So SBCs are shit now? Anything I can do with my collection of Pis and old routers?

I dunno when it happened but I swear SBCs were the new best thing in the universe for a while and everyone was building cool little servers with their RockPis and OrangePis.

Now it’s all gone x86 and Proxmox with everyone shitting on Arm. What happened? What gives?

Is my small army of xPis pointless? What about my 2 Edge routers?

I’ve got about 6 xPis scattered round my flat - is there anything worth doing with them or should I just bin them?

All thoughts, feelings and information welcome. Thank you.

phanto,

I have an x86 proxmox setup. I stuck a kill-o-watt on it. Keep your pi setup if it does what you want, and realize that there’s someone out there who is jealous of your power bill.

chunkystyles,

My x86 Proxmox consumes about 0.3 kwh a day at around 15% average load. I’ve only had the Kill A Watt on it for a day, so I don’t know how accurate that is, but it shouldn’t be too far off.

BearOfaTime,

How bad is it?

My current file server, an old gaming rig, consumes 100w at idle.

I’m considering a TrueNAS box running either 2.5" ssd’s or NVME sticks (My storage target is under 8TB, and that’s including 3 years projected growth).

krash,

Holy crap! I have a n100 SFF that consumes 5-6 w idle (with WiFi on) and I have an old i5 (gen 6 I think) that consumes 30 at idle. Your rig is defiantly not meant to act as a server (unless you want to mine bitcoons or run boinc…)

BearOfaTime,

Lol, yea, it’s old, was built for performance, and hasn’t run right in a while.

I’m looking to setup a NAS and turn that thing off

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

How bad is it? My current file server, an old gaming rig, consumes 100w at idle.

That’s very bad haha. Most home servers for personal use are using 7-10w.

Although you’ll have to do the math with your local energy prices to determine how important that is. It’s probably not.

BearOfaTime,

It’s $1/day. I’ve done the math a few times

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Yeah so you’d make your money back pretty quickly picking up a dedicated PC for that.

saiarcot895, (edited )

$1/day? At 100W average power usage, that’s 2.4kWh per day, suggesting that where you live, the price is 41.67 cents per kWh, roughly double that of California.

Is electricity that expensive where you live?

Edit: it’s been a while since I lived in the Bay area, I hadn’t realized that the electricity price now ranges from 38-62 cents per kWh, depending on rate plan and time.

stevehobbes, (edited )

Go tweak your power and fan settings. 100w at idle is way too much unless it’s 15 years old.

Fans, especially small ones are very sneaky energy hogs. Turn them waaay down.

BearOfaTime,

Nothing to be done. It’s old. Only fan to adjust is cpu, and I can tell when the cooler is getting dirty because the fan stays at higher speeds.

Otherwise there’s one large, slow rpm fan in the case, always on low speed.

nezbyte,

Depends on what your server is running. Multiple GPUs, HDDs, and other fun items start to add up to well over 100W. I justify it by using it to keep my 3d printer filament dry.

stevehobbes,

If you have multiple GPUs in your home server you’re probably doing it wrong. But even then, at idle, with no displays connected, the draw will be surprisingly low.

Most systems with some ssd/NVMe, 2-4 DIMMs and maybe a drive or two should idle closer to 50w-60w.

DarkDarkHouse,
@DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

If you’re getting two gaming PCs out of one hypervisor, you might be doing it right.

nezbyte,

Agreed, don’t do what I do if you value your power bill. To be fair, my network switch pulls more power than my cobbled together server anyhow.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble,

Newer CPU’s tend to use a good chunk more power under low loads than some older ones. Going from 1st Gen. Ryzen to 2nd Gen. got me about 20 watts higher total system power draw with my use case. And 3rd Gen. is even worse.

Intel is MUCH worse at it than AMD, but every Gen. AMD keeps cranking up those boost clocks and power draw and it really can make a difference at low to mid range loads.

