You can buy x86 mini PCs for less now with only a minor hit to power consumption (they use slightly more power). I used to love Pis for home labbing, but I have switched to mini PCs for it.
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FoxAlive@lemmy.zip 9 hours agoI have 3 pi 4s that where maybe 45 dollars each when I bought them, last time unchecked they where 600 dollars. I thought about selling them, but completely forgotnin probably going to want to buy another one at some point, and by then they might be 400 each.
wry@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
FoxAlive@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
I have two spare 8th gen Intel PCs I saved from the garbage bin, and a old gaming desktop that I now use as the server. So if I need a spare server I’m probably going to use one of those. I can get USB to gpio so been thinking of trying trying that route more considering how often people get rid of old pcs. I have a stack of windows vista-7 era laptops I was going to take apart for scrap too which could be used.
I bought the pis a long time ago, each time a found a project for one I was sad I didn’t have one to play with and kept buying more. They aren’t really even in use now. Ones built to my work station and occasionally I boot into it and use raspberry pi imager to flash ubuntu or something on a USB. Its useful to have just ready on occasion. I have a hard time getting rid of them because of use cases like that, and in have a lot of hats/accessories for them like the ai camera. Even though I’m not really going to use them like I used to anymore.
wry@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
I love reusing old tech like this. People toss / sell at a loss a lot of stuff that has quite a bit of use left in it.
FoxAlive@lemmy.zip 5 hours ago
If you already make a recycling run to the scrap yard its worth doing. I got 120 bucks last run just off old PCs and it wasn’t even that much, you just get more when you separate it. Aluminium cases, ram, motherboard, hard drives, CPUs. The older they are often the more they are worth, and if you are into eBay selling im sure you could make a killing. I heard even DDR 3 is coming back so who knows anymore.
Only thing you shouldn’t take is TVs you have to pay to get rid of them. Maybe don’t take appliance too. some people do, for example fridges have a few valuable components but I would not reccomend it. You end up with plastics and other junk sometimes and have to pay to get a dump run.
A lot of it only makes sense if you can store a pile until it gets big enough to be worth a trip out.
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you sure they cost 600 dollars?