Right now I am using a raspberrypi4 with a Debian 12 on it. It serves quite some services but Im not happy with the IO of the device and also the performance is kinda slow for what I am doing with it.
I want something long term with low power consumption on idle. I was looking for something x86 and there are some guids regarding undervolting and underclocking CPUs but Im not sure if I gonna make it work like this.
I found the LattePanda Sigma. Does anyone have any experience with this board?
This kind of thing is actually kinda perfect for me but it is also quite expensive and it is obviously not very expandable.
Originally I wanted this one:
Zotac ZBOX CI337 nano but I dont think it has 2,5 gbit ethernet. I really like the N100 CPU on it cause its very effisient and for linux more than enough performance.
May be you guys have better idea:
My Requirements are:
Power consumption in idle should be less than 10 W (important to me)
2.5 Gbit Ethernet (ideally twice for firewall/router capabilites)
2x NVMe Storage
ideally PCIe Expansion slot for a Sata-Controller or something like this. But it could be also thunderbolt like on the LattePanda Sigma.
it should be compact. I was considering not bigger than this:
Silverstone DS380.
What I dont like about the Lattepanda is that it has a fan. Ideally I want something passive cooled. I would also sacrifice performance for it. What I dont like about the Raspi are the following:
1 Gbit LAN, Performance when it comes to compress/decompress. I would have considered upgrading to a raspi5 but it still has only 1gbit LAN and ideally I want a raid setup now.
The price of the setup is not that important to me. I want a current Gen CPU what is in the TDP Range of a mobile chip but with as much IO as possible.
Look for a system with Intel N100 or N305 CPU. They don’t offer much IO capabilities (only 9 lanes of PCIe Gen3) but are very power efficient and thanks to modern acceleraters (AES-NI, QSV) quite capable for home labbing type of tasks.
Much more capable than any RPi.
Pretty much any NUC like devices can be set up to match most of your requirements and target power consumption. Even passive cooling is possible to pull off.
Iffy points are:
multiple nvme slots (i am guessing sacrificing wireless card to free up second nvme slot is the easitest way)
pcie slots are not common in UCFF form factor, as there is not enough space and demand
Servethehome site has long running series reviewing nuc-like product for use as pf sense hosts, both from large oems to off brand aliexpress purchases.
Give it a look a see. Project tiny micro tag covers large oem devices and reviews for passively cooled appliances are under firewall tag.
Just to give you ballpark what is possible on upper end of performance scale, last review of ryzen 5800 passively cooled topton appliance measured:
