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Comment by roland35 | Hacker News Reader

My raspberry pi 4 has been running as a home server and gitlab runner under my tv stand for a few months now and works great! I just need to set up a backup scheme at some point since the whole thing runs on an sd card.

It seems easier than ever to repurpose old hardware for home servers with docker and all the great projects out there!

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My main gripe about the Raspberry Pi is the SD card unreliability. I know you can boot from USB now but I wish there was a way to integrate an SSD directly on the board (something in the m.2 2242 form.factor) to make it more resilient and also faster.

I'll probably go with a small NUC or something like that instead, especially if there's some AMD Ryzen systems coming out in that form factor.

That, and also I really want a protected power input jack that isn't a USB jack. Like a good locking 2-pin Molex Micro-Fit connector, or 2-pin JST-EH, XT30, or some other low profile locking or tight-fitting connector would be great.

I'm tired of having to power the Pi over the expansion header while people keep saying "don't do that because you bypass the power protection" well no shit but there isn't any other option if I don't want to use USB.

Just out of curiosity, why not use the USB?

Unreliable for moving robots, not locking, easy to snap off the board, PITA to strip USB-C cables, break out the +5V/GND wires to splice to a DC-DC converter (and the breakout boards take much more space than just a proper power jack).

95% of the time I power Pi with DC-DCs, not from a wall source. (But even for a wall source, it's way way way easier to find 5V3A, 5V5A, even 5V10A adapters that give you nice, easy to use +5V/GND terminals or wires than it is to find a USB wall wart that can deliver enough current for the Pi 4.)

In general, I want a power connector for power when integrating the Pi into a larger device.

M.2 case for Raspberry Pi 4

https://www.argon40.com/argon-one-m-2-case-for-raspberry-pi-...

But this (naturally) goes over USB, too. So you're wasting bandwidth (and money).

USB isn't a big issue if UASP is supported.

EG 149MB/s on dd writes.

See https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/uasp-makes-raspberry-...

Yeah I agree about sd card reliability concerns. The funny thing is that I've used as cards as data storage inside gun launched munitions (Howitzers!) And they survived 10,000 G of acceleration, but too many writes is a problem!

I use a mounted usb drive for logging and storage so hopefully that helps the sd card stay fresh.

> The funny thing is that I've used sd cards as data storage inside gun launched munitions (Howitzers!) And they survived 10,000 G of acceleration

In the name of countless fellow HNers, tell us more right now!

I'm assuming those were industrial cards? A previous employer would stick them in enclosures next to high power motors for decades at a time without issue. Expensive as hell, but damn were they reliable.

No they were normal off the shelf cards, but they were soldered directly on to the PCB and everything was vacuum potted.

> especially if there's some AMD Ryzen systems

The Asus PN50 with Ryzen 4000U series APUs is starting to become available in the US and other countries. Zen2, laptop chips. Tiny computers: 1.93" x 4.50" x 4.50" (or 4.9cm x 11.5cm x 11.5cm). I don't have experience with these, but they were on my list before I decided to go a little bigger and get the desktop APUs in the same series whenever they start shipping to the US.

I don't want to start an argument, but for what it's worth RISC is a bit more energy efficient and the Pi is quite a bit cheaper.

Sure, RISC is more energy efficient, that's why AMD and Intel are microops behind an x86 decoder :p

A ryzen is a lot more capable than a Pi, and sometimes that's worth the material and power cost. Mostly, I was just pointing out that there are some systems out there to buy if you want though.

I seem to recall some one (Argon) has just launched a case for that Pi plus an m.2

Look into rk3399 boards. They have m.2 add-ons that connect to the PCI-E lane on the board.

https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/

https://libre.computer/products/boards/roc-rk3399-pc/

Have a look at the Dell Optiplex Micro line - I just picked up one of these. Sips power, ultra quiet. Runs ESXI with no issues. https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Optiplex-i5-8600T-802-11ac-Bluet...

Yeah those are great. I think they're over-priced for most home hacking applications, but you can find older models for much cheaper at Woot.com: https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-optiplex-3040-micro-i...

Seeed have a nice looking range of x86 for this type of application: https://www.seeedstudio.com/ODYSSEY-c-1492.html

What about using high endurance SD cards, like the ones used on dashcams? They're can be more than twice as expensive but I haven't had one failing on me yet.

> My main gripe about the Raspberry Pi is the SD card unreliability.

It's a very real issue. I managed to burn out a SD card that wasn't even being used, i.e. only the /boot partition was on the SD card, and it pointed at an external drive for the root. Presumably that means the heat alone of being connected to a Pi was enough to burn out the card.

Yeah, I have a Pi 4 as a home server.

I had it connected to a UPS that went bad, and that trashed the bootloader/firmware on the Pi.

I had to reflash, and it works, but I have also had two 2.5” usb3 drives die in the last month (I had a independently powered usb3 hub attached).

If you care about your files and time, have a working backup strategy in place.

Raspberry Pi is great but for some applications it is too small. It becomes more cables than computer so to say, does not stay put. A larger and heavier computer is my preference then .

> I just need to set up a backup scheme at some point since the whole thing runs on an sd card.

OT: In my experience "set up a backup at some point" all too quickly becomes "shit, I _knew_ I needed a backup".

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