My Ryzen 3000 based system uses about 90 watts at “idle” with all my stuff running and the hard drives on.

stevehobbes,

It’s probably more about aggressive default bios speeds. Tweak your c states / bios overclocking / pcie power management / windows power management features. Idle power has gone down on most chips.

The Ryzen 3000 should truly idle closer to 20-30w.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble,

That is after tweaking bios settings. Originally I was at around 100 watts, now I’m closer to 80.

Keep in mind that’s with a bunch of hard drives, and it’s not a 100% idle, more of a 90% idle which is where modern “race to idle” CPUs struggle the most.

TCB13, (edited )
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

What happened is that people realized what I’ve been saying since ever - that the RPi and others are a money grab because of all the required accessories while a MiniPC will get you way more power, stable hardware , case, power supply and everything in between for the same price (if you go for second hand). Here is are examples of such posts: lemmy.world/comment/5357961 , lemmy.world/comment/4696545

For eg. for 100€ you can find an HP Mini with an i5 8th gen + 16GB of ram + 256GB NVME that obviously has a case, a LOT of I/O, PCIe (m2) comes with a power adapter and outperforms a RPi5 in all possible ways. Note that the RPi5 8GB of ram will cost you 80€ + case + power adapter + cable + bullshit adapter + SD card + whatever else money grab - the Pi isn’t just a good option.

Either way, Pis have their use cases however in my opinion it was an overhyped product that sits on the middle of a market:

  • They tried to make the Arduino easy by adding an operating system and high level programming languages such as Python. It never made much sense, why would you want to have GPIOs directly on a “computer”? not reasonable at all. Nowadays we’re seeing a raise of the ESP32 devices that have 30-40 GPIOs and Wifi for 2$ each. Cheap, easy to develop and deploy and eating away on the Pi’s market.
  • Another typical use case for a Pi is some low power server, but while it is great in theory then it lacks the CPU performance required for the container-based absurdities people want to run and the I/O sucks. USB wasn’t ever a good way to connect to storage, let alone a USB/network shared bus like we had in the past. The new PCIe is questionable (look at the NanoPi M4v2 from 2018) and requires… more adapters;
  • Price-wise it doesn’t make much sense as well because a second hand x86 will be 10x faster at the same price point… and way more stable with more expansion.

Now it’s all gone x86 and Proxmox

Proxmox isn’t a new thing, in fact it is a pile of crap and questionable open-source that people still run because they haven’t discovered LXC/LXD yet. Read more here: lemmy.world/comment/6507871. FYI you can run LXD on your Pis and get both containers and virtual machines with it in the same way Proxmox people do with x86.

The irony of this comment is that people will shit on me about replacing Proxmox with LXD in the same way they used to when I said that Pis were a money grab and x86 MiniPCs were way better.

akrot,

The mian issue with Mini/used PCs is the power efficiency. It’s just a waste of wattage and performanve/Watt is very bad, especially at idle.

TCB13,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

I would agree to a certain point. If you get a 10th gen CPU it is power efficient and there are a lot of gamers and whatnot selling those. Also there are a lot of MiniPCs that come with mobile “T” CPU that are very decent at idle.

akrot,

But idle still would run much more than 15w. There a very good compilation google sheets for the most efficient X86 cpus, but once you start factoring hdds and ssds, it’s only natural to go higher (20w-30w) at least. That’s at least double than rpis

TCB13, (edited )
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

But idle still would run much more than 15w

This isn’t true.

  • HP Prodesk 400 G5 i5 9500T > idles at 4.5W
  • Optiplex Micro 3080 > idles at 7W
  • Unbranded Mini Atom C3758 > idles at 3.5W

Either way, quick math, on a 7W range were talking about less than 10$/year to run the device.

Squizzy,

Quite the teardown fair play

jkrtn,

Do you think the used server market is worth the cost? It looks like I could have a giant chunk of DDR3 for not so much.

TCB13, (edited )
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t (specially DDR3-era stuff) because old server hardware is way more expensive, won’t be of any particular advantage and older hardware, compared to new stuff, will use a LOT of power.

