Hi there. I’ve been looking to get something to run locally as I currently use a dedi machine I’m renting from Hetzner.
I’ve been looking at Raspberry Pi, mainly model 4 and while research those I got introduced to Orange Pi as well as ZimaBoard.
I realized the “best” option usually comes down to personal needs, tho I’m curious to which would be the better purchase in terms of “bang for your buck”.
The main stuff I would be running are Plex or Jellyfin servers as well as NextCloud for family photos and a shared calendar. I love tinkering so I like the idea of having enough resources to run additional services without going down on efficiency.
My budget is around 180-200$.
I’ve seen posts where people often mention a mini PC or similar would be a great option tho I’m looking for something smaller and the less noise the better as I may end up showing the thing in a drawer or closet in my bedroom.
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Don’t bother with any of them! For $200 you can get a pretty kitted out Lenovo Thinkcentre, Dell Optiplex, or HP Elite/Prodesk that’ll beat the stuffing out of any of them.
And since you’re concerned about size, the Tiny/Mini versions of the office PCs are in fact, tiny. Just 1 liter in volume.
Under 200, there is n100 firewalls mini pc. It has quicksync so easy to transcode, and cpu is 6w tdp. Whole pc on idle consumes 11w and max load 22 to 28 w, depending on a How many lan ports are being used. U can check aliexpress and amazon for it. There’s is also n305, which has 8core, but cpu is 15w tdp and will max consume 35 to 40w. This will cost more than 300usd.
Check servethehome youtube videos on it. He tests them in detail.
Or just visit a local pawnshop and get PC within your budget.
One advantage is you get x86 architecture, good IO quality and case hosting a couple drives.
Just pay attention to specs.
Or watch local craigslist.
Load that PC with Linux of your choice.
Linux can run on very low memory specs. Even 512MB. Don’t pay much attention to CPU. Just about any in last 10 years will work for you.
2 GB of RAM will be plenty.
If you plan on using old drive, make sure to have backup for your data.
Windows on old hardware will be pain. Linux will be fine. Go for Gnome or XFCE desktop. Gnome is simple, quite lite these days. Xfce is lighter and more similar to windows. I generally don’t go for distribution based desktops like mate.
I am Arch guy, but it’s not an option for non-tech people. Thus Manjaro (Arch based) or Ubuntu (safe mainstream).
You will get more performance out of Manjaro, because Arch doesn’t push flatpack on users, which slows down things.
Don’t pay much attention to CPU. Just about any in last 10 years will work for you.
I agree with everything in your post except for this part. He’s planning on running a Plex or Jellyfin server, which can benefit greatly from an Intel CPU with Intel QuickSync Video (QSV) capability. The iGPU in those processors are capable of multiple 4K transcodes without breaking a sweat.
It’s worth paying a little extra for one of these CPUs.
My Orange Pi is unreliable, gets offline from time to time, no idea why.
Which model have you got? I just got a 3B was considering ordering more but want to make sure they are stable enough
The Zimaboard is way overpriced, for a way underpowered CPU. Unless you specifically have a need to use its PCIe slot for something, I see no reason for it.
As others have noted, an ultra small form factor PC, the likes of Dell/HP/Lenovo sell is always a better value option.
I have a high priority of the unit I choose to go with not emitting a ton of noise where the passive cooling for the ZimaBoard is perfect for that. I see the reasons for people mentioning Mini PCs tho I’m hesitant as the whirling may be too much to have stored in the bedroom as I also have no other place to hide it
ZimaBoards are based on 7 year old CELERONS with limited lpddr ram. My advice is that you buy a cheap pc like an optiplex for like 40 bucks and extend its storage, ram and maybe upgrade the cpu later on.