Build a 3-node K3s cluster from $150 surplus Dell OptiPlex desktops
TL;DR My production homelab runs on Lenovo M920q tinies, and I still think those are the sweet spot. But if I were starting over today with a tight budget, I’d buy a stack of government-surplus Dell OptiPlex 7060 and 7070 desktops instead. They go for around $150 each refurbished — 6-core 8th/9th-gen Intel, an SSD, and Windows 11 already on them — and they make excellent Kubernetes nodes with exactly two cheap upgrades: a bit more RAM and a second network card. ...