Raspberry Pi and Thin Clients
Choosing the right hardware is crucial to ensuring a smooth and successful experience. There are many options available in the market, but Raspberry Pi and thin clients are two of the most popular choices.
Raspberry Pi is a small, affordable computer that can be used for a variety of projects, including self-hosting. It is easy to set up and has a strong community of users who offer support and guidance. Raspberry Pi also has a variety of models available, each with different capabilities, making it a versatile option.
Thin clients and ex-office mini PCs (Fujitsu Futro, HP EliteDesk/ProDesk Mini, Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny, Dell OptiPlex Micro) are small, low-power x86 boxes that companies retire in bulk after their leasing cycle. They are sold refurbished for little money, run a normal Linux distro and Docker without ARM quirks, and take standard SATA/M.2 SSDs and SO-DIMM RAM.
The choice between Raspberry Pi and thin clients largely depends on availability. Raspberry Pi is widely available and can be purchased from most electronics retailers. Thin clients, on the other hand, are usually from second hand electronic stores and usually bought refurbished.
Regardless of which option you choose, both hardware options should be able to support your initial needs.
What I bought
Section titled “What I bought”Everything I have actually ordered, oldest first. The Pis came first; since 2023 the home rack has run entirely on refurbished mini PCs.
| Date | Device | Specs (as bought) | Store | Price | Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2018 | Raspberry Pi 3 Model B | Board only | DFRobot | $29.95 + $6 shipping | Not in the rack |
| Nov 2020 | Raspberry Pi 400 (US layout) | Pi 4 in a keyboard | Cytron Singapore | S$112.99 | Broken |
| Jan 2023 | Fujitsu Futro S740 thin client | Celeron J4105 4C, 8 GB, 16 GB SSD | eBay (piospartslap, refurbisher) | €69 | fun: DNS, reverse proxy, BookStack, media mounts. Upgraded to 1 TB + 120 GB SSD |
| Apr 2023 | HP EliteDesk 800 G2 DM | Pentium G4400T 2C, 8 GB, 120 GB SSD | AMSO | €59.90 | zen: Home Assistant, Minecraft Bedrock, CUPS. Upgraded to 1 TB |
| Mar 2024 | HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini | Core i5-9500T 6C, 16 GB, 256 GB SSD | Ram-König | €215 (with a 23% promo) | kids: AI agent, headless Chromium, SearXNG, monitoring |
Things I bid on or asked about but did not end up buying: an Intel NUC6i5SYH on eBay (2022, outbid), a Dell OptiPlex 7040 Micro on Kleinanzeigen (2026, sold to someone else), an HP ProDesk 400 G3 Mini on eBay (2025, won at €72 but the purchase was cancelled), and a Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 2 on eBay (Sep 2026, outbid).
Lessons
Section titled “Lessons”- Total cost for three always-on servers was about €345. About €115 per box, roughly what a Pi 5 costs once you add a case, PSU and SSD, but with x86, more RAM and SATA/M.2 built in.
- The CPU sets the job. The J4105 and G4400T are fine for DNS, a proxy, Home Assistant and a wiki. Anything with a browser, AI agent or transcoding goes on the i5-9500T. If I bought one box today it would be an 8th–10th gen i5 “T” mini PC.
- Refurbishers beat private sellers. AMSO, Ram-König and eBay refurbishers ship tested units with an invoice and warranty. Kleinanzeigen and eBay auctions are cheaper but the good listings go fast.
- Budget for storage. Refurb units come with tiny SSDs (16–256 GB). A cheap 1 TB SATA SSD is the first upgrade.
- Watch for promos. Ram-König runs frequent percentage-off codes; AMSO has a loyalty program after the first order.
Where to buy refurbished mini PCs in Germany
Section titled “Where to buy refurbished mini PCs in Germany”From my own research in September 2026, covering eBay.de, Kleinanzeigen, mydealz, Back Market, refurbed and refurbisher shops. All three boxes in my rack came from sellers on this list.
| Seller | Based in | Why | Warranty (as stated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AfB | Düren | Non-profit, the shop forums recommend most, on every channel | 12 months, extendable |
| RAM-König | Köln | Frequent mydealz deals (Wyse 5070 from €49); my EliteDesk 800 G5 | 12 months |
| PIOSPARTSLAP | Mönchengladbach | Mostly on eBay, many mydealz deals; my Futro S740 | 12 months |
| AMSO | Kraków, PL | Most mydealz deals of any seller (HP t640 at €65); my EliteDesk 800 G2. Returns go to Poland | 12 months, up to 36 |
| itsco | Meppen | Stiftung Warentest 09/2025 Preistipp (laptops) | Up to 3 years (optional) |
| Harlander | Oberndorf a. Lech | Longest standard warranty | 30 months |
| notebook-pro | Hamburg | On every channel, active on Kleinanzeigen | 12 months |
| gebrauchte-technik.de | Melle | Interzero; 30-day money back | Up to 36 months |
| hardware-online-shop.de | Thuine | Remondis; Esprimo Q deals | Length not captured |
| dealo24 (eBay) | Grambow | Biggest eBay volume, about 3,250 mini PC listings | 36 months |
- eBay.de has the most stock. 302 German sellers list there. By listing count: Dell OptiPlex Micro (about 2,100), Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny (about 1,700), HP EliteDesk/ProDesk Mini (about 1,400), thin clients (about 370).
- Watch mydealz for the deals. The hottest ones are cheap thin clients and Esprimo Q boxes from AMSO, RAM-König, MJtronics and hardware-online-shop.
- Kleinanzeigen is mostly private sellers. For “thinkcentre tiny” there were about 105 private ads against 29 commercial ones. Single-keyword searches work best there.
- Warranty: 12 months’ Gewährleistung is the floor from a business. The “1 Jahr Gewährleistung” banner eBay shows is eBay’s, not the seller’s promise.