I am thinking about buying a home server for a wide range of things. I found some cheap old computers on amazon for around 80-90€. Is it worth it to upgrade them with another stick of ram or a larger SSD? 2 8gb RAM sticks are only around 15€, so that would be 100 in total. But my question is, is it worth it, or is the CPU the limiting factor. Some of them have one from the pentium series. Also, is 15€ for 2x8gb DDR4 RAM normal (not too cheap)? Maybe you have other ideas for a cheap home server. In my case I don’t think a 90€ raspberry pi is worth it
With used hardware, it very much depends on what the hardware is and what you’re using it for. if you can find something from the last 10 years it’s probably worth it, but I wouldn’t get anything older than that. Power usage is the main concern, as systems have been plenty powerful enough for most applications for sometime. Hardware reliability would be another factor.
When I was looking a couple of months ago, it looked like $200 USD was the sweet spot for used hardware, but at that price point, you could get one of those NUC knockoffs brand new, such as the Beelink N100. It just depends on what you need.
Exactly.
Energy is a big deal, and new NUC-type machines are pretty good deals.