Used Lenovo Tiny M92p/M93p units make a nicer solution for this, to me. The enclosure is already there, and no janky USB storage to deal with.
How do these stack up to Intel NUCs?
Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
51–60 of 135 posts
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
A Lenovo M92p is about 6x the price of a RPi, and the noise/form factor can't possibly be compared. If you really want to compare a 200$ desktop with a 40$ SoC then you should aim for stuff such as those mini PC's/thin clients from Asus, which nowadays even ship with Ryzen processors.
The $40 SoC isn't $40 after you the drive, power supply, enclosure, etc. There's a parts list in the article. I don't think the 4GB bare RPi is $40 anyway, it's higher. And a used Lenovo Tiny is easy to find for much less than $200. $100 shipped without an SSD, $140 with one. You're exaggerating both ends.
> The $40 SoC isn't $40 after you the drive, power supply, enclosure, etc.
That's true, but we can break cost down easily. Right now there are RPi4 packs with power supply, enclosure, and both passive and active coolers for less than 15$. Storage depends on your taste, but you can buy 64GB USB pen drives or micro SD cards for less than 10$, or 1TB external HDD for less than 50$. Thus for a total less than 100$ you can have a brand new server up and running.
I'm talking about stuff you can simply add to your shopping cart and get it shipped to your doorstep in a few days with zero research. These prices were literally taken from the first search result that popped into amazon.
Better yet, this option involves zero time wasted betting on whether end-of-life hardware still has a few months left in them.
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#53Used Lenovo Tiny M92p/M93p units make a nicer solution for this, to me. The enclosure is already there, and no janky USB storage to deal with.
A Lenovo M92p is about 6x the price of a RPi, and the noise/form factor can't possibly be compared. If you really want to compare a 200$ desktop with a 40$ SoC then you should aim for stuff such as those mini PC's/thin clients from Asus, which nowadays even ship with Ryzen processors.
>noise
There's no way you can do much on the rPi4 without active cooling - mine gets uncomfortable hot doing some basic web scraping, never mind server duties.
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#54I am waiting for AMD based "NUC", because I don't want to give money to Intel.
The reason I want a AMD based computer is to run vanilla Debian on it.
Vanilla debian does not run on Raspberry unfortunately. Currently I'm running Odroid XU4, but I need more ram and horsepower.
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#55I don't understand why you would bother with this when you can pick up a second-hand Thinkpad for so cheap which brings a builtin UPS and far more performance, RAM, and IO options.
As someone who's grown tired of a flaky rpi connected to an external drive, is there a generation to shoot for in terms of low price to reasonable performance?
Check the buyer’s guides on r/thinkpad. Typically you’re looking at T or X series, with T giving the most flexibility. T410 to T430 can be had for less than $200 and should be fine for server use. The numbering scheme is Txy0, with x the screen size (4 for 14), b the Core i generation (0 is core 2 duo).
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
A Lenovo M92p is about 6x the price of a RPi, and the noise/form factor can't possibly be compared. If you really want to compare a 200$ desktop with a 40$ SoC then you should aim for stuff such as those mini PC's/thin clients from Asus, which nowadays even ship with Ryzen processors.
>noise There's no way you can do much on the rPi4 without active cooling - mine gets uncomfortable hot doing some basic web scraping, never mind server duties.
> There's no way you can do much on the rPi4 without active cooling.
You'd be surprised. YMMV and of course your local climate and your usage patterns do dictate how hot your gear runs, but in my experience adding a small 1$ heat spreader does allow my RPi4 to chug along without going over 60C. Heck, even placing it on the side or placing a coin stack over the processor is enough to keep it running along without ever throttling.
Of course if you're constantly running 100% CPU loads then you start to need cooling, whether it's your laptop or desktop or even servers.
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#57I am waiting for AMD based "NUC", because I don't want to give money to Intel. The reason I want a AMD based computer is to run vanilla Debian on it. Vanilla debian does not run on Raspberry unfortunately. Currently I'm running Odroid XU4, but I need more ram and horsepower.
I'm keeping an eye out for 4800u based NUC.
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a couple of RPis running Raspbian with a SMB server, and they keep on ticking without a hitch. The only problem I ever experience was when I tried to run a RPi4 as a desktop with a 4k tv. Although everything worked out of the box, sometimes the system stopped responding.
I have a 4k monitor and it works but it's too slow with Minecraft so we run it at 1080p
What version of Minecraft do you run on the pi? Bedrock? Java? Or the RPi edition?
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#59I am waiting for AMD based "NUC", because I don't want to give money to Intel. The reason I want a AMD based computer is to run vanilla Debian on it. Vanilla debian does not run on Raspberry unfortunately. Currently I'm running Odroid XU4, but I need more ram and horsepower.
Have you seen the Asus PN50?
Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
#60Unless you specifically need the 8GB RAM (where Rpi 4 is the only contender in this range as of right now AFAIK), IMO for server use-cases it'd be better to consider either Odroid C4 or Rock Pi 4 - both offer better storage interfaces than USB/microSD natively. Also easier to run vanilla Debian/Ubuntu (or Armbian, which is very close to vanilla but can be easily built custom for either board preconfigured with necess…
I don't know if things have improved but traditionally every other alternative SBC had better hardware but was stuck in one image provided by the vendor that was never updated and buggy. Has the situation improved, i.e. can you just run apt upgrade on an Odroid C4? Can you run Arch on it?