Under $100 Pre-Owned Mini Computers to Use as Desktop PC's and Servers in 2023 | Hacker News Reader

Under $100 Pre-Owned Mini Computers to Use as Desktop PC's and Servers in 2023

cheapskatesguide.org

The article doesn't mention used chromeboxes. They're ordinary PCs in everything except that Google locks them in order to force users into ChromeOS, but most of them can be easily liberated and repurposed. For further info: https://mrchromebox.tech/

Older models are very easy to unlock and their SSD+RAM aren't soldered, so they're easily expandable too. They're also excellent as media players in their stock configuration (4GB RAM,16 GB SSD). 2 years ago I upgraded my Raspberry Pi 4 based Kodi box to a used CN62 Chromebox which I paid roughly half of the RPi cost (and runs circles wrt performance and stability around it) and never looked back. Now I own several of them, mostly HP, Asus, Acer; unlocked all of them and installed different Linux distros with full success.

> For further info: https://mrchromebox.tech/

Tangent - Why is this static site using JavaScript as replacement for regular HTML links?

I’m not sure why the author brought up used Apple TVs without even mentioning Mac minis.

The 2012 Mac mini has two 2.5” drive slots, replaceable RAM, a quad-core processor, low idle power consumption, it’s quiet, and you can upgrade it to the latest macOS with OpenCore Legacy patcher. The cost is around $100.

Chrome Remote Desktop and Jump Desktop are two good ways to access the GUI over the network, or of course you can use SSH or install Linux if you’d like.

It’s probably not the most cost/performance efficient option but if you have any need to run macOS it’s a good choice.

I use secondhand Thinkpads.

Always a keyboard and screen ready. And battery saved me a number of times when power needed to be cut in th house for maintenance.

That's great, and yeah I've thought about how much sense this makes too, but how can I attach 4x HDDs using SATA3 to an old laptop to function as a NAS? That's my only dilemma.

4xhdd on a nas deserves pro level equipment. Not secondhand knock offs. Either do it well, or do it simple. I choose simple.

I don't know. I run 6x cheap SSD's on and old LSI card plugged into my ancient i5. Works fine.

Maybe look at second hand HP Microserver's on Ebay (or similar)?

The ancient G7 ("Generation 7") ones are dirty cheap, fit 4X SATA hard drives, and use something like 12 watts of power.

The newer G8 ("Generation 8") ones are significantly higher performance, but also draw a lot more power. Socketed cpu's though, so they can be changed (as I've done). :)

They don't have in-built battery backup though, unlike laptops.

servethehome.com has been talking extensively about the Dell/HP/Lenovo varieties in their TinyMiniMicro series. They also have a bit of coverage on even more affordable and bang-for-buck Mini PCs typically sourced through AliExpress. You typically don't find these on the secondary market (yet) but if buying new is an option you can get a decent Ryzen barebone for ~$300.

My Thinkcentre just died an early death - only had it 3 years from new. With that I think my time of having a bunch of devices at home to tinker with is coming to an end - just running a couple of VPS instances in Vultr or Hetzner is less hassle.

Likewise, though my thinkcentres live on.

Hard to argue with hetzner prices and bandwidth.

I think it's amazing what you can get these days in terms of used desktops.

I've been down that route many times. In fact, all my machines are workstations work was throwing out each refresh cycle. So I didn't even pay. Just had to get myself an SSD.

If you have the money and expect to use it as a reliable primary machine, I'd personally spend the extra $500 and build a new machine. Life is better with faster USB ports and CPU fans that don't rattle :]

But used machines are great for testing and tinkering.

These are amazing options for relatives who need a computer. One of these things with Linux + Firefox will basically cover everything.

I haven’t totally settled on the distro at the moment. Something immutable, so things can’t go wrong during updates, but you also want something established that you know will be providing updates for a very long time. I’m trying out Nix for this purpose at the moment. There is no graphical App Store for the OS, but if you set up FlatHub then there is. We’ll see how it goes.

