Some people uses Raspberry Pis or an old desktop computers to make a cluster.
Either You trade power for watts or you trade watts for power.
I came across Asahi Linux. I think it opens possibilities to have 600$ powerful computers running on m1 using very low power. Using it as a single instance or a cluster.
What do you think ? What is your feeling about it ? :)
Why not just run VMware on Mac OS?
Would be interested to see how the power draw is, from my experience on macbook the battery life was taking a ~30% hit on Asahi compared to MacOS. Whatever optimization Apple does just isn’t there. Also would virtualization work? Be efficient? Doubt you could get Proxmox running on one without a lot of hacking.
You can install the apps you need in the MAC M1 (most of them) and run it as a server with MacOS. It’s not the best solution but I would prefer to give Asahi a bit more time (In fact, I have a M1 Mac and I am waiting). Right now the power of a M1 Mac with MacOS is incredible with the energy it consumes. If you want to test it and try new things, go ahead!
If you are rendering large, complex 3D videos, then maybe not. I’m sure it’ll be overkill as an FTPServer…
You also could go the used mini PC route. HP EliteDesk 800 G3 mini for 100 bucks has a 35W CPU and uses very little power. When IDLE almost in an M1 ball park and even in Full Usage it wouldn’t exceed M1 by much. And you got x86_64 architecture which in some instances can be way more compatible with software than M1 aarch64 although it’s on a rise.
You could go all in and get an Ampere like this one Jeff is testing