good alternatives to raspberry pi which are cheap and efficient?

Submitted ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨KDE@monyet.cc⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

Hello , dear lemmy users , I am starting to really like self-host because they are really fast and mostly i use open source stuff (like lemmy /photon etc) which were sometimes slow but after self hosting it now on the pc i am on using , i really like it

Now , I would like to host some stuff like jellyfin , navindrome , photon , adgaurd home and just leave it running on a device in maybe near future (i can convince my brother to pay for it , after he gets his job maybe)

TLDR : I wanted to ask What’s your favourite alternative to raspberry pi for simple self hosting or maybe possible near home automation

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bbbbb@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Compact business desktops like others have mentioned are great. Depending on your needs, I also like using older or used laptops. They’re still power efficient if you get a recent processor model, people sell them for fairly cheap used, and sometimes having an attached keyboard and display is more convenient than having to hook up a crash cart

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- Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Plus it's got a built-in UPS
  
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  - dan@upvote.au ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’ll become a spicy UPS if you leave the power plugged in all the time though.
    
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- Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Are they cheap though? Like $200 for one Thinkpad versus five raspberry pis.
  
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  - sillyhatsonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I can’t remember the last time I saw a Raspberry Pi for $40, the demand still has prices sky-high
    
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gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Go on eBay and look for “tiny” or USFF boxes. Dell, HP, and Lenovo make various models of 1L units that are commonly available. Just make sure to do some research on what the specific hardware capabilities are to make sure they satisfy your needs.

Source: my router is a Lenovo m920q with an eBay dual SFP+ 10G NIC running pfSense 2.7.

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- lettruthout@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Will second this idea. I’ve had good luck running low-use Samba servers on a Lenovo tiny model.
  
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  - seaQueue@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thin clients are also solidly good as container hosts. I’ve used HP T630s and Wyse 5070s in place of RPis during the great pi shortage with good results.
    
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  - ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’ve had good luck running more intensive loads on more recent models of these systems, say 3 to 5 gens old … multiple desktop OSes running concurrently on Proxmox, etc. The “1 liter” class of PCs is really quite capable these days!
    
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- peregus@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  my router is a Lenovo m920q tiny
  
  With which CPU? How much does it consumes?
  
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  - gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    i5 8500T. I don’t recall exactly what the power draw is, but iirc it’s in the 20-30w range - admittedly a bit high, but that’s likely due to the old LSI nic in there which is technically an enterprise-grade card, and not terribly power efficient. Nonetheless, works great, full 10G speed, no thermal issues in the last few months I’ve been running it (in the summer, so I should be totally fine in the winter).
    
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- dan@upvote.au ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  my router is a Lenovo m920q tiny with an eBay dual SFP+ 10G NIC running pfSense 2.7.
  
  Can you get 10Gbps NAT throughput through it? That’s the main reason I’m not running my own pfSense/opnSense router.
  
  I’ve currently got a TP-Link ER8411 which was affordable ($350) and can reach 10Gbps, but it doesn’t have an IPv6 firewall (what???) so I can’t actually enable IPv6.
  
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  - gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    So the big gain you’ll likely see is bang/capability for the money. If you’re careful and wait for a deal, can usually find 1L boxes for like $50-75. Get a cheap m2 ssd (and back up your confs regularly if you’re not running raid z2). The nic is going to be anywhere from about 30-70, but you’ll need to do your research on exactly what capabilities the thing you’re buying has (for example: I had a false start initially, because the RJ45 10G nic I found couldn’t negotiate at 2.5G (what I’m running now), and it’s actually pretty hard to find a 2.5G enterprise nic. Make sure the nic is intel, too - none of that Realtek crap, which is less performant and often has stupid driver crap you have to deal with under Linux and BSD (pfSense). You may want to spend a few extra bucks and get the Lenovo external pcie mount plate/bracket for aesthetics/“don’t stick your fingies in here”, and you will need an adapter for Lenovo’s proprietary PCIe-but-not-a-standard-PCIe-port thing.
    
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- zampson@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah Lenovo tinies ares great I have a bunch of m910q’s I use for everything
  
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DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
A used NUC blows a raspi out of the water performance-wise, and they use surprisingly little power when not under load. I run proxmox with a NAS, pihole and homeassistant on a NUC from 2015, and it draws around 9W.

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rjc@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Thin clients off eBay. I picked up a Dell Wyse with 8gb memory, 4 cores, 16g emmc, and a 256G M.2 SSD for about $40. Includes the case, power supply, power button, etc. Still uses very little power. Install the x86_74 version of dietPi on that and it’s been Rock solid running my docker projects.

Also picked up and HP T620 with similar specs. Haven’t started using it yet but I expect similar results.

Much better deal than RPi and for most use cases equal or better able to do the job.

