Need help for node setup

[Findingnemo]

Don't know where you are in the world but here in the US both the drive and additional RAM should have a minimal cost.

Check out Amazon or any local store and you will be shocked to see the price hike in the last few months, the prices of RAM and SSD were tripled since I bought one and major reason is due to the demand created due to the hype around AI and everyone wants to train their AI that leaves with temporary demand that might wear off in the next few months.

If the laptop supports 8GB ram then that's what I will recommend, along with at least 256GB SSD for pruned node.

But to OP if he wants to install Bitcoin Core for learning purpose then I suggest him to go with the testnet, which does the same job with a lot less disk space and resources needed for the sync.

[LoyceV]

But to OP if he wants to install Bitcoin Core for learning purpose then I suggest him to go with the testnet, which does the same job with a lot less disk space and resources needed for the sync.

I take it you've never actually tried running testnet I just checked: chainstate on testnet3 is 5 GB larger than on normal Bitcoin, which makes it even more hungry for RAM.

[SPIDERMAN008]

     1. I have a spare laptop from 2014 (Acer Aspire E14, E5-411 model) but it only has 2GB RAM and 500GB HDD. I do have an external 1TB drive though. Will this setup work?

Even if you can run a node with a laptop with 2GB RAM and 500GB HDD, it will be very slow. And when I try to run a full node, the block size has been about 751gb till today. And my laptop is i5 8th Generation ram 16gb. To run a full node, I upgraded the SSD to 1tb. I am giving a screenshot of the full block download size below. i recommend you to   must use SSD  included device which processor is also updated for fast sync  .

     2. Is there any benefit or difference in running a full node vs a pruned one, and what should I go for?
This is a great learning opportunity for me and I am planning to run it for as long as the laptop can. I would like to hear your thoughts and advice.

Pruned node requires less storage and running a full node requires more storage as I mentioned earlier. And with Pruned node you can give the command how much you want to keep in download according to your storage. And running a full node makes it easier to run lnd and peer connection can be easily done. Apart from that, experts do various other advanced work. Which node you run depends on what you will use it for.

     3. I want to replace the OS with Linux but I've never used it before, what distribution is recommended?

This is a great learning opportunity for me and I am planning to run it for as long as the laptop can. I would like to hear your thoughts and advice.

I think you might be thinking of running lnd.
With Ubuntu Complete GUIDE for Lightning Desktop Nodes tutorial by @Satofan44's. It's really a great job.
since most people are more familiar with Windows, another tutorial LND node on Windows for Lightning Network - Beginner friendly.

     4. Is it necessary to use Tor?
This is a great learning opportunity for me and I am planning to run it for as long as the laptop can. I would like to hear your thoughts and advice.

Tor basically helps in peer connection with privacy . I can't go into details about this but even if you run pruned node you can still connect to peer using Tor. I tried this but failed so I ran a full node.

[Findingnemo]

But to OP if he wants to install Bitcoin Core for learning purpose then I suggest him to go with the testnet, which does the same job with a lot less disk space and resources needed for the sync.

I take it you've never actually tried running testnet I just checked: chainstate on testnet3 is 5 GB larger than on normal Bitcoin, which makes it even more hungry for RAM.

Well, -testnet4 then. Should be less hungry for RAM. 

[Cricktor]

Testnet4 has its own annoyances. This is block generation in Mainnet with few stale blocks occasionally which occur usually in intervals of a few hundreds of blocks.



This is Testnet4 and the block forking doesn't really look healthy to me. The time warping or whatever shenanigans are doing on Testnet4 is sometimes really annoying because from my occasional observance on Testnet4 some miners don't care at all about transactions in mempool(s), it's about stealing blocks and being able to mine them with forced difficulty of 1.

Yes it's a playground, but feels kinda broken.



Zoomed out a bit to see more of the mess...



I guess, I'm digressing the topic. Screenshots are from https://fork.observer/

[Hashura]

And on older machines like that use an internal drive not USB. 11+ year old USB ports can be cranky. Just from the years of oxidation and insertion and removal of USB devices wearing on the connectors.

The USB ports all seem to be working fine, but I've decided to just go with a pruned node, so I won't be using the external drive anymore.

I think you might be thinking of running lnd.
With Ubuntu Complete GUIDE for Lightning Desktop Nodes tutorial by @Satofan44's. It's really a great job.
since most people are more familiar with Windows, another tutorial LND node on Windows for Lightning Network - Beginner friendly.

This is Testnet4 and the block forking doesn't really look healthy to me. The time warping or whatever shenanigans are doing on Testnet4 is sometimes really annoying because from my occasional observance on Testnet4 some miners don't care at all about transactions in mempool(s), it's about stealing blocks and being able to mine them with forced difficulty of 1.

These are too complicated for me. For now I just want the experience of running a node.

I've bought a second-hand business laptop with 8 GB RAM, SSD and many hours of battery life for less money than a new laptop battery. This may depend on where you live, but it's worth considering.

Many Business laptops are also commonly easier to repair/open/upgrade than consumer models and some are built to last longer, especially when they're easier to clean off some dust built-up in the cooling system.

Even going from 2GB to 4 is going to make it soooooo much better.

If the laptop supports 8GB ram then that's what I will recommend, along with at least 256GB SSD for pruned node.

From where I live, those are quite affordable as well, and I guess it would take less effort than replacing parts. But I could also just upgrade the ram of the other laptop that I've mentioned to 8GB. I appreciate all of the suggestions regardless. I'll weigh my options and choose what's best based on my resources.

[ABCbits]

And if OP's laptop also contain HDD with big capacity, he can consider using --blocksdir option so blockchain data stored on HDD (while other files still on SSD) to reduce burden on the SSD.

The blocks directory writes "only" 0.7 TB during IBD, the chainstate directory writes many TBs (when low on RAM) or barely anything (when high on RAM).

Let me quote my older post.

2. If you use your 2TB SSD to store other data, it's worth to know that some SSD become noticeably slower when it's getting full.
3. Too much data have written on your SSD and it switched from pSLC to either TLC/QLC mode which makes it slower. Below image example is for sequential write, but i expect random I/O activity would be severally impacted as well.

Note that i don't know whether image i shown also apply on sustained write, without also using more space.

Don't know where you are in the world but here in the US both the drive and additional RAM should have a minimal cost.

Check out Amazon or any local store and you will be shocked to see the price hike in the last few months, the prices of RAM and SSD were tripled since I bought one and major reason is due to the demand created due to the hype around AI and everyone wants to train their AI that leaves with temporary demand that might wear off in the next few months.

If the laptop supports 8GB ram then that's what I will recommend, along with at least 256GB SSD for pruned node.

But to OP if he wants to install Bitcoin Core for learning purpose then I suggest him to go with the testnet, which does the same job with a lot less disk space and resources needed for the sync.

FWIW, some news report OpenAI is the main reason since it's claimed they buy 40% of global RAM supply[1] while the rest are few big AI/tech company. Anyway, i expect cost to upgrade both SSD and RAM could be more expensive that OP's laptop.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/openais-stargate-project-to-consume-up-to-40-percent-of-global-dram-output-inks-deal-with-samsung-and-sk-hynix-to-the-tune-of-up-to-900-000-wafers-per-month

[LoyceV]

For now I just want the experience of running a node.

This made me remember how amazing it felt to see a tiny amount of Bitcoin appear in my wallet for the first time (in 2015)!

But I could also just upgrade the ram of the other laptop that I've mentioned to 8GB.

That's what I would do. Or, if it has 2 slots and can handle more, leave the 4 and just add the 8.