Right now I am looking at NZ’s second hand marketplace TradeMe. But there are not very many options. Are there any other places I could look to buy? Or is it better to use a couple of Orange Pi 5s? My budget is $800 NZD or around $500 USD.
Government auctions and LabGopher
Can’t speak to what is available in NZ, but one of my enterprise servers (the r420) came from Amazon for about 300US
HomeProd also came from Amazon, 2x HP EliteDesk 800 g3, currently sitting about 130US/ea (plus whatever another 8gb ramstick cost, plus $100 that 1TB nvme used to cost)
Shipping any server here from overseas would prolly cost a small fortune, and TradeMe is garbage these days. Could be worth checking FB Marketplace and any local e-waste facilities or the rummage section at your local landfill.
Honestly though if you think that your needs would be met by a few Orange Pis then you probably don’t really need dedicated server hardware - that stuff is expensive, uses a ton of electricity, and is extremely hot/noisy.
Thanks. Would the noise and heat from a dedicated server be noticeable in neighboring rooms? Also how much of a power consumption increase would be expected?
Honestly that depends on the specific hardware and what your walls are made of! And the power consumption would also depend on your power plan, could be anywhere from a dollar to $5-10+ a day.