EDIT: i had an rpi it died from esd i think
EDIT2: this is also my work machine and i sleep to the sound of the fans
An actual image:
I just found what server #loops run on.
Modern tech is so wasteful. Why’d you ever need all that stuff for.
Back in the day I used to host all my stuff on a dinky little router (ASUS Wl500g, 300mhz 32MB RAM) with a powered USB hub and a spare USB HDD hooked to it. It handled downloading torrents overnight, hosted a few websites, an FTP/SAMBA server, an image/screenshots hosting and galleries for me and my friends, including that one script that generated a GIF of all my epic gamer stats on each access, a couple of bots, sent me weather reports via SMS, hosted a webcam to be used as IP security camera, and also a dumb printer so that it could be used by anyone on the network, besides working as my actual router.
When it died* I moved all that stuff to an old UMPC. And nowadays, I host my shit on $30 smartwatches with Termux.
Meanwhile, one of the commercial projects I’ve been working with lately, which is basically just a glorified image dump, with all the modern bells and whistles, doesn’t even launch if the machine has less than 32GB RAM… smh
EDIT: * It was the HDD that died, the router itself is still chugging along, but with less duties as just a network switch for less demanding appliances
Because we forgot optimization in a world that celebrates maximalists and constant upgrades to feed shopping addictions that make people feel more in control of their space in a world with less and less opportunities for self determination.
When I remember I was the cool kid for having a 4GB flash drive that could fit all of my call of duty game and homework and I look at the 560GB games now that aren’t even as fun to play I think we have made some mistakes along the way that instead of prioritizing the experience of life we prioritize the ease of it.
Racks? None
Screens? Attached
Fans? Full blast
Oh yeah, it’s server laptop time
BRB just making a backup
To be completely fair, it’s hard to overstate the durability of an old Thinkpad. They’re so ubiquitous, Linux compatibility is almost guaranteed. Then, after the battery goes, attach it to a UPC and ride that setup for another decade at least.
I just have an old laptop with a tui screen saver on it to prevent burn
also, the ssd doesn’t work with linux so i have to put the os on a usb stick
Btw you can set it up to turn the screen off without sending it to sleep. I use a screen lock to do this, but other things probably work too
Imagine asking “why?” instead of “why not?”
Money? Noise? Power consumption?
Heavy-duty applications? Lots of devices in the home? Reliance on PoE? There are plenty of reasons to use big equipment, it’s not just for show.
I couldn’t run multiple game servers off of a laptop the way I do on my spare Ryzen 9 5900X. I also have it transcoding media and it has 30tb of storage, of which I’m currently using over 2/3s for media/steam cache.
I also have a 24 port switch because I have a whole family here each with their own PCs, consoles, etc… I host the odd LAN as well and it wasn’t really any cheaper to go smaller for when I don’t need all 24, so I just popped it off. I also need two APs on different channels just to accommodate all the wireless devices + IoT shit.
My (family’s) Homeserver is my dad’s old gaming rig from ~2014
I just put an 8 TB Hard Drive in it and set it up as a combination Emby Server and ghetto “NAS”.
People who are proud of their gear post it.
You seldom hear from the folks running a half dozen VMs on a laptop.
We use containers now btw
I keep my laptop in a bookbag thanks.
I run a cluster of VMs that run kubernetes and manage those VMs with containers that run Terraform and ansible. Along with baremetal RISC-V workflows and ASICs.
A tool is a tool and one should pick what works for them.
Why? Wouldn’t the VMs add extra complexity? Couldn’t you just run the containers on the machine?
I’m one of those people with an overkill setup.
Do you have experience with kubernetes or kubectl and DR or ASICs? Not everything should be a container or can do what an ASIC is built/designed for.
If I want a three node cluster for redundancy and speed I’ll need three baremetal machines. Or one hypervisor hosting 3 VMs that run my cluster nodes. I think there is a knowlege gap. Check out these links if you have more questions.
https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/kubespray-deploy-kubernetes
https://rudimartinsen.com/2023/12/29/kubernetes-cluster-on-vms-2024/
Also some things cannot run as a container due to having architectural differences. These are specifically designed chips for prototyping and software development.
https://www.ijert.org/asic-design-for-a-32-bit-risc-v-processor
Lastly we all have different needs for our home labs. I have to research new tech and processes for my job. It’s a lot of political overhead to get some stuff working on company hardware. I’m very lucky to have a good relationship with systems and storage so that I can buy older retired hardware to run at home. This is not everyone’s usecase and that’s fine.
it’s the reason people post pictures of their cyber truck which can’t move when it snows while my ford has been plowing out neighbors since '97.
You seldom hear from the folks running a half dozen VMs on a laptop.
That’s probably me. Blame it to working with automation systems that span from the early 90s to present day.
I just bought a whole new 8th gen Intel setup to be my main PC. So I could use my 4770 as a Plex server.
Nothing ever dies in my house, Just Machines for the machine gods.
Overkill is underrated.
Wow look at Mr FancyPants over there, your server has a screen, I just got something (RPi) the size of a matchbox! /s
Mine is my 6th gen i5 gaming PC stuffed into an early 00’s tower server chassis. It’s got an ebay IT mode HBA hooked up to a bunch of drives I pulled from an old Lefthand node we were recycling.
I also host my stuff on oscilloscopes.
That pic looks very much like the corner of a memory validation lab I worked in at one point. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone who’s really into server hardware had a home setup like that.
