this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
12 points (83.3% liked)

Selfhosted

39257 readers
202 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hey yall, I want to get into self-hosting. I want to start from hosting on a raspberry pi, and I am just wondering if yall have any recommendations (I've never hosted anything before, but have experience in linux and programming). Sorry if it's bit of a stupid question.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For the cost of a rpi, just get actually capable hardware. Once you actually get anything running you'll wish you had real hardware.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been leaning this way lately. From a cost/capability standpoint, RPis were easy to justify when they were ~$30, but not as much at their current inflated prices unless you have specific power consumption and form factor requirements. Used/refurbished Dell thin clients and MFF PCs can be had for $40-100, ranging from fanless systems with low-power Atoms and Celerons to full-fledged desktops with Core i-series CPUs, all with memory and storage included more often than not. I personally just picked up a Dell OptiPlex MFF with an i5-9500T, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD for $100.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Refurbished thinclients really are fantastic if you don't specifically need a pi for the formfactor. I got a bunch of Fujitsu S920 with 4GB RAM for roughly €35 a piece and I've been pretty happy with them so far.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What kind of hardware, with a similar price point to the rpi, do you think of?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This reminds me of the old "build a gaming pc for less than a console" thing was popular for a while.

So let's assume a $90 raspberry pi (someone really splurged here)

  • $90: case
  • $0: cpu, get used from a friend
  • $0: motherboard, get used from a friend
  • $0: ram, get used from a friend
  • $0: power supply, steal from work

You can drop the case and just use a cardboard box, which would allow you to afford storage. I'm just going to assume you boot from a usb and keep everything in memory.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you think about refurbished micro-pc's? Like this Lenovo ThinkCentre M910q Tiny (i5-6500t; 8GB RAM) for 130 euro's?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a refurbished dell that I got for ~$150-$200, the cpu is an i5-8500t. I think those are great deals, would absolutely recommend them for a home server. As your needs grow, you can even replace the RAM inside later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Agreed. I picked up the M910q for $100 including shipping from a corporate sell out on Ebay. It does everything I need; and has the ability to do so much more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Refurbished thinclients can be had for about €35. I got a few Fujitsu S920 with 4GB RAM and 8GB MSATA for around that price per piece.

Datasheet: https://content.etilize.com/Manufacturer-Brochure/1036232289.pdf