Instead use regular desktop/laptop machines as they’ll probably be more than enough for homelabs. You can a good 9-10th gen Intel CPU and motherboard that is perfect to run servers (very high performance) but that people don’t want because they aren’t good to play the latest games. Modern hardware = less power consumption, cheaper, more performance.

If you go really low end, let’s say i5-6500, this will probably cost around 80€ second hand with RAM. You can use www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/ to compare CPUs the server hardware you can get with modern hardware if you’re interested.

Most DDR3-era server hardware comes with RAID controllers/cards and other things that nobody uses anymore, people have moved on the software RAID be it BRTFS or ZFS and you will want to do the same. Servers make a lot of noise - impractical for a home - and a CPU from that era will be around 150-200W, you can get a recent i5 with more performance that runs around 50W.

Another thing to consider: you’re trying to build a NAS get a basic motherboard with 4 SATA ports and then add a PCI to 5 SATA port card and it will be much cheaper than whatever server hardware. BTRFS as your filesystem and its RAID if needed. Now you may be thinking something like “I want a faster CPU in order to have fast SMB”, just don’t - your gigabit network will saturate before an i5-6500 or any mechanical drive does and when this happens you’ll be at something like 10-20% CPU usage. Just don’t waste your money.

jkrtn,

Thank you, really appreciate your advice. I was just struggling to install Proxmox on a new machine, and you made me take a step back. The kernel is messed up, do I really want this? Why am I jumping through hoops for this when Debian has zero issues installing? I’ll be trying the container software you mentioned instead.

1371113,

I’ve done the same thing as the person you replied to is suggesting for around 10 years now. It works very well for a home user because parts etc are readily available. Most hypervisors will run on x86/amd64 hardware without issue. Check out something other than proxmox. LXC is one suggestion. If you’re going to stick with Debian look into SAMBA with BIND to ensure ease of sharing and cross platform integration.

Another reason to not get an old server is power, noise and thermals. They’re designed to live in an air conditioned room. Anyone who works in server rooms for any length of time will tell you to wear ear protection.

chunkystyles, (edited )

people will shit on me about replacing Proxmox with LXD

From reading your comments I understand why. It’s in your delivery. You’re abrasive and you don’t explain why. You’re also telling people not to use something they know, to use something they don’t know, and not explaining how that would be beneficial. As far as I can see, you’ve only explained how LXD, when setup correctly, can do what Proxmox does.

You’re essentially telling people to use something that is at best a side grade for reasons, and being salty about it.

TCB13, (edited )
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

Ahaha I don’t explain why 😂😂

I wrote dozens of posts replying to every single question people had about LXD/Incus. Gave out printscreens, explained how it works, what it does, described useful features and pointed out multiple issues of Proxmox. I can show you what roads you can take and why but you must do the work yourself.

The same applies to the MiniPC vs Raspberry discussion as my price, performance and feature breakdowns and proved countless times that for a large number of use cases a MiniPC is better. Unsurprisingly this is the first of such breakdowns that got upvotes, and do you know why? Because a known youtuber in this space recently came out with a video saying the exact same things I’ve been saying and now it became “acceptable” to criticize the Raspberry Pi money grab.

to use something they don’t know, and not explaining how that would be beneficial you’ve only explained how LXD, when setup correctly, can do what Proxmox does.

Even if that were true, what’s was the issue then? Isn’t it obvious that a true open-source solution that is available on Debian’s repos from a fresh install is better than a half proprietary solution that asks you to buy a license at any turn? Use your common sense.

Besides my comments aren’t a marketing campaign there’s no “LXD will make you rich today and solve all your family drama” as soon as you complete our three step formula:

  1. apt install lxd
  2. lxd init
  3. lxc launch debian debian-container

The advantage of using LXD/Incus are on the details, not on a flashy and shinny feature. It’s about running a clean Debian system, a non twisted and mangled kernel that will conflict with everything and not run stuff like OVPN properly, it’s about the license, the tools, not depending on a company, not having to wait 3x the time before your cluster is online. It’s about having a decent API for once and so many others.

