Damus
Rich Nost profile picture
Rich Nost
@Rich Nost
I don't see a lot of people talking about running nodes on commodity hardware anymore. At the meetups, people tell me how "expensive" it is to get a node, thinking they have to buy some custom 12th gen i7 microPC and a support license they will probably never leverage anyways.

Four and a half years ago, this raspberry pi 4 (8gb) + external HDD was sufficient for an enthusiast to be up and running with a full, archival, indexed bitcoin+lightning node within a couple days.

Let's see how long it takes in 2025.
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Nyoro~n · 43w
is that a spinning disk external drive?
Wonteet Zebugs · 43w
I find it's cheaper to just buy a used desktop on ebay. I get better specs for cheaper, and normal desktops don't flake out as much as raspberry pis do. RPs are really for educational purposes, they're great educational tools for kids. But having them run 24/7 is risky in my opinion.
Filou · 43w
Totally still possible! If it’s a node for personal use, making payment, zaps, etc. no issues. It’s more when people try running a routing node with lots of channels they run into problems pretty quick! My first node was almost identical, same RasPi and case- only difference I had the expansion...
ben · 41w
🫡 https://blossom.primal.net/873a54b3f46afc4f3de8e24018ab701985991a855f054d148383d34cf39aa224.jpg
unknown · 41w
My refurb dell micro was only $75 usd
ed · 41w
$100 mac mini +$150 of upgrades is still alla it takes.
acronym · 41w
Old laptop, upgrade HDD to SSD, NixOS, nix-bitcoin, done.