Hardware reference

Right-sized hardware starts with the workload.

Concrete examples from compact servers through larger systems, with indicative pricing and the workloads each class is intended to carry.

SBC$80 - $120

Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)

Broadcom BCM2712 (Quad-core ARM Cortex-A76 @ 2.4GHz)

8GB LPDDR4X

MicroSD / NVMe (via HAT)

Representative workload

The Local Coffee Shop Menu

Illustrative fit: a small venue could use this class of device for a local display, lightweight network utility, or other low-risk edge workload where recovery is simple.

Home Assistant AdGuard Home Simple static website Digital Signage

SBC$150 - $200

Orange Pi 5 Plus

Rockchip RK3588 (8-core)

16GB LPDDR4

M.2 NVMe SSD Support

Representative workload

The Creative Freelancer's Backup

Illustrative fit: a solo creative could use this class for a small local backup target or media service, provided storage redundancy and restore testing are designed separately.

Media Server (Plex/Jellyfin) AI Inference (NPU) Light NAS

Mini PC$500 - $800

Intel NUC 13 Pro "Arena Canyon"

Intel Core i5-1340P (12 cores)

Up to 64GB DDR4

M.2 NVMe Gen4

Representative workload

The Dental Office Reception

Illustrative fit: a small office could use this class for containerized internal services, a lab, or network tooling. Regulated data and security-sensitive workloads require a separate architecture review.

Small Office Server Container Lab (Docker/Kubernetes) pfSense Router

Mini PC$700 - $1000

Minisforum MS-01 Workstation

Intel Core i9-13900H

Up to 96GB DDR5

3x M.2 Slots + U.2 Enterprise SSD Support

Representative workload

The Video Production Team

Illustrative fit: a small media team could evaluate this class for fast local scratch storage or virtualization when the network, storage layout, and backup path are sized together.

High Performance Homelab Virtualization (Proxmox/ESXi) 10GbE Networking

Tower$1,200 - $2,500

Dell Precision 3660 Tower

Intel Core i7-13700K

32GB - 128GB DDR5 ECC

Multiple 3.5" HDD Bays + M.2

Representative workload

The Architecture Firm

Illustrative fit: a professional office could use this class for local file services or compute-heavy workloads. RAID improves availability but is not a backup and should not be presented as one.

CAD/Engineering Workstation Small Business File Server Local AI LLM Server

Tower$800 - $1,500

Custom NAS Build (Jonsbo N1)

Intel i3-12100

16GB DDR4

5x 3.5" HDD Capacity

Representative workload

The Photographer's Archive

Illustrative fit: a media archive could use this chassis class for high-capacity local storage. Drive count, filesystem, off-site copies, lifecycle replacement, and restore testing still determine durability.

Massive Media Storage Archival Backup Unraid/TrueNAS

Rack$1,500 - $3,000

Dell PowerEdge R740xd (Refurbished)

Dual Intel Xeon Gold 6138 (40 Cores Total)

128GB - 512GB DDR4 ECC

24x 2.5" Drive Bays

Representative workload

The Growing SaaS Startup

Illustrative fit: a team with predictable compute demand could evaluate refurbished rack hardware for colocation or a private virtualization cluster after modeling redundancy, remote hands, power, network, spares, and recovery cost.

Virtualization Cluster SaaS Backend Large Database Host

Rack$900 - $1,400

Supermicro 1U Short-Depth

Intel Xeon E-2200 Series

32GB - 64GB ECC

2x 3.5" or 4x 2.5"

Representative workload

The Manufacturing Plant

Illustrative fit: a constrained edge location could evaluate a short-depth server for local telemetry or network services, subject to environmental ratings, cooling, power protection, and maintenance access.

Edge Computing Firewall Appliance Network Controller

Not sure which hardware class matches the workload?

Use the planner to narrow the requirement before comparing individual machines.

Start planning →