Hello , dear lemmy users , I am starting to really like self-host because they are really fast and mostly i use open source stuff (like lemmy /photon etc) which were sometimes slow but after self hosting it now on the pc i am on using , i really like it
Now , I would like to host some stuff like jellyfin , navindrome , photon , adgaurd home and just leave it running on a device in maybe near future (i can convince my brother to pay for it , after he gets his job maybe)
TLDR : I wanted to ask What's your favourite alternative to raspberry pi for simple self hosting or maybe possible near home automation
Edit: thank you all for helping me , I am starting to believe that i should look into using dell wyse or the likes which are meant to be used for hosting or a old laptop (since i dont own a laptop anyway , i just own a pc ) and since i run linux anyways , i am thinking of owning a laptop dual booting it with alpine (that has docker) and a simple minimalist os like hyprland on it just in case i need to travel with it (which to me seems very unlikely , I dont travel much so..) I am confused about it
Edit 2 : I am very new to self hosting so currently i would run stuff on my pc only (using portainer) , However when needed to buy , i am thinking of buying the cheapest thin client maybe a nuc or dell wyse
I am already trying searxng , shiori(bookmark manager) , portainer,freshrss , photon , froodle-s pdf tool which i have all closed except portainer currently I am also thinking of shifting to podman as well but cant find a good gui for it like portainer , (portainer really just blew my mind with its templates)
Compact business desktops like others have mentioned are great. Depending on your needs, I also like using older or used laptops. They’re still power efficient if you get a recent processor model, people sell them for fairly cheap used, and sometimes having an attached keyboard and display is more convenient than having to hook up a crash cart
Plus it's got a built-in UPS
It'll become a spicy UPS if you leave the power plugged in all the time though.
Why?
Laptop batteries are not designed to be at 100% charge for a long period of time. Same as phone batteries. They'll expand and become a fire hazard. Batteries that have expanded look a bit like a pillow so they're commonly referred to as "spicy pillows".
Are you sure this is true with nowadays batteries too? My laptop is almost always connected to the power supply, is about 5 years old and the battery still seams to be in a good shape.
Take it off the charger and see if you get the claimed battery life. Maybe you will, or maybe your 3+ hours of battery time runs out in less than one.
It doesn't last as much as it did when it was new (about 5/6 hours), and that's expected, but it still last about 3/4 hours and it seems pretty decent to me!
Are they cheap though? Maybe in the grand scheme of things.
Like $200 for one Thinkpad versus five raspberry pis.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a Raspberry Pi for $40, the demand still has prices sky-high
I thought we had moved past that
Have we though?
Yep, looks like we have. You linked the highest tier RPi available from CanaKit and it's in stock and still being sold at the same price it was when it released in ~~2019~~ 2020, $75 (I forgot the 8GB model released a year later).
When they are in stock, they are selling at normal retail prices again. The stock is still only lasting for hours to days unfortunately.