I’ve been trying to run Immich (Google photos alternative) on my pi, with a USB HDD attached, and I lose connection quite often, when rebooting the drive isn’t connected at times. Is there a more reliable alternative that doesn’t have the Synology prices? Something in between?
Find a used tiny PC like the HP 800 G3 mini.
At least here in europe, you can buy them for around hundred Euros, which is barely more than the raspberries.
+1, if you really don’t need much processing power there’s always the HP T630 thin client. On a good day you can get one of those for <$60 shipped with its power brick. Just add storage and you’re good to go. I’ve run Debian and Proxmox on these before to act as cheap docker or LXC hosts.
True, I even found one for 50€ with power brick and free shipping.