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- ChiefSinner@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve got a t620, and am using it as a firewall. It has aes-ni so I can generate certs. Plus it has a pcie slot, so I threw a nic in there. Its powerful for around the same price as a raspberry pi is going these days. I think I got it for about $80 plus $10 or $15 for the nic.
  
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- peregus@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  I picked up a Dell Wyse with 8gb memory, 4 cores, 16g emmc, and a 256G M.2 SSD for about $40
  
  Wow, that was a very good deal! I’ve just had a look and for those specs 100€ are not enough here in Europe. For that price I’ve bought some Fujitsu Futro that are not even near those specs (2/4GB RAM, 8GB SSD).
  
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  - rjc@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Does lol like the prices have gone up a tad, but I just looked and could still pick up a Wyse 5060 with 8gb memory for about 33 USD shipped. Doesn’t seem to include power supply or ssd so add about $10usd each for those maybe $55 or so.
    
    Can’t say what prices are like in Europe tho.
    
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seaQueue@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you want embedded boards Rockchip and Sunxi/AllWinner are pretty well supported by the Linux kernel.

Go have a look at boards with full Armbian support, that’s usually a good shortcut to finding one. My preference runs to the Nanopi boards, they’re better built than Orange Pi hardware. You’re going to see a lot of Orange Pi recommendations based on cost but be aware that they’re not all that well made and occasionally have reliability problems. I was pretty chuffed for my $20 Orange Pi zero until I realized that the WiFi basically had zero chance of working reliably. Pick models carefully after reading about people’s experiences with them on the Armbian forums so you can avoid duds.

If you don’t need embedded arm check out the thin client selection on eBay. You can buy a J5005 Dell/Wyse thin client for like $100, some models even have a half sized pcie slot (these cost a bit more because they’re desirable as pf/OPNsense platforms.) These make pretty solid Proxmox or container host platforms.

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floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’d recommend an x86 board because as great as the RPI and similar can be, ARM just doesn’t have the same support for a lot of things you might want to self host. I personally like to spring for a used thinclient PC off of eBay, because they have about the same resources as a Raspberry Pi but on an x86 platform. With my thin clients I typically install Alpine but a really light Debian install could work as well, and then from there you can go about installing Docker etc for a little homelab. Even better, if you get lucky and get a couple of them you could mess around with clustering them and some light Kubernetes at home. I’ve got mine running PiHole and Unbound on Alpine to serve my whole house with DNS and it works great. I don’t think I’ve had hardly any downtime issues or anything of that sort.

TL;DR: try a couple cheap thin clients from eBay and you can run some light stuff on them for cheap.

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- thirdBreakfast@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m seconding this. The Pi-supply-dry is getting better, but for similar money to a Pi4 you can get an ex-corporate 1L mini PC (I like the HP G1 800’s in a nice case, with engineered cooling, real storage, and easy memory upgrades.
  
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  - peregus@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    HP G1 800’s
    
    Have you measure the power consumption? How is it?
    
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- uis@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  ARM just doesn’t have the same support for a lot of things you might want to self host
  
  Like what? Person explicitly mentioned opensource software.
  
  used thinclient PC
  
  Usualy thay are cheap used, so it might work too
  
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  - floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    ARM software support is just generally rough, yeah it’s good on RPi (and Mac) but on other boards it typically sucks, namely the cheaper boards OP would be buying. Here’s a couple software examples though, I’m a big docker user and just the other day I was trying to run I believe Mastodon and Lemmy on an ARM device but there was just no image for it. I’m sure I could build an image myself but for someone just getting into Homelabbing (like OP), x86 is the platform to use.
    
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hoodlem@hoodlem.me ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I got a mini pc (e.g. a NUC). I did this after the price for rasps went sky high. Check out used NUCs, you can get a lot of power for the price.

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- evidences@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is the way I went, I got the tiny form factor versions of a Lenovo and Dell business desktops for about 100 bucks each. If you get lucky you can find real good deals on these things most will take a 2.5" drive as well as a m.2 drive, and they’ll fit upwards of 32 or 64gb of ram depending on the device.
  
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- xantoxis@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I just picked up one of these since I had the change: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1X191NR
  
  Plus a 4TB samsung external drive. Should be awesome, and fits anywhere in my house.
  
  Seconded that used minis ought to be quite reasonable and fast if this seems like too much. (Although you can also get a similar new one for half this, if you cut down on disk and ram.)
  
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  - ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The one advantage of using megacorp “1-liter” business PCs from Dell/HP/Lenovo over brands like Minisforum is that parts commonality / availability is likely to be a lot better for the big brand boxes.
    
    This will make little or no difference to a lot of people of course :) in my case it’s a big factor because I’m trying to do everything on a shoestring budget and I want the hardware to be physically small but still as repairable/upgradable as possible, and to last as long as possible. So I ended up going with used 1L PCs as right now they are the smallest platform that I know of that tends to be upgradable (no soldered RAM etc) and have lots of parts available.
    