Most people say they don’t want to be put in the same situation they were put about the the CentOS/RedHat licensing change, but then they proceeded to replace CentOS with Ubuntu and still use Proxmox. All questionable open-source that is as likely to fuck you over as RedHat did.

So eventually there will be a video from some youtuber stating that LXD/Incus is much better than Proxmox and people will flock to it without questioning anything. :)

MigratingtoLemmy,

The only reason SBCs were ever relevant is because of the excellent pricing, which has now been matched by used x86 computers. That and if the SBC had an open-source design/implementation (open schematics on RISC-V)

cyclohexane,

Not just the pricing, but also the low footprint, tiny size and fanlessness.

Djtecha,

Low power too. I replaced a x86 server with 3 PIs in a k8s setup for about half the wattage.

JackbyDev,

I don’t understand this post. Whatever you bought then for they’re still good for. People’s opinions don’t make them less useful.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

Sir, this is Lemmy. People treat the applications and hardware you use with ethical alignment and switching to FOSS literally has approval on the level of religious conversion.

It’s no wonder people around here care so much about random people’s opinions, the place practically filters for it.

spez_,

I have 1 RPI 4 (8GB RAM) running:

  • OpenMediaVault
  • Transmission
  • ArchiveBox & LinkWarden (testing between the two)
  • Gitea
  • Audiobookshelf
  • FileBrowser
  • Vaultwarden
  • Jellyfin
  • Atuin
  • Joplin
  • Paperless-NGX
  • Immich

On another RPI (4GB) I have Home Assistant

cashews_best_nut,

Your Pi runs all that?! I’ve setup Homeassistant on a Tinkerboard and it’s slow as shit with nothing else running. :(

owenfromcanada,
@owenfromcanada@lemmy.world avatar

Not sure what kind of tinker board you’re working with, but the power of Pis has increased exponentially through its generations. There are tasks that would run slowly on a dedicated Pi2 that ran easily in parallel with a half dozen other things on a Pi4.

The older ones can still be useful, just for less intensive tasks.

RootBeerGuy,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Out of interest from someone with an Rpi4 and Immich, did you deactivate the machine learning? I did since I was worried it will be too much for the Pi, just curious to hear if its doable or not after all.

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

The price is what happened. A pi 5 costs almost as much as an old used computer.

Toribor, (edited )
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

This exactly. If you already have Pis they are still great. Back when they were $35 it was a pretty good value proposition with none of the power or space requirements of a full size x86 PC. But for $80-$100 it’s really only worth it if you actually need something small, or if you plan to actually use the gpio pins for a project.

If you’re just hosting software a several year old used desktop will outperform it significantly and cost about the same.

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

And then there’s still all the crap it needs to work, if you don’t already have it. Power supply, adapters, storage, case, hats, etc.

MalReynolds, (edited )
@MalReynolds@slrpnk.net avatar

less so with TCO considering the power budget…laptops however…

Toribor,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

True. I did some rough math when I needed to right-size a UPS for my home server rack and estimated that running a Pi4 for a year would cost me about $8 worth of electricity and that running an x86 desktop would cost me about $40. Not insignificant for sure if you’re not going to use the extra performance that an x86 PC can offer.

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

The Pi 5 isn’t very power efficient. X86 CPU’s from a few years ago were already on a more efficient process node

MalReynolds,
@MalReynolds@lemmy.world avatar

You’re quite right about the Pi 5 power efficiency, an Alder Lake N100 / i3 will smoke it in ops / watt given the right board, but the context was ‘a several year old used desktop’ which the Pi will handily beat.

Linkerbaan, (edited )
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

Depends on what it’s doing. The Pi5 has lower idle power usage but if it’s under constant load it’s actually very inefficient. Keep in mind that the Pi5 has a 25W max TDP, almost as high as the N100.

