Choosing Hardware

I had a few simple requirements for the hardware.

The computers needed to be small, cheap, silent, and run on x86 architecture. My personal opinion - Raspberry Pis are too mainstream these days and I didn't want to deal with them. Sure, they're silent, but they use ARM architecture. I didn't want to run into weird issues on an unfamiliar platform.

I checked what mini PCs were available in New Zealand. As usual, the prices were shocking. Some weak-ass machine would cost at least $400. Anything actually decent - around $800.

Of course, I went straight to AliExpress and sorted "Mini PCs" by price. Got lucky and found 12x12 cm computers with no fans, x86 architecture, for just $120 each.

With import fees each computer came to $125. Dirt cheap, hell yeah! I bought three right away so my cluster would look somewhat legit. Didn't want to start with just one lonely node.

Was pleasantly surprised by the build quality. No plastic stink or roughly finished parts - the plastic felt really solid.

Did not get a New Zealand power adapter in my order, but whatever.

Slapped MAC address stickers on them to keep track.

Time to nuke Windows and install Linux!