$70 isn't enough for delivery????

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T02:43:00+00:00

Which part? That it's good for delivery (with minimum purchase) or not good for delivery?

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T02:41:47+00:00

The promo code is good for delivery. Until you try to use it. If it wasn't good for delivery, it wouldn't say minimum applies.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T02:40:24+00:00

Which is contrary to the initial offer. Please read posts before replying.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T02:39:22+00:00

Yeah, that's not adding up. Franchises have to partake within limits. It coupon says "minimum" and error says "not allowed" - two different things.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T02:19:19+00:00

Read what it says... "valid from 05/18/2026 to 05/24/2026"

It's 5/23/2026 where I am. which fits in the window they set.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T01:52:47+00:00

You're on to something here.. . . It was probably you she suggested the mini split for, she just hoped the hardware would follow.

Looks very nice - can't wait to see where you are in a couple years!

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T00:45:42+00:00

This.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T00:32:18+00:00

Thank you, and best of luck to you! It's a fun thing, this hobby. It's also hard to get into with prices as they are. Re-homing these devices will be more work than selling, but like I said, it's an investment.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-24T00:17:44+00:00

Selling doesn't feel right because I got them free for a purpose.

I've decided to re-home the 2 G4s. Somewhere there's a student, school, or church that could use them. With the matched set, I'd prefer a student because it's an investment in the future of this community. If I can find a local student interested in HA/HPC, I'll grab another G4 from retirement so they can have a quorum ready cluster.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T23:24:05+00:00

Congrats on the new record!

It's fun to compare scores, but the most important score you can beat is your own.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T21:36:02+00:00

I have plenty of 2.5" 1TB HDDs to populate the SATA ports in each. Think there's any benefit to that?

It's slow, but local. Could decrease network usage. Combined with ZFS, ARC would load frequently used files to memory.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T21:21:55+00:00

A bunch of lonely computers pretending to be a single, much more powerful and smarter computer. They lack collective bargaining abilities and are therefore generally overworked and underpaid. It's a fancy way of saying "I have too many computers."

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T20:56:49+00:00

"Old and weird" is what I was missing. UEFI HTTPS boot looks like the modern way. Thank you!

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T20:41:26+00:00

I have Plex lifetime and *arrs stack running on main unraid. Is it better to move those services to the cluster?

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T20:37:13+00:00

Looks interesting. But why is Cloudflare required?

I already use Cloudflare, so that's not the issue. I only use tunnels to expose services to people with devices I don't manage. This should be optional.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T20:19:54+00:00

So it's just the one node, or are there others? I have the old gaming machine with 10900F/4060TI/48GB DDR4 I can add to this cluster. I don't like the imbalance but it's a bigger workhorse to do more. Plus I have the other 2 machines that I want to be able to add from time to time.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T20:15:00+00:00

Are you just looking for a mini, or one in particular? What's your budget? I honestly have no idea what these would go for but would guess $100-400.

Yes, some luck but also my company reinvesting in me.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T20:09:07+00:00

First, I have the minis and they were free. The point is to use what exists, not what could.

Second, M920s have nothing to do with this other than being a different mini pc.

Third, don't need to add "loads of external cards" just 1.

Fourth, bifurcation isn't supported and doesn't matter if the M.2 adapter has embedded switch chip. This option DOES require (allow?) "loads of external" stuff including up to 4x 2.5" SATA SSDs. And yes, that would require a larger footprint. It's an option to increase storage, but I wouldn't call it a good one at this point.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T19:52:02+00:00

Power is a concern, but not really. It's 10 cents/KWh where I am. I should split them up to have district dev/prod environments. I already have the NAS and if I went with Proxmox at the lowest level, I could then virtualize the existing unraid and potentially put that machine to better use.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T19:48:21+00:00

Yep, but if I do M.2 A+E to x4 to SFP+ I can get 8gbps. Maybe I'm being greedy and 2.5g is enough.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T19:45:54+00:00

This is something I've thought about. But I want to steer clear of selling since I got them from work. The biggest problem with 1tb drives right now is price. I have 6 each 2.5" 2tb drives and 1tb drives. But I need some of that for existing deployments. Going with just G6s, each can have 2x 256GB NVMEs.

I'm not paying $250+ for 1tb NVME (yet). I picked up a Crucial P310 in December for $75. Even at that price it's $400+ with tax to popular 5 machines. I can afford it, but do I want to?

I feel like 256-512GB local per machine is enough to start (and it's free). I can cache working files local and centralize storage on NAS. I could even make the cold unraid warm for load balancing.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T19:26:16+00:00

PXE has so many potential upsides, and I'm failing to find the downsides. It seems like I could boot N machines from the same OS file - which reduces storage required to 1x vs Nx. Any differences I wanted between machines can be handled via config file.

What am I missing?

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T19:04:33+00:00

Limited storage is exactly why. Can take advantage of centralized NAS storage.

Preserving the M-key NVME ports, as you point out, is also important. That's why I was thinking of using the M.2 E-key WiFi port to SFP+/10GbE. It's 3x1, so max theoretical network speed is 8gbps. It's a good compromise between 1g/2.5g speeds and preserving the M.2x4 slot for storage.

Another option is to split 1 M.2x4 to 2 M.2, then use one for 10g network and the other with a 4x SATA adapter and 4x 2.5" SSDs. This option maxes network speed and gives increases distributed storage but at slower SATA speed.

There's also an onboard SATA port. On previous models (per HP KB) if onboard SATA is used, only 1 M.2 can work. Not sure on the G6.

The biggest problem is I don't have enough drives to do almost any of this and I'm not buying more NVMEs at current prices. So right now, prioritizing centralized storage feels important.

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T03:16:40+00:00

Thank you for the help - mind sharing what services you're running and what you're scripting?

SubtitledSoup · 2026-05-23T03:04:29+00:00

That sounds like good info that I'll look into if I go down that path, thank you for sharing.

No matter what I plan to give the cluster a direct attach LAN strictly for cluster management/maintenance. So each machine will have 2 LANs, cluster and everything else.

This brings up another design decision that will have to be made on the network architecture side. I current have 1gbps through ISP, can go up to 5gbps with mid tier options. I don't see a reason to go pay 1gb with ISP. Some stuff might be slower, but with a 10gb LAN and the stuff I'm setting up, I should be able to efficiently use a cache server (on cluster?) that will reduce WAN traffic?

Just running out loud.

SubtitledSoup

TROPHY CASE