The reason that the N100 is seems less efficient in Jeff’s video is because it’s clocked a lot higher. And power usage increases exponentially with higher clockspeeds

The Pi5 is made on the 28nm node, which is from around 2011. Of course it has other efficiency improvements like the GPU and the ARM architecture, but pound for pound I don’t think the Pi5 even beats a 6 year old desktop in efficiency if the desktop was properly downclocked and not running some inefficient HDD’s or the likes.

Rockchip boards on the other hand are made on 22nm, which is why they tend to be a bit more efficient.

JoeKrogan,
@JoeKrogan@lemmy.world avatar

I have a microserver and various pis ( zero w, 2x 3b+ and a pi b)

With the exception of the zero w they are all still in action.

The pi b connects to the pi touchscreen and displays photos from a directory every 5 minutes.

The 2x3bs are running kodi to stream from my server.

The zero w was a camera recording and streaming 24/7 but I stopped it as I wanted to do other stuff with it.

cashews_best_nut,

I kept buying Pi Zero Ws, hats and phats then put them all in a drawer cos I couldn’t decide what to do with them. I think I’ve got about 7 or 8. I really should do something with them.

bfg9k,
@bfg9k@lemmy.world avatar

pwnagotchi family

cashews_best_nut,

Holy shit!! I didn’t know I needed this. I’m so building some - thank you! 👍

akrot,

Link for the lurkers github.com/evilsocket/pwnagotchi

Pwnagotchi is an A2C-based “AI” leveraging bettercap that learns from its surrounding WiFi environment to maximize the crackable WPA key material it captures (either passively, or by performing authentication and association attacks). This material is collected as PCAP files containing any form of handshake supported by hashcat, including PMKIDs, full and half WPA handshakes.

haui_lemmy,

I have a pi which I use as an apple tv/firestick alternative which works very well and would be pretty pointless with a larger pc imo. Servers I dont do with small PIs but indeed old computers. I think all kinds of ultra movable devices will be good with PI and derivatives.

For folks that want to get into it: pine64 is open source but I havent tried it yet. Thinking of it though. They even have a watch.

possiblylinux127, (edited )

The two things to keep in mind with pine64 is that they ship hardware before the software is ready and because they are less popular there is less support.

I like there hardware but its just something to keep in mind. The good news is that to my knowledge all of their single board computers can run regular linux.

haui_lemmy,

Thanks for mentioning that. Iirc they use risc-v chips and linux supports it so it should work I guess. Will check it out.

possiblylinux127,

If you are unsure what to get definitely don’t get Risc-v as the user land software is not well supported.

I would get a rockpro64

haui_lemmy,

I‘m hearing mixed things about risc-v. Its community supported. Do you have experience with the shortcomings?

possiblylinux127,

The main shortcoming is that the software hasn’t matured yet. Its true you could use Debian or Gentoo and get a decent machine but I would hold off using it for anything important. You won’t find Risc-V images on docker hub and flathub only barely has arm support.

haui_lemmy,

Got it. So except the OS, software is going to be pretty tough. Would that mean installing from source still works or not?

possiblylinux127,

It should

haui_lemmy,

Ok. Thanks. :)

constantokra,

People are shitting on them because the price point for arm sbcs has risen, while the price point for small x86 computers has come down. Also, x86 availability is high and arm sbc availability has become unreliable. They also aren’t generally supported nearly as well. If you don’t need more power and you already have them on hand there’s no reason not to use them.

TrickDacy,
@TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

I’m curious, what’s an example of a mini x86 machine comparable to a raspberry pi? I just did research and ended up buying a RPI 5. I may have not known what to look for, but what I found in the x86 space was $200+ and seemed pretty underwhelming compared to a $80 SBC on arm.

FailBait,

In 2022, when Pi4s were going for $150-200, I managed to get a 7th gen NUC for about $150. I was looking to start Home Assistant, so both were viable options, but even the Pi5’s coming close to $100 retail, spending 50% more gets you a lot more performance for a 7th gen intel i5/i7 mobile chip, 16gb of RAM and a 256GB NVME.

tburkhol,

www.acepcs.com/products/mini-pc-intel-n100-ultra is only $140, and it looks to me like Pi5+ is $160 with PS/case/microSD.

