I regret building this $3000 Pi AI cluster

I don’t really get why anyone would be buying ai compute unless A) to your goal is to rent out the compute B) no vendor can rent you enough compute when you need it C) you have an exotic funding arrangement that makes compute capex cheap and opex expensive.

Unless you can keep your compute at 70% average utilization for 5 years - you will never save money purchasing your hardware compared to renting it.

Data privacy and security don't matter? My secondhand RTX 3060 would buy a lot of cloud credits, but I don't want tons of highly personal data sent to the cloud. I can't imagine how it would be for healthcare and finance, at least if they properly shepherded their data.