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[Homeserver] second hand pc or single board computer
Hey!
I'm planning to run a home server, the use case is just for Syncthing to run and occasionally build stuff. But for my current budget, I'm struck with 2 choices, seconded hand pc or single board computer. The specs I can find are Intel i5 gen 3 from ~2012 desktop pc and Raspberry Pi 4 4GB RAM (adapter price not included).
What's the best choice? Since, I live in Asia, and it isn't possible to AC 24/7 heat output and power bills are a factors that couldn't be missed.
- CPU power
- heat output
- power bill
- possibly not set my house on fire?
Anything more to consider?
What are your ideas?
Comments
Raxda X4
ITX boards with N100 chip
Since you live in Asia, just buy a Ryzen 7000 / 8000 (zen4 / zen5) octacore minipc, those cost less than 250usd a piece on taobao, when on discount
Better than RPi, how I can get one of those?
Worst thing about N100 is 10W idle consumption
If you aren't living in Asia, go to the official raxda website, there are partner resellers listed
For the EU, example: https://arace.tech/products/radxa-x4 this is relatively cheap but 16GB is sold out as of now apparently, still cheaper and more performant than a Raspi, also supports x86
Just install 2 solar panels á 400W + inverter :P
About 250-300€ incl. shipping, in Germany you don't even need a license if you don't exceed 800W
The installation cost is refunded by the energy saved in just one summer
Solar panels are dirt cheap right now, down to 50€ for one 400w panel if you order in bulk or know someone
When you consider Raspberry don't forget all the power consumption numbers in reviews are without SSD hat and SSD. Add 2-8 watts.
Mac mini 2014 i5-4308U, 4-6W avg consumption with two SSDs, macos, immich, gitea and seafile in docker, nvme+sata. Build times are excruciating though, rebuilding LLVM took 9hrs.
min. 15w and max. 29w
N100?
yes, 26 kWh (estimated)
An Mac Mini 2014 i5 consume 62 kWh per month (estimated), I always opt for a Mac Mini but for a tiny project is fair enough that PCB posted by @lowendtalkxdax
I was able to pick up a cheap chromebox with an i7-8650U, on idle it draws like 8W. Runs Windows LTSC 2021 just fine.
Idk, with eur300 i'd just get a used M1 mac, enabled low power mode and it'd be a 1W idle 8W max machine that completely rapes N100 performance-wise. Or some kind of Beelink S12 minipc with AMD, 5-6W idle and lower TDP setting in BIOS.
I'm just not a fan of N100 at all. Hot and inefficient (in terms of 2024) chip. I kind of realize there's no alternatives for $100 probably, but in $300 range there's plenty.
Mac Mini are far better product than anything for a price around 250-300 euro. But not all people have in plan to use them with Mac OS X, they want Linux, so if you opt to use anything than their default OS, you have to perform some tweaks. An example are mbpfan.
Hmmm, maybe with both cpu and gpu @ 100%...
Here's my home server on 2014, idle 2-3W, peaks 11W, avg 4W. Maximum 100% CPU load I've seen was 33W. It's 3kWh for my normal usage and 24kWh if I'd blast cpu 100% 24/7. If my calculations are correct.
Yes, full load entire month
Looks interesting! Do you know anything about their heat/power output and if they had any SATA hat for Hdd like Rpi?
This is also interesting. The second-hand price in Facebook marketplace is around 150 USD, which is quite normal for Apple products there. Btw, May i ask if the USB port enough for your use case?
Not sure I understand the question. I'm not using usb at all.
Sorry! I mean you said 2 SSDs and nvme+sata, is that external or something?
Both internal.
@egoror, this adapter (NVMe SSD card) does it work only with Mac Mini's from 2014 ?
If you go for Arm (RPi), you'd have problems in terms of software availability.
If you go for x86 (Intel N100, old mini-PCs), it would consume more power in idle or under load compared to Arm. It's about 1.5-2 times the power consumption of the same Arm in its price range. Also, usually x86 CPUs need fan hence more noise and more power consumption.
Definitely checkout this video that addresses these issues:
My opinion? consider used x86 mini-PCs.
2012 also could have Fusion Drive, but it was sata+sata? And 2014 one is pcie+sata.
I might be wrong.
yep, you don't have a PCIe on 2012 model
P.S. And 2018 had soldered ssd
bruh
what about this one?
I think knowing the budget is critical here, energy consumption is going to be significantly less important if one was planning to drop $300 to start the project. The N100 still offers a great price/power ratio on a shoestring, mine pulls 7W on idle, 15W under load, measured at the wall, admittedly with only modest performance, but fine for my use case(s).
If efficiency, lower heat output, and community support are more important to you, the Raspberry Pi 4 is a solid choice, especially for a Syncthing server and occasional builds.
Why not consider a Dell optiplex (or HP equivalent SFF PC)? MUCH cheaper and better performance and software compatibility and easy to expand. They are dirt cheap. Trade off? Power consumption.
~85 watts average?
I didn't know they were that high.
Just remembered, if you can come across Fujitsu D757's with a good E90+/94+ PSU for under 50€ incl. i5-6500 that's a fair deal with low power consumption
Got a refurbished one lying around, ~50€ inkl. shipping one year ago