Looking to build a K8s cluster, what are your strategies for finding affordable hardware? (lemmy.world)

submitted 13 hours ago by Eldaroth@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I currently run all my self-hosted apps either on Podman in a VM or in LXCs on Proxmox. For hardware, I'm using a Chinese-made mini computer with an Intel N150 and 16GB of DDR5 RAM that I bought before the whole AI hype started. I also have a Synology NAS that I use mainly for media and photo storage.

I've been thinking about tinkering with Kubernetes in my homelab for a while now (I already use it extensively at work, so I'm quite familiar with it), and I started looking around for used hardware to use as bare metal nodes. Nothing fancy—I'm looking for 1 or 2 mini servers or SFF with at least 16GB of memory and a decent CPU (4–6 cores). But with current prices, even decently priced used hardware (~200–250€) is quite difficult to find in Europe, and most of it is HP stuff with Lenovo being a rare breed around here. I won't even get started on newly bought hardware...

If you've bought hardware in this market recently, how did it go for you? Or are most of you holding out for now, waiting for better times?

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[-] utjebe@reddthat.com 1 points 2 hours ago

€200-250 is the entry point for something like 10th gen i5. You mostly get 1 year warranty on refurbished hw and as long as it is not DoA, it will be fine. These machiness are for sale because of accounting, not because of being broken

this post was submitted on 25 May 2026

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