Comment by coffeecoders
7 hours ago
It only makes sense if we are measuring raw capability per dollar. Once you factor in noise, physical size, idle power, battery etc, I think the calculation changes.
For a home sever that's mostly idle, it is almost like commuting in a pickup truck.
Modern dell desktops (like 8th gen+) idle around 10W. Raspberry pi isn’t saving much
I’m impressed with that.
I had a Nuc 9 extreme with a 10gb SFP card in it.
It averaged 69w. The Mac Mini I replaced it with uses just under 5w.
A Mini is possible the worst bang for buck. Also, the horror that that is Desktop Docker can’t be over emphasised. I know there are better ways of using Docker on a Mac, but having got something working I can’t face rebuilding it.
My home router is a Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny with a Core i3-8100T with a dual 10Gbit SFP in it (1x DAC, 1x 10GBase-T) and it idles at 14W, routing 10gbit full bore, 24W. I got it for $80
I also have some Fujitsu office machine I picked up for $50 as my "I need to run some random task on a physical linux box" machine with an i5-7500 and it idles at 15W
What's wrong with Docker desktop? Been using it everyday for at least 5 years.
But when starting from scratch, it might be better to get an older Mini that is supported by Asahi and run Linux on it.
also factoring in spare hardware. most people have more spare phones than PCs.
My server is an extremely quiet Xeon workstation: unlike 1U servers, workstation are typically quiet. The good thing with a Xeon workstation is that it supports ECC RAM only and there are plenty used. For there's no market for used Xeon systems, so you can find stuff like 22-cores / 44-threads CPUs for $25 or something.
Some mod Xeon systems to use regular PC PSU like Be Quiet! ones and Noctua fans, etc. but my HP Z440 workstation is so quiet already I didn't need to.
In my case it's an headless server and is sits between the vacuum cleaner and the cat's food: there are literally only two cables connected to it, the power cable and the ethernet cable.
I can live with the footprint of one tower.
I run many VMs and containers inside those VMs: Git server, pastebin, NAS, containerized/VM-isolated AI agents, etc. but I don't need it to be up 24/7. I basically only need those when I'm working. So electricity usage ain't a big concern to me as it's more like running 8/7.
I don't feel like I'm commuting in a pickup truck: I feel like I have the perfect machine for the task.