Go with me here. Routers are routers, and servers are servers. Some people mix and match things, but generally, ideally, this is how it goes. And I agree.
But the router I just set up, the Google WiFi, has 4gb storage, 512mb of ram, a quad core CPU at 800mhz, is easy to flash, and only costs $10-15 on eBay all day long.
If you used it as only a little computer, no routing.. Then..
If I wanted to say... Set up a tailscale node at my family's house. Why spend $45-80, or even $130(!) on a raspberry pi with an Ethernet port, when the Google WiFi works just as well if not better for that job?
Maybe a tiny matrix server? Tiny web hosting?
Or, for a less ideal solution, but still reasonable. What if I wanted to set up a remote backup node for my main server? If my needs were small enough, the Google WiFi would be much more economical, although you'd need to add a USB hub to break out the USB ports. And there would be limitations obviously.
Or getting really crazy, you could potentially squeeze one or two bigger services onto a router, just to see if it's possible.. Minecraft server?
My question is. What is the best device for this? The Google WiFi is dirt cheap at $10-15, I'm about to pull the trigger on a second one just to play with. But I wanted to see if you guys had any other suggestions?
I tried searching the toh for similar devices, but even restricting it down every way I can think of, I've still got over a hundred devices to look at.
Basically, I think older router hardware is an overlooked, cheaper alternative, to raspberry pis, for some scenarios.
Have a look at the NanoPi R3S:
https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&path=69&product_id=311
Quad A55 at up to 1.8GHz.
I have a NanoPi R5S running OpenWrt acting as a router + light NAS and a NanoPi M4 running Armbian (Debian flavor) running a LXQt desktop and they're not bad.
It's worth noting though that because I have a HDD hooked up to the R5S via USB3, when I read or write to it over a 2.5Gbps link, the CPU is like 60-70% busy just handling USB and network interrupts and running NFS. The R5S has a quad A55 CPU at up to 2GHz, so that should give you a rough idea what the R3S is capable of.
There's also the NanoPi Zero 2:
https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&path=69&product_id=304
In general, older Rockchip CPUs are getting to be fairly well supported these days, and newer ones are getting support a lot faster than the old ones did. But always do your due diligence of course, anything ARM tends to have way more gotchas than x86, and that gets more true as its Chinese-ness increases.
Thanks for the recommendations! Those are really capable looking machines for not much more money. I think that answers my question as to why nobody else is doing this with old routers haha