TrickDacy,
@TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

This looks cool, is it getting good reviews?

I don’t know what a pi5+ is, unless you mean orange pi 5+?

I just bought a RPI 5 8GB (base price $80), all accessories in, for like $115. It never occurred to me that this would’ve been considered “expensive”, but a lot of people in this thread are saying so because rpis used to be $30. I mean the price has increased, but hasn’t the price of literally everything increased noticeably at the same time?

tburkhol,

Pi5+ just because I’d originally written Pi5+PS/case/SD.

And you’re right that everything has gotten more expensive, but $35 in 2016 (Pi-3) is only $45 today (and you can still get a 3B for $35). The older Pis hit, for me, a sweet spot of functionality, ease, and price. Price-wise, they were more comparable to an Arduino board than a PC. They had GPIOs like a microcontroller. They could run a full operating system, so easy to access, configure, and program, without having to deal with the added overhead of cross-compiling or directly programing a microcontroller. That generation of Pi was vastly overpowered for replacing an Arduino, so naturally people started running other services on them.

Pi 3 was barely functional as a desktop, and the Pi Foundation pushed them as a cheap platform to provide desktop computing and programming experience for poor populations. Pi4, and especially Pi5, dramatically improved desktop functionality at the cost of marginal price increases, at the same time as Intel was expanding its inexpensive, low-power options. So now, a high-end Pi5 is almost as good as a low-end x86, but also almost as expensive. It’s no longer attractive to people who mostly want an easy path to embedded computing, and (I think) in developed countries, that was what drove Pi hype.

Pi Zero, at $15, is more attractive to those people who want a familiar interface to sensors and controllers, but they aren’t powerful enough to run NAS, libreelec, pihole, and the like. Where “Rasperry Pi” used to be a melting pot for people making cool gadgets and cheap computing, they’ve now segmented their customer base into Pi-Zero for gadgets and Pi-400/Pi-5 for cheap computing.

TrickDacy,
@TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

Ok.

This looks cool, is it getting good reviews?

I really was asking. I did a little research and concluded any x86 machine I could buy would be too slow for reliable video playback unless I spent over $200. I am open to actually being wrong there though.

tburkhol,

No idea, honestly, what the popular perception of N100 platform is. It only came to my mind because I’d watched www.youtube.com/watch?v=hekzpSH25lk a couple days ago. His perspective was basically the opposite of yours, i.e.: Is a Pi-5 good enough to replace an N100?

constantokra,

You’d be looking at used mini PCs. I’ve heard really good things about lenovo. It’s not necessarily exactly comparable in price, but the reason people are souring on arm SBCs, and especially PiS, is that it’s only a little more for a more powerful lenovo, and there are never any supply issues.

Grippler, (edited )

I bought an old Intel NUC with a 2.x GHz i3, 8gb ram and 120gb nvme used for $65, upgraded it to 16gb of ram and 1tb nvme for another $50. I run everyting from that in either VMs or LXCs (HA, jellyfin, NAS, CCTV, pihole) and it draws about 10W

eager_eagle, (edited )
@eager_eagle@lemmy.world avatar

huh? What happened? Who’s shitting on ARM?

loki, (edited )

man reads few comments on the internet.

man takes it literally.

Anxiety sets in

ㄟ(ツ)ㄏ

Marsupial,
@Marsupial@quokk.au avatar

Man who sits upside on toilet.

BearOfaTime,

2 - 8 watts of power for a Pi vs 9-150watts for an x86 system. There are definitely use-cases.

I use a Pi for DHCP, DNS with PiHole, Tailscale Subnet Router, Rustdesk server, Vaultwarden, Syncthing (connects to local device shares, rather than run ST on each device), ArchiveBox, and working on instant messaging (maybe SimpleX, not sure yet). It’s kind of maxed out.

But all this runs under 8watts (actually it’s so low my smart switch doesn’t even register the consumption).

