Mini PC for local Gitlab and some microservices

Skyorz · February 13, 2023

I would like to get more serious at with the code I write, have a testing environment and learn a bit about CD/CI.

I don't hace enough space to get a microserver so I thought a micro PC should be viable and it would be a fine solution with low consumption.

I checked this one which seems to have a good price https://amzn.eu/d/8Jg1SoU

The question is if this one would be enough to have a Gitlab server, some Discord bots and maybe small game servers (like Valheim or Minecraft) if needed.

Also an isolated server where I can download files through it and check if they have malware first before send it to my NAS.

Is good or you have some other suggestions? I could rise the budget up to 300€.

Searching a little bit I found this two, I'm a bit concerned about thermals tho and the Celeron, but they have DDR4.

https://amzn.eu/d/e31sKLM

https://amzn.eu/d/95TrrHf

Ainheg · February 13, 2023

If you're considering the Q920, I'd suggest looking for a i5-4590T equipped one, it's a quad core CPU as opposed to the 4570T mentioned in the Amazon listing which is dual core. I have a miniITX system with i5-4590T and 8GB of RAM and tried to run GitLab once in a LXC container (with Proxmox). It seemed to run fine, but I only played with it for a few hours since I figured I don't need it at the moment and kinda forgot about it. If it'd be at most a few people using it, it shouldn't pose problems. I haven't tried game servers, but I'm sure it'd be fine for some light ones without too many mods. Maybe try searching on other sites besides Amazon too, it seems a bit expensive, these refurbished Fujitsu Q920's (with i5-4590T) go for around 100 Euro here in Poland on our local Ebay equivalent - Allegro.

I've recently taken interest in Dell Wyse 5070 thin clients, they are also around 100 Euro here. Maybe check these out, they come with either a Celeron J4105 or Pentium J5005 and use DDR4 SODIMM memory. Their expandability storage-wise is a bit limited though - only a SATA M.2 SSD and a built-in small eMMC. They have low power consumtion - both CPUs are 10W TDP parts and are passively cooled.