I am thinking about buying a home server for a wide range of things. I found some cheap old computers on amazon for around 80-90€. Is it worth it to upgrade them with another stick of ram or a larger SSD? 2 8gb RAM sticks are only around 15€, so that would be 100 in total. But my question is, is it worth it, or is the CPU the limiting factor. Some of them have one from the pentium series. Also, is 15€ for 2x8gb DDR4 RAM normal (not too cheap)? Maybe you have other ideas for a cheap home server. In my case I don’t think a 90€ raspberry pi is worth it
You have to keep in mind that your server is going to be running 24/7/365 (hopefully). Depending on your electric rates, this can be a significant cost, and certainly will justify buying a newer, more efficient computer, over time.
RPi is popular because it is crazy efficient, only drawing a few watts from the wall.