Bill of Materials
Here is a complete bill of materials for an 8-node cluster:
| Quantity | Part | Unit | Extended |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudlet case | $60 | $60 |
| 8 | 4GB Raspberry Pi 4 Board | $55 | $440 |
| 8 | Heatsink set | $5 | $ 40 |
| 8 | Sandisk 2x32GB MicroSD cards | $13 | $96 |
| 8 | Startech SATA USB3 cable | $10 | $80 |
| 8 | Kingston 120GB A400 SATA SSD | $22 | $176 |
| 8 | PoE Texas GAF-PiHAT | $26 | $208 |
| 2 | Cat 6 Ethernet Cable 5 Pack | $8 | $16 |
| 1 | YuanLey 8 Port Gigabit PoE Switch | $88 | $88 |
| 1 | MicroSD card organizer | $7 | $7 |
| 1 | Sandisk 16GB Cruzer Fit USB Flash Drive | $6 | $6 |
The total cost (before shipping) is $1,217.
The USB flash drive is for cloud-init, so you can configure your cluster easily.
The MicroSD card organizer is a nice touch, allows you to organize and keep spares handy. I’ve recommended doubling up on the MicroSD cards (the Sandisk 2x32GB cards are 2-packs) as a spare for each node will be useful during upgrades.
PoE Switch
The YuanLey gigabit PoE switch is a cheap and cheerful unmanaged switch providing 120W total PoE across 8 ports. It also has 2 gigabit uplink ports and a backplane that will support 22gbps throughput.