What about BTRFS with snapshotting? Makes it easy to recover from faulty updates or when you do a small oopsie (for me, atleast)

I'm not sure i can teach my mom how to... restore a BTRFS snapshot...

Pretty easily. That is all nicely integrated out of the box with stuff like snapper.

So: if borked, press down arrow for "previous version", Enter, done.

I’ve never been able to get the boot loader included in Snapper. Maybe I’d use OpenSUSE, since it think that’s exactly what the installer does.

Fedora Silverblue is immutable and should be easier to manage than Nix: https://fedoraproject.org/en/silverblue/

Yeah, that’s the other big option. But I’d want to go with something like UBlue for codec support and other niceties, and I just don’t know if they will still be building images every week in 5 years. I could always rebase back to normal Silverblue if something happened though.

I have been running an old HP thin client (I think either a t510 or t520). It’s holding up surprisingly well as a general purpose home server. It is low power, completely silent, comes with 16GB onboard SSD and loads of ports. I’ve added two SATA ports using a cheap extension module from AliExpress, but it also comes with 4 USB ports for external storage.

"With electricity prices around 12 cents per killowatt-hour in many places in the United States,"

Here in SF, we pay about 3x that.

Here in San Diego we have the most expensive electricity in the entire United States[1] because of SDGE's monopoly.

1. https://www.cbs8.com/article/money/amped/san-diego-has-the-h...

Mini PCs, not Mini Computers. TFA is not talking about vaxen.

Do people still use this terminology?

I've wheeled a VAX about so it's not unheard of. Likely a generational distinction.

Yes. I clicked because I thought I was going to read about nutcases running PDP-11s under their desks. I was disappointed.

> PDP-11s under their desks

DEC released at least 3 all-in-one desktop PDP-11s, the PDT series that were housed in VT100 cases.

Plus even the 11/84 isn't really that much bigger than a modern mini-tower PC.

How easy has it become to spin up a sleeping linux desktop in response to something monitored by a very-low-power SBC or laptop? - Occasional decent performance box spun up only as needed - but reliably?

... looking into this thread from 3 months ago:

Making a Linux home server sleep on idle and wake on demand – the simple way (dgross.ca) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35627107

Except I remember it now: that seemed just a bit overly involved. Any simpler?

... And another one from 4 months ago:

Using Wake on LAN (WOL) Across the Internet (2010) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35447094

where one answer seemed to be to use a smart plug. Simpler.

I have a Beelink SEi8. That little guy kicks serious ass, and cost me around $300. It's slightly larger than a Raspberry Pi 4, and supports up to 32GB of RAM.

I see people talking about the Mac Mini, but it can't hold a candle to these micro boxes from the likes of Beelink and Minisforum.

I've seen M1 Mac Minis for sale under $200. With Asahi Linux that could be a very fast and energy efficient home server.

Where? I’d be surprised even a well used one would go for that low. Unless it’s a Craigslist/FB marketplace scam.

Yeah... It might be a scam. I haven't tried to buy one.

Are you sure they are M1?

They are locked and useless, aren't they? Usually dead giveaway is "parts only" note.

That's some price. I haven't seen them under 375 GBP on eBay UK.

> I've seen M1 Mac Minis for sale under $200.

Are you sure they weren't scams?

I just checked...Apple will give me $330 for mine if I traded it in today. That has to be a scam.

I'm always so tempted to get a cheapy pc as an alternative to my 2017 MacBook when I'm home, it gets too hot and slow when I use it all day.

But I love having 2 monitors too much, don't really have space for 2 external ones

You’d be better served upgrading the MacBook. All of the hype you’ve been hearing about since the M1 release is absolutely real.

They are extremely powerful, quiet, and efficient machines assuming your target workflow is not 3D graphics.

Fun fact: an external monitor turns on the GPU and all Intel macbooks have terrible thermals even before you turn the GPU on.

The new M1 thermals are amazing and performance is often the same/better.

Caveat: not all M1/M2 macbooks can do 2 external monitors, aggressively verify if this important.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com