Oddbean new post about login | logout I need a proper node that’s not a wimpy raspberry pi. What do we think of umbrel’s hardware? Is it right on the money, overpriced? Under featured? I’m looking for small form factor that looks good (no laptops, no small pcs). Would a buffed up intel nuc be an overkill?
Thinkpad ought do it
Best price/spec ratio would probably be a refurbished Dell Optiflex, install large HD and Start9
Would recommend an i7 dell optiplex mini with a 2 tb SSD. Put startos on it and then the Bitcoin things. StartOS is FOSS.
Used ofc
These are small btw. They look big in photos when shown without something for scale. https://image.nostr.build/9ca98970ee215152856d6b8ab1b774937ce8a5225853ac3ac33f692c91ae3066.jpg
Look for a Lenovo TinyPc would be my advice. There are many to find. https://www.servethehome.com/perfect-project-tinyminimicro-pushing-a-1l-pc-as-a-server-concept-intel-hp-sabrent-crucial/ just an example and this site has a lot of good content on other hardware serving as a homelab / homeserver
https://store.start9.com/collections/servers/products/server-one
Not bad! I wish start9 os looked better.
I can understand that from a designers pov. However once you've set it up you hardly use the management UI. I quite like it, feels very functional.
I feel you on that front. But it’s so simple to use. Any conflicts or configuration issues between apps the OS will sort out for you. You very rarely need to use a command line like with other solutions. If you have the budget or need for it - https://store.start9.com/collections/servers/products/server-pure
From what others have told me, I could probably get a better piece of hardware than Umbrel's one, however, I'm leaning towards Umbrel because even though it'll only work for Umbrel stuff, I'm not going to use it for anything else for a long time (by then, if I do want to use it for other stuff, I'd need new hardware anyways). So, I'll get it to remove any headaches and just have it as a quick plug-in-umbrel-and-play.
Honestly Umbrel's Home server is cheap as fuck and do a great job. You are technical guy though so you may prefer a custom nuc or mini pc to do your shit. But Umbrel Home is really good IMO even if the fact that it's running only behind tor is tricky for non tech guys like me. But otherwise it's great
For sure it is their way to monetize, so if you like umbel project and you want suppot that it is the best way to buy their hardware. From another side if you know linux, docker and comose you could use better things .. like arm64: odroid m1, orangepi 5 plus with nvme disks . Umbrel aborted the support for such devices .. now it deliver only image and for intel chipset only .. i think it was good before since umbrel was 99% compose and containers .. so it was good to have it on every linux ..
My wimpy raspberry pi 4 is up and running for more than 4 years.
i'm pretty fond of rpi5, they are surprisingly fast (don't feel much slower than the average desktop pc), can have NVME storage, and there's lots of good-looking cases available, which tend to be silent or even passively cooled but rpis do lack ECC RAM which is often recommended for lightning nodes, so i get it that people don't want to use them for big routing nodes
Yes, you should not run a big routing node on that. To be honest, I use my Raspberry as a Bitcoin onchain node and electrum server.
if I want to run Bitcoin, Umbrel is good enough, and so are Start9 offerings. If u want to run lightning, especially a lightning routing node, or if I plan to store your files there, I suggest u use a computer with RAID (to prevent data corruption) and do periodic encrypted backups on the cloud. I worked in the past on these things, and I am curious to hear your opinion on the design of my little child Cubit. (ps, yes the case was 3d printed) https://geyser.fund/project/nabitechnology
Plenty of options here: https://www.minisforum.com/
If you have a spare desktop pc or you can get one second hand they work great
https://minibolt.info/ buy whatever hardware u want und install whatever u need
buy whatever hardware u want und install whatever u need https://v2.minibolt.info/
umbrel and start9 are great but costly. a nuc or any minipc will do the trick for less than $200.
I thought they were both cheap 😆
diy wins every time. Beelink makes some awesome minis that pack a punch. you’ll be good for a long time. quiet too.
M700 NUC is much better. Can also run a Project Zomboid server 😉
By the way, reacconditioned HP Elitedesk 800 G1 was my choice. It comes with an i5 and you have it available in small form factor. I use this node for development purposes and it flies.
Similar for me. HP EliteDesk 800 G5 - purchased off eBay and is factory refurbished, so cheaper than new. Running Start9 OS and it works perfectly.
Hate to give away this little secret. Old think centres are pretty good.
I think everybody has different requirements they are looking to satisfy so hard to answer without more knowledge. Me personally, my next is a 'Meerkat' from system76.com with max out memory and storage capacity. All solid state hardware components. With this setup one can now, have any number of Virtual Machines for whatever your compute pleasures are all on linux. Also with this setup, you'll want to spin up a Nix/Nixos VM and start the pain of adapting. It's the future. I'm surprised there isn't already a Nix/Nixos setup available now that mirrors some of the node in a box solutions. I'm basically running this setup now but on an Intel Nuc without Nix/Nixos.
Cheapest good option is a used Intel/Asus NUC. Have an Umbrel Home and it’s reasonably priced however the two big flaws are an underpowered CPU and Umbrel still has not enabled GUI backups. You have to CLI into each app individually to back them up, which practically means most people never will. Start9 Server One is modestly higher prices but has a MUCH more powerful CPU, and is worth the price imo, but people will have varying needs and usage to think about specs vs usage and price.
I’d recommend you get a refurb mini pc like a Lenovo thinkcentre, upgrade storage to 2TB, use @Start9 and that node should hold up for years to come
You might be able to still get a Particle Tachyon for $149 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/particle-iot/tachyon-powerful-5g-single-board-computer-w-ai-accelerator
I'm going to build my new NAS with mine.
I built an intel nuc from scratch and love it. Also installed start9 recently to try it out and it is powerful and simple to manage. Some of the network interfaces are a bit wonky with Tor addresses but start9 says they are going to provide better networking in next release.
A little expensive. But you get clean hardware, and i think most importantly, its the hardware Umbrel tests/can test reliably. I personally have a miniPC. but seems you are not interested in that.
Looking into mini itx
@The: Daniel⚡️ got this one I think its great for the money. just make sure its 2tb of course if you want to run bitcoin core. https://a.co/d/gX2iCLR
Can confirm it’s good. Very reliable.
I’ve been happy with mine so far. I weighed building my own but with the same specs would only save ~$50-$100 I use a decent amount of apps and resource use hovers around 50% https://nostrcheck.me/media/eb73e43e76e964d13de7146de24cff1a32cafdea13dae56c4dd02804d821300f/7f60f93f4b70c5ca0a0898acb7905bc99eafad28e5e42609364fada645c8c3de.webp
If low power consumption is important to you, check out Intel's N100 options. Decent chip, low power. Just make sure you get your own (reliable brand) SSD in. I don't know what you mean with no small PC's, since I saw you mention mini-ITX, also a good option, will be overkill but easier to swap/upgrade parts. Can also check HP/Lenovo/Dell mini desktops. To me I also didn't want to use a major container service like Umbrel, set everything up from source code myself instead, but that's optional of course, but you do have the choice with these options!
