this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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I decided to go with Tiny/Mini/Micros personally. It consumes more than a Pi but it's also more powerful. I can find second-hand TMMs locally with 8th gen Intel i5 for almost the same price as a Pi kit (Some Single Board Computers looks affordable, but you often need to add storage, a power brick, an enclosure, which can add up quickly!)
I use TMMs with a mix of 6th-gen and 8th-gen Intel i5. The 6th gen are decent for my needs, but the >7th-gen's iGPU supports more codecs, which is useful if you want to stream HEVC. i5-8500T also have 2 more cores than i5-6500T!
Edit: those TMMs are used in a lot of businesses and often replaced every 3-4 years. They may be slightly more power hundry than newer hardware, but I like to think I am saving them from being e-waste!
What do you mean Tiny/Miny/Micros?
They are Ultra Small Form Factors PCs from the big brands. Lenovo ThinkCenter Tiny, HP EliteDesk/ProDesk Mini and Dell Optiplex Micro. They are small, quiet, they don't pull a lot of power and they are not too expensive when you get second-hand ones that are decomissioned from business environments.
The only thing is that they don't have a lot of room for expansion/storahe. Some some have 1x M.2 port for NVMe + 1x 2.5" slot, some have 2x M.2 ports. Most don't have PCie ports (apart a few Tinys) but if you want affordable nodes, they can be great!
Edit: you can read more here https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimicro-home-lab-revolution/