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After much anticipation, The ComputeBlade has finally arrived! This innovative piece of hardware has been making waves in the compact computing and homelab community since its inception as a Kickstarter project, which closed in February 2023. While the Kickstarter campaign was highly successful, the journey to delivery has been anything but smooth.

The ComputeBlade Journey

For those unfamiliar, the ComputeBlade is an ambitious project by Uptime Lab designed to bring powerful, modular computing to a compact blade-style chassis. It offers support for Raspberry Pi Compute Modules (CM4) and similar SBCs, providing a platform for homelab enthusiasts, developers, and small-scale edge computing setups.

However, the project has faced several setbacks that delayed delivery for many backers:

1. Russian Screws: Supply chain disruptions included sourcing specific screws, which became problematic due to geopolitical tensions.
2. PoE (Power over Ethernet) Issues: The team encountered complications ensuring consistent and safe PoE functionality.
3. Certification Challenges: Meeting various regulatory standards across regions added another layer of complexity.

Despite these hurdles, I opted to purchase my ComputeBlades retail, as Kickstarter backers have yet to fully receive their units.

For those interested in the Kickstarter campaign details, you can check it out here.

First Impressions

The retail packaging was sleek, compact, and felt premium. The ComputeBlade itself is a marvel of design, seamlessly blending form and function. Its modularity and expandability immediately stand out, with features such as:

• Support for Raspberry Pi CM4: Making it a natural fit for virtualization, containerization, and other development projects.
• Hot-Swappable Design: Simplifies maintenance and upgrades.
• Integrated Networking: Includes options for advanced network setups, perfect for a homelab.

What’s Next?

Now that the ComputeBlade has arrived, I’m eager to put it through its paces. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be:

1. Testing Homelab Applications: From running lightweight virtual machines to hosting containers using Docker or Kubernetes.
2. Evaluating Networking Features: Especially the PoE capabilities and how it handles edge computing scenarios.
3. Sharing Configurations: I’ll document how I integrate it into my existing homelab setup.

Closing Thoughts

While the journey of the ComputeBlade from Kickstarter to retail has been rocky, the product itself seems poised to live up to its promise. If you’ve been waiting for a scalable and compact compute platform, the ComputeBlade might just be the solution you’ve been looking for.

Stay tuned for my follow-up posts where I dive deeper into its performance and practical applications. If you’re also experimenting with the ComputeBlade, feel free to share your experiences in the comments or reach out via social media.