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  - BallsInTheShredder@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s actually great for the price, i7 12, 32Gb ram, 1Tb M2, etc? Not bad at all! Would even be a great little gaming setup
    
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- AnagrammadiCodeina@feddit.it ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I have a nuc from 2015-2018 and its very bad at heat management. Like during summertime if the AC is not on its going to reboot itself after a while when using it (it can reach 35C° where it is stored) I now have a optiplex micro which is much better but I still want to use the NUC for something else
  
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uis@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Pine64 single board computers. Rock64, Rockpro64, Quartz64

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- KDE@monyet.cc ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I really Dont know I am Ok with running chinese boards and also pine64.com/product-category/rockpro64/?v=0446c16e…
  
  the boards you are showing me are 80-90$ which to me is maybe a lot since raspberry pi prices have started to slow down as well
  
  Plus some dockers may not work and jellyfin is saying its not recommended to run it on rasp pi so i dont know actually
  
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richdotward@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m a big fan of dell wyse machines. Loads on ebay, ex business machines. X86 so decent support, decent dell power supply, on / off button / in cases and low power.

I have wyse 3040 for pihole cost 39.99

I have wyse 5070 with windows 10 for plex and running a Ubuntu 22 server in virtual box, cost 59.99

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- KDE@monyet.cc ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Thanks for the suggestion (I am looking forward to other comments as well) Well , I like x86 in general but not for self-hosting maybe? i have heard that they are bulky and take a lot of energy
  
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  - cron@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You can expect a thin client to use about 10 watts idle (but more under load), which adds up to about 100 kWh per year. Some models use even less.
    
    Source,
    
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  - folkrav@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    When people say x86 is not power efficient, it usually means it’s not very efficient for battery powered devices, or is kind of wasteful in situations like in data centers where they’re running thousands of machines. For home use, with a machine that’s gonna probably end up idling most of the time, my best guess is it would cost you a couple tens of dollars a year to run vs a slightly smaller amount.
    
    Personally, just so I don’t have to deal with software compatibility on different architectures, I’ll gladly pay that small difference in power usage, but this will of course vary depending on what you’re looking to run on there.
    
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cynar@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I migrated on to a NYC. They seem to have the right mix of performance and power efficiency, for me. The i3 processor also means you’re not dealing with the extra complexity of Arm64.

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- dan@upvote.au ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Unfortunately Intel have discontinued the NUC line, so they won’t be available in the future and we’ll have to get one of the copycats instead.
  
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  - ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Intel ended up changing their mind and sold the product line to Asus, who will continue producing NUCs!
    
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- nyar@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Do you mean NUC?
  
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  - cynar@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes I did. Autocorrect decided to “help”. Apparently the edit I made hasn’t propagated through.
    
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Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Thin clients! $30, sometimes $15, for just as much CPU power as the Pi. More power usage, though. And ensure you buy the cables and SSD, check carefully what the seller is including or excluding from the shipment.

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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
NAS	Network-Attached Storage
RPi	Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
SATA	Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage
SBC	Single-Board Computer
SSD	Solid State Drive mass storage
nginx	Popular HTTP server

[Thread #214 for this sub, first seen 13th Oct 2023, 14:55] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What you are after is basically a server. Your next logical step if Pi is not enough - Intel NUC.

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- vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  lenovo nuc.
  
  intel is out of the nuc business.
  
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  - Scribbd@feddit.nl ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    But you can still get a bunch of good ones on the second hand markets. Also, NUCs are still a thing. Intel deemed the formfactor mature enough too pull out themselves and leave it too the partners to develop further.
    
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  - coffee_poops@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Asus took it over.
    
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  - CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Another option is the Dell Optiplex micro. It’s got a Core processor and is about the size of a couple Bluray cases stacked on top of each other. I believe they run about 10-15W under a light load too.
    
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  - WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, Intel would not make them anymore, but it doesn’t mean there would not be no NUC-alike computers on the market. There are loads of them already, so no issues.
    
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PieMePlenty@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Used an rpi4 for a year as a media server and was quite happy but wanted to run a few more things so I switched to an i3 NUC and I really like it. Running an arr stack + plex + jellyfin + nextcloud and its using 7w ‘idle’ (mentioned services running) with a headless debian 12. It definitely runs faster and jellyfin is actually usable. Still though, rpi4 can handle the load (sans jellyfin). The rpi5 will also fit into this market very well.

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sj_zero ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I like fanless PCs. Some have gpio headers for home automation purposes.

For just self-hosting, I'd probably like using refurbished laptops. Seems nuts, but low power, included input and screen, built in UPS, and sometimes you can get them for like 100 bucks. You can just use a USB or wifi device for home automation purposes if need be.
- uis@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  100 bucks is a lot
  
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  - dan@upvote.au ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Depends on what you’re getting. If you’re getting a 7th gen or newer Intel Core processor, it’s not too bad.
    
