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Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

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Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#41

Post by CameronNemo »

m-p-3 wrote: post #17
roland35 wrote: post #15

My raspberry pi 4 has been running as a home server and gitlab runner under my tv stand for a few months now and works great! I just need to set up a backup scheme at some point since the whole thing runs on an sd card. It seems easier than ever to repurpose old hardware for home servers with docker and all the great projects out there!

My main gripe about the Raspberry Pi is the SD card unreliability. I know you can boot from USB now but I wish there was a way to integrate an SSD directly on the board (something in the m.2 2242 form.factor) to make it more resilient and also faster. I'll probably go with a small NUC or something like that instead, especially if there's some AMD Ryzen systems coming out in that form factor.

Look into rk3399 boards. They have m.2 add-ons that connect to the PCI-E lane on the board.

https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/

https://libre.computer/products/boards/roc-rk3399-pc/

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#42

Post by devenblake »

ianhowson wrote: post #34
mrsaint wrote: post #31

I have an ancient Thinkpad X200s with a cracked screen. For years it's been my favorite go-to home server running Linux + Docker. :P

Seconding this. X200/210/220 are dirt cheap, come with modern CPUs, cooling fans (!), quality Ethernet ports and run x86-64 containers unmodified. You can cram 16GB of RAM and SATA SSDs into an X220. Much less hassle and similar price to an RPi.

Please don't use the X220 or T420 for servers though.. They're the go-to main laptops for many Thinkpad fans because they're so inexpensive and very well-built for everyday use. There are only so many left. I can't imagine using another laptop besides my T420, I'm not sure a better laptop exists and I'm gonna have to take it to my grave if Lenovo doesn't get their act together and release another Thinkpad with a full keyboard.

That being said, good computers going to good people for them is always a good thing no matter the use case.

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#43

Post by mcguire »

jankotek wrote: post #18
teejmya wrote: post #3

"[...]especially knowing it can run on batteries for 10 hours (allegedly), without having a UPS." In my experience of trying the same, this is a swollen Li-Ion battery waiting to happen.

Yep, it is fire hazard.

Everything with a lithium ion battery is a potential fire hazard.

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#44

Post by dervjd »

m-p-3 wrote: post #17
roland35 wrote: post #15

My raspberry pi 4 has been running as a home server and gitlab runner under my tv stand for a few months now and works great! I just need to set up a backup scheme at some point since the whole thing runs on an sd card. It seems easier than ever to repurpose old hardware for home servers with docker and all the great projects out there!

My main gripe about the Raspberry Pi is the SD card unreliability. I know you can boot from USB now but I wish there was a way to integrate an SSD directly on the board (something in the m.2 2242 form.factor) to make it more resilient and also faster. I'll probably go with a small NUC or something like that instead, especially if there's some AMD Ryzen systems coming out in that form factor.

Have a look at the Dell Optiplex Micro line - I just picked up one of these. Sips power, ultra quiet. Runs ESXI with no issues. https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Optiplex-i5-8600T-802-11ac-Bluet...

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#45

Post by ianhowson »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #39
ianhowson wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding this. X200/210/220 are dirt cheap, come with modern CPUs, cooling fans (!), quality Ethernet ports and run x86-64 containers unmodified. You can cram 16GB of RAM and SATA SSDs into an X220. Much less hassle and similar price to an RPi.

Where the hell is a X200 is similarly priced to a RPi?! In my neck o the woods(Austria) a X200 series is around 150-200 Euros. Add 16GB of Ram and an SSD an you're looking at at least 250 Euros instead of just 40 for a PI.

My beef with the Pi is that it's not just EUR40 for the device; you also need to add on:

- power supply

- quality SD card

- heatsinks

- a case

and then deal with

- non-x86

- thermal issues

- SD cards

- the CPU is too tiny to do anything useful anyway

Sorry to hear that X2x0 is expensive where you live. I find that the small additional investment over the RPi is worthwhile.

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#46

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

ianhowson wrote: post #45
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where the hell is a X200 is similarly priced to a RPi?! In my neck o the woods(Austria) a X200 series is around 150-200 Euros. Add 16GB of Ram and an SSD an you're looking at at least 250 Euros instead of just 40 for a PI.

My beef with the Pi is that it's not just EUR40 for the device; you also need to add on: - power supply - quality SD card - heatsinks - a case and then deal with - non-x86 - thermal issues - SD cards - the CPU is too tiny to do anything useful anyway Sorry to hear that X2x0 is expensive where you live. I find that the small additional investment over the RPi is worthwhile.

You forgot to add the extra power consumption of a laptop vs a pi. It adds up.

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#47

Post by throwaway894345 »

Animats wrote: post #23

I use Asus EeePC subnotebooks for that. They're about US$30-$50 on eBay, and there are models with 64-bit CPUs. I run the CPU and disk test, wipe the disk, and install XUbuntu. A few script mods make the device stay on when the lid is closed, but the screen turns off. It's more convenient than packaging up a Raspberry PI. You get keyboard, screen, disk, power supply, and battery, plus some USB ports, in one compact u…

Oh man, I forgot about EeePCs... I had one of those in ~2010. 32-bit with 1GB of ram and a single 1GHz CPU IIRC. 10" display. Good times.

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#48

Post by mkesper »

nickt wrote: post #24
m-p-3 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main gripe about the Raspberry Pi is the SD card unreliability. I know you can boot from USB now but I wish there was a way to integrate an SSD directly on the board (something in the m.2 2242 form.factor) to make it more resilient and also faster. I'll probably go with a small NUC or something like that instead, especially if there's some AMD Ryzen systems coming out in that form factor.

M.2 case for Raspberry Pi 4 https://www.argon40.com/argon-one-m-2-case-for-raspberry-pi-...

But this (naturally) goes over USB, too. So you're wasting bandwidth (and money).

Re: Repurposing my old Chromebook to a low power home server

#50

Post by sergeykish »

I use netbook as wifi router [1] / storage (sshfs, samba). To disable sleep on lid close [2]

    /etc/systemd/logind.conf
    HandleLidSwitch=ignore
Never thought of it as UPS, probably can implement graceful shutdown on low battery level [3]

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/software_access_point

[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_management#ACPI_e...

[3] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/laptop#Hibernate_on_low...

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