My use case is a homelab kubernetes cluster, so I want multiple nodes for redundancy, but I don’t want to use too much electricity or generate too much heat. But for the sake of other readers, let’s keep it general:
What’s a nice little computer for a homelab, with its own power supply, ethernet, and room for 2 internal disks?
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I’m ready for the debian port to android cell phones. I have a pile and it would be so cool to make each into a server running off USB power with the battery bypassed.
Bee-link and GMKtec make some tiny computers purposely designed to be home servers. I thankfully got a ME mini NAS before the LLM apocalypse and it is a beast that can expand up to 24TB. It comes with an Intel N150 that runs all my personal services and consumes almost no power at all. But they also make other smaller models (the ME mini is already minuscule for what it does) that can fit 2 M.2 disks and they all have their own power supply and ethernet connection. The only problem is that the prices have skyrocketed because RAM and solid state storage starvation.
They are still, somehow, cheaper than Raspberry’s post-price hikes while being more powerful.
Thanks. I have some experience with BeeLink, and they seem solid.
Irregular answer since everyone already covered the good ones: old phones with sdcard slots.
I know Pi used to be the trendy answer, but I’ve been hearing about how their value/money isn’t what it used to be. What’s the latest advice?
A mini PC is likely a good fit. Depending on the one you have they will have space for an extra nvme drive or a 2.5 inch data ssd.
You can load Proxmox and run as many VMs or lxc K8s workers.
Is the two-disk requirement for capacity, redundancy, or keeping workloads separate? I’m exploring an N150 home-server concept and trying to understand where a compact box becomes too limiting. Storage seems like a decision worth getting right before choosing the enclosure.
Exactly. If you’re running kubernetes, you probably want etcd to have its own disk. And if you don’t have a NAS, then you’re looking at extra disk to hold your data. The data disk should probably be separate from the OS disk.
I exclusively run dell micros. 250gb ssd for proxmox and image/template. Nvme for ct/vm. 1gbe built in and a spot for a 2.5gbe nic (A+E i think?). 65w psu.
M6 mac mini on sale right now is kind of hard to beat. The m6 is a beast of a processor and the included 2.5Gbe is nice. The disks would need to go into a cheap Tb4 enclosure.
I have an Intel NUC N100