After running my Dell PowerEdge server 24/7 for a while, I realized the noise and energy use were overkill for what I needed day-to-day. So, I picked up an Intel NUC to handle most of the lightweight tasks. The PowerEdge is still part of my cluster, but now I can power it down and only boot it up when I’m working on bigger projects. The NUC gives me the flexibility of a quieter, more efficient system while keeping the heavy-duty hardware ready when needed.