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damnfinecoffee@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve recently been looking into ESP32 programming - they’re microcontrollers with onboard Bluetooth and WiFi, that are smaller yet more powerful than Arduinos. Randomnerdtutorials gets recommended a lot elsewhere; I believe I saw one tutorial for running a web server on an ESP32.

If you need a full OS and/or more resources, I’m not sure raspberry pi can be beaten (at least, that’s how the market was years ago when I was looking)

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- m_randall@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You alluded to this already but ESP32 et al is really awesome but they (and arduino) are microcontrollers, not mini pcs like a raspi which have very different purposes.
  
  You CAN run a webserver on a microcontroller but you’re essentially writing a program to do so. On a raspi you’re installing a full OS and then installing apps (nginx, Apache, jellyfin etc).
  
  Conversely raspi has GPIO which can be used to easily interface with electronics just like the ESP32 but now you’re stuck maintaining a whole os to make your LED blink.
  
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- Scrath@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Running a webserver is not the same as hosting a service. For the software examples requested by OP, an ESP32 is useless
  
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  - damnfinecoffee@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Ah must’ve skimmed over that part, my bad. The home automation part jumped out to me
    
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ByteWizard@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
OrangePi is pretty nice. Built in 8gb eMMC module is a huge performance boost. Only $60 with case and PSU.

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- retrieval4558@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah I have an orangepi5 running pihole and a suite of home assistant related docker containers and it’s been working flawlessly. Even has an m.2 slot
  
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- seaQueue@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Orange Pi is pretty hit and miss in my experience. I had a number of them a few years ago that either had horrible reliability or problems with their WiFi.
  
  On the other hand my Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 made a great retro emulation machine, I’ve had zero issues with that model.
  
  Do due diligence per model if you’re buying one, some aren’t great.
  
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RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Second hand thin clients (like the dell wyse already mentioned) are often cheap and easy to use www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/

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supervent@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Just look for a NUC with an Intel N100 with passive cooling.

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- sunbeam60@lemmy.one ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hardly the same price range and since most passive cooled N100 rigs come off AliExpress you’ve got to take the lottery of import duty.
  
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Damage@feddit.it ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My current server runs on a fan less embedded Celeron board from ASRock, it runs really well… But since I’ve upgraded my desktop, I’m building a Ryzen server now

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moody@lemmings.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The RK3566 and RK3588 alternatives are pretty good, and there are a bunch of them from different companies.

I have a 3566 myself as a compatible alternative to a CM4, and it does its job just fine.

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qaz@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m current using a refurbished Lenovo mini PC

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- AtmaJnana@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s what I use for my low intensity projects. I didn’t realize the i7 ones were that cheap now, maybe I should grab another.
  
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  - seaQueue@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I7 doesn’t mean much without knowing the CPU generation. A 4th Gen i7 is dirt cheap but is only 4c/8t and a power hog. Meanwhile a much newer i3 could be more capable at 1/3 the power.
    
    Check eBay and you’ll get a good look at pricing, Amazon sellers will take you for a ride here.
    
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jaypg@lemmy.jaypg.pw ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve used lots of different boards. The Radxa Rock 3c is cheap and has decent performance, but the official OS support is a bit old. The Libre Computer boards are also good and have Armbian support. Libre Computer is releasing a couple more this year too. BananaPi has good options that aren’t expensive, like the BananaPi M5. Friendly Elec has some boards like the NanoPi R2C and R5C that aren’t pricey and have Armbian support. Any one of these boards are fine for a small home lab. Just boot Armbian, install Docker, and add your containers.

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shaked_coffee@feddit.it ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I haven’t actually tried it since I’m still a beginner in selfhosting, but I was planning to buy a dedicated hardware for my homeland and my main two choices were the new Raspberry Pi 5 or some mini-PC like the one in this video I don’t know if it could be similar to what you are looking for…

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AbidanYre@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Not as cheap as the wyse, but probably way more powerful.

Framework sells a case to turn their mainboard into an SFF pc.

frame.work/…/cooler-master-mainboard-case-and-mai…

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m12421k@iusearchlinux.fyi ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I know want an upgrade over rPi but If you want a cheaper option, you can buy an android box and install linux on it. most of them have unlocked bootloaders. you can usually find a ready to use .iso on Armbian community forums by searching the SOC model there.

personally I run a 5$ android box. it has a quad core cpu + 2GB of ram. I use it for hosting my music library on an external hdd and streaming 1080p video. I also set it as my vpn gateway. It’s enough for my use case so I didn’t upgrade it.

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pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Rock 64 or zimaboard are some other alternatives. Iirc they’re around the same price range though.

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