no issues.

SchemaLoad 9mo ago
You also don't have to deal with the usual annoyance of second hand gear like facebook marketplace and no delivery. These companies / governments have contracts with reseller companies who will buy the entire stock and sell them online just like buying new.