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

New X86 processors are as efficient as the Apple M series. They are far more power efficient than a Pi under load, though they will consume slightly more at idle. But not nearly as much as you’re suggesting.

westyvw,

Uh, my server is an x86, is fanless and the cpu idles at 9 and maxes at 12. Is much faster then my pi and has quicksync.

I run plex, jellyfin, smb shares, mealie, tailscale and rerouting, notes, and books.

I like my pi but performance per watt isn’t as drastic with x86 if you build for it. Did I mention it’s also fanless? Passive heating that just works on the cpu.

BearOfaTime, (edited )

Nice!

Yea, I’ve been eyeing a box like that, looks like it could be useful.

Yep, it’s all tradeoffs, gotta know what you’re shooting for. My Pi cost $5, I’m using an old phone charger (I have many), and an old microsd. If anything fails, I just grab another from the junk box.

All I know with my current use-case is I can’t measure the power consumption with the tools I use. I imagine that means under 5w draw (not really sure what it’s capable of measuring).

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

It’s about fitness for purpose, IMO.

I recently migrated most of my homelab to Proxmox running on a pair of x86 boxes. I did it because I was cutting the streaming cord, and wanted to build a beefy Plex capability for myself. I also wanted to virtualise my router/firewall with OPNsense.

Once I mastered Proxmox, and truly came to appreciate both the clean separation of services and the rapid prototyping capability it gave me, I migrated a lot of my homelab over.

But, I still use RasPis for a few purposes: Frigate server, second Pi-hole instance, backup Wireguard server. I even have one dedicated to hosting temperature sensors, reed switches, and webcams for our pet lizard’s enclosure.

Each has their place for me.

redbr64,
@redbr64@lemmy.world avatar

Same feeling, except that rather than lizard enclosure, I am waiting to see how long that Pi will last in the heat and dust of a chicken coop while serving the sole purpose of a “do we have eggs?” And/or “WTF happened/WTF did the chickens do?” Web stream

SnotFlickerman,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I’ve got about 6 xPis scattered round my flat - is there anything worth doing with them or should I just bin them?

Fuck, if you can’t figure out what to do with them, give them to me and I will! There’s so many fun art projects you can get up to with Pis.

spez_,

I say bin them. Throw them into the ocean

TrickDacy,
@TrickDacy@lemmy.world avatar

Username checks out

luna,
@luna@lemmy.catgirl.biz avatar

Sbcs are neat and raspi is still cool imo, i guess people just started to realise that mini x86s exist too and the recent releases with 6, 8, 12, cores are enticing to a group of people. Really depends on what you want to do, right tool for the right job etc

FutileRecipe, (edited )

I guess people just started to realise that mini x86s exist too

People always knew x86s existed. I think the main culprit is the price gap between them and Pis is decreasing. Pis used to be around $35, which has skyrocketed to 3-5x MSRP, plus they were unavailable for a long time. Now the Pi’s performance to price ratio isn’t justifiable to most, so people pay a little more for the x86 but get so much more capability.

Haha,

I bought a dozen of pi4 when they were so cheap but i actually dont know what exactly to do with them. I actually would love some ideas

taaz,

I had the same question few days back here

biglemmowski.win/post/546746

Haha,

I’m more lost reading this hahaha

PrettyLights,

The next pi I get will be turned into an MT32-Pi for use with my Mister retro setup and classic PC games.

github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

It can also be used as a midi synth if you’re into that

Haha,

Hell yeah! I had bought a front end called lunchbox a long time ago but i havent got to install moonlight streaming either :) for midis that’s an awesome idea too. Maybe one raspberry PI for all music stuff… thats one way to organise things too

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • selfhosted@lemmy.world
  • localhost
  • All magazines
    •
    Loading…
    Loading the web debug toolbar…
    Attempt #

    Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 16781312 bytes) in /var/www/kbin/kbin/vendor/symfony/http-kernel/Profiler/FileProfilerStorage.php on line 171

    Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 10502144 bytes) in /var/www/kbin/kbin/vendor/symfony/error-handler/Resources/views/logs.html.php on line 36