Raspberry Pi CM4

You're spending that much time on it because you're doing too much. Your use of the term "homelab" is telling. I have: * A rented VPS that's been running for ~15 years without any major issues, only a couple hours a month of maintenance. * A small NUC-like device connected to the TV for media. Requires near-zero maintenance. * A self-built 5-drive NAS based around a Raspberry Pi CM4 with a carrier board built for NAS/networking uses. Requires near-zero maintenance. * A Raspberry Pi running some home automation stuff. This one requires a little more effort because the hardware it talks to is flaky, as is some of the software, so maybe 2-3 hours a month. The basics (internet access itself) are just a commodity cable modem, a commodity router running a manufacturer-maintained OpenWRT derivative, a pair of consumer-grade APs reflashed with OpenWRT, and a few consumer-grade switches. There's no reason for me to roll my own here, and I don't want to be on the hook for it when it breaks. And if any of the stuff in the bulleted list breaks, it can sit for days or weeks if I don't feel like touching it, because it's not essential. And yes, I've hard hardware failures and botched software upgrades. They take time to resolve. But it's not a big burden, and I don't spent much time on this stuff. > I have a much more complex setup than necessary Yup. > Getting to parity with the operationalization you get from a cloud platform takes more ongoing work. You don't need this. T…

As someone that have successfully flown a RPi CM4 based payload on a cubesat, I fully agree with this. There's not enough funding in my research group to hire a dedicated test engineer so I need to both design and test my payload. It was a long lonely road It does work at the end, but shortly after we got our first data from space, I decided to quit the space industry and become a test engineer at a terrestrial embedded company instead

For $20 more (after instant coupon) you can get https://www.amazon.com/UXX-Desktop-Computer-Expandable-Frame... - Somewhat faster multicore performance, identical single core performance - Disk buses run at full speed - Runs any standard x86-64 OS and software instead of Pi/Arm specific ones - Has double the RAM - Comes with a 256 GB m.2 SSD (unfortunately not an option to buy without), can be replaced if you want more. - Comes with the case For slightly more you can get one with 2 drive bays in the factory case instead of having to build some external drive mount solution e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-4-Cores-N5095-Computer-Ethern... . If you aren't as worried on the CPU performance there are options in the $80 range that still hold these other advantages. Pi's are fun but they are slightly overhyped in terms of the absolute value for things you can do with a standard PC like build a NAS, host a server, or use as an actual PC. The biggest values are where the 1 GB RAM model can do more than you need and it's a really great value for a non-used device or where the Pi's non high speed interfaces are a benefit like IP KVMs where the GPIO can control the motheboard, the CSI can capture the HDMI output, the USB OTG can act as the USB/CD drive/Keyboard/Mouse, the NIC/Wi-fi make it easy to access, and the size makes it fit inside existing equipment without issue.

You can also use a Raspberry Pi compute module in an appropriate carrier. I use the CM4 for work and consequently it’s all I use at home too. Lovely versatile device that fits in whatever carrier you want (including one that mocks a regular pi) and it has industrial grade flash.

I spent a couple grand[1] building myself an all-flash Pi CM4 NAS that I reckon will deliver RoI in ~25 years at €0.39/kWh. I did it for the sport, mainly, and because I wanted silence and minimal power draw. It works pretty well, though! The Pi has a nice ecosystem, is better for hardware hackery than N100 mini PCs, and like all cheapish consumer products, people will kinda buy them just to buy them. I have a Pi5 sitting unused on my desk. Doing my part to pay for Eben's private island, I guess. I'll find a use for it eventually. [1] https://github.com/theodric/NASty/blob/main/NASty-bill-of-ma...

RPi5 exposes 1 lane on the PCIe connector. It routes 4 lanes to the 2040 chip that provides much of the board's I/O. IMO 1 lane is better than none. I love the CM4 because it exposes 1 PCIe lane and that can support a NVME SSD making it the first Pi that supports what I consider to be a decent storage interface.