[conspire] Home Servers

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On 5/22/24 6:41 AM, Dana Goyette wrote:

> Some random mini-PCs use what's effectively a USB-C-shaped barrel jack
> for power, with the power brick dumping out 12 volts all the time
> instead of negotiating with the device for power.
> I don't know if this is one of them, but if it is, you'd want to make
> *darn sure* to label that power brick on both the brick and the plug,
> so you never connect it to something else and fry some expensive
> device.

Cool, fortunately I don't have to worry about it, I've technicians that 
directly plug power supply on the PCB... with wrong polarity... while 
I'm at the phone and in real time inform me that they smell smoke, but I 
don't have to worry... they can fix it... it won't cost much... it 
should be a diode... a regulator... few cents... in a week or 2... maybe 
in a month as soon as I place the order... and fortunately we have ONE 
spare. Should we burn that too now while you're at the phone?

> One device I bought a while ago, but I'm not sure how best to
> benchmark: the HP T640 thin client.  It's a passively-cooled 4-core
> Ryzen R1505G (Zen 1), and prices for them on eBay can vary.  It seems
> to idle around 6-8 watts, and it hits around 24 watts under load.  It
> should even work for casual desktop use, but I haven't tested that use
> case extensively because I'm a stickler for running my desktop at 4k
> 120Hz, and the T640 seems to refuse to do 4k above 60Hz even though
> the specs say it should work.  But if you need media transcoding for
> Jellyfin or the like, Intel's iGPUs are better than AMD's.

> I also have an ODroid H2+, fanless, with a pair of SATA ports with
> weird power connections so you have to use their power cables.
> Nowadays that company has a successor product, the ODroid H4+, with a
> newer Intel chip.

I always end up buying "the real thing". My only concern should probably 
be the energy bill.

If you want a "router", most of the time a SoC won't have a good enough 
wifi hardware or won't have it at all, then you've to buy enclosure, 
power supply, a switch...

If you want a "server" most of the times you need a place for storage.
Cheap NAS don't have a decent software support even if they are all 
Linux boxes with some html interface.
Branded NAS suffer the same problem, just not as badly as cheap NAS and 
they cost nearly as much as a proper server.

Desktop... even if I generally don't need that much computing power I 
need as much high res monitors as possible.

My wife that just use libreoffice, thunderbird, firefox got used to 3 
monitors and I got to think that you really really have to make a very 
light use of desktop if you don't appreciate enough having as much 
monitors as possible.

My desktop PC tend to last several years, I probably didn't change many 
PCs and servers in my life.

In my previous life I needed a powerful server cos I was working with 
databases with millions of records (not that impressive now...) but now 
I program embedded systems so I generally end up buying:

- the cheapest server of the last or previous generation available
- the best openwrt well supported router
- the cheapest desktop of the last or previous generation available, 
most of the times self built with carefully chosen parts but 
occasionally Dell "professional" line

When mini pc started to be a thing, they were even more expensive than 
"regular" desktops -> not interested.
Now they are cheaper with the limitations mentioned above. I started to 
see "high end" mini pc that could support more than 2 monitors at high 
res but they have similar prices to full desktops that eg have 
replaceable parts[*].
Probably in few years we may have mini pcs that could reliably fulfill 
my needs at a lower or similar cost of a full desktop and being silent, 
not power hungry, wasting less space.

But in the same few years generative AI will become a commodity and 
probably some tools will come prepackaged in Debian and I may consider 
buying a high end workstation.

The only application I can think of mini pc are "kiosks" or wall mounted 
touch monitors around the house... but a rpi should do at a fraction of 
the cost.

For me "mini pcs" should be relegated to single purpose tasks in 
environment with limited space (eg. restaurants, garages...).

Otherwise they are things you buy just because you can and it sounds fun 
and cool to have.
But I'm here to be proved wrong.


[*] I can extend the lifespan of a desktop with very few bucks changing 
HDs or video card.

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
https://www.webthatworks.it https://www.borgonovo.net