←back to thread

I regret building this $3000 Pi AI cluster

(www.jeffgeerling.com)
468 points speckx | 2 comments | 19 Sep 25 14:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.408s | source
Show context
fidotron ◴[19 Sep 25 14:44 UTC] No.45302232[source]▶
If Pi Clusters were actually cost competitive for performance there would be data centres full of them.
replies(5): >>45302265 #>>45302287 #>>45304529 #>>45305386 #>>45306381 #
phoronixrly ◴[19 Sep 25 14:47 UTC] No.45302265[source]▶
If they were cost competitive for ... anything at all really...
replies(6): >>45302533 #>>45302559 #>>45302609 #>>45305113 #>>45306161 #>>45306233 #
wltr ◴[19 Sep 25 15:12 UTC] No.45302533[source]▶
Well I have a Pi as a home server, and it’s very energy efficient, while doing what I want. Since I don’t need latest and greatest (I don’t see any difference with a modern PC for my use case), it’s very competitive for me. No need for any cooling is bonus.
replies(1): >>45303311 #
1. Waraqa ◴[19 Sep 25 16:11 UTC] No.45303311[source]▶
>very energy efficient

If your server has a lot of idle time, ARM will always win.

replies(1): >>45310902 #
2. wltr ◴[20 Sep 25 06:15 UTC] No.45310902[source]▶
My home server mostly not used. It triggers some simple bash scripts each hour, or each night. It serves some simple personal web pages. I access them a couple of times a day, each time randomly. I have a Raspberry Pi 1B, and it looks like despite being massively underpowered, it’s the most energy efficient. And in my use-case, I think of using it for the task.

One day my primary Raspberry Pi broke (turned out to be a PSU issue), and I thought of having an old laptop running 24/7 as a home server. While being not very power hungry, it’s still wants much more energy (plus it has fans). For a casual usage (I forgot to mention Pi-Hole) it feels like an overkill. So, while a Raspberry Pi isn’t the best, it has its niche, and I’m happy of having one (actually, a few).