Is 4 GB enough for Bitcoin Core and other apps?

1- So, mini PCs from Start9 and Umbrel require at least 8GB or 16GB, which makes me wonder if my 4GB mini can run Bitcoin Core. I do have a 1TB storage though. 2- I noticed that Start9's pricier model has the "Intel® Management Engine (IME) disabled". How important is that? Should I be worried about it? Thanks!

I think I only had 4GB on a RPi when I first started playing with Umbrel.  It worked, and that was when it ran on top of another OS.  I would imagine now that it's integrated with it's own trimmed down version of Debian, it should still work.  I don't think it'll bog down too much, and it doesn't hurt to try if you already have the PC.  Just keep in mind that if your hard drive is a spinner that's going to be the bottle neck regardless of how much ram you have. If you're buying a new PC for the purpose, get one with at least 16GB and a 2TB nvme SSD.  You wont regret the extra expense. I have one of these mini Dell PCs currently running Umbrel.  Mine has 32GB if ram, a 256GB SSD for the OS, and I mapped a 2TB nvme to /home, which is where Umbrel wants to store it's files.  FYI if you find yourself with one of these mini Dell PCs, I don't recommend attempting to duplicate my HD setup for the faint of heart.  Every time Umbrell updates it's self, it overwrites my fstab file.  Unless you're skilled with Linux, you're better off just using either a SATA SSD or the nvme, and not attempt to use both. I've salvaged many of those mini Dells from local school/library auctions and bult nodes for friends and family on quite a few of them.  I believe the one in the link does have an nvme slot, most of the models I've seen with i5 processors do. It is in fact critical to have it disabled.  It's got all kinds of security issues with it, and isn't necessary at all.

I would not say it is critical to be disabled nor does it have security risks per-se. ref https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine for what it does. btw: AMD has something very similar. That said, IME does have full access to everything the computer is doing - that is where the *possible* security issues arise. The last sentence is key to potential security concerns. IME uses 4x 486 CPU's running on its own OS and has it's own LAN and memory interface logic. The good news is that IME (and AMD's version) are VERY difficult to hack and requires direct physical access to the target PC to do it. Note that IME cannot be fully disabled as it controls turning the PC on and the initial CPU boot process BUT it's operations beyond that CAN be cut off, ref https://web.archive.org/web/20201201175708/http://blog.ptsecurity.com/2017/08/disabling-intel-me.html?m=1 Using info there I've successfully toggled all of my Intel PC's to use the "High Assurance Platform (HAP)" mode.

My take: it'll work, but it's not enough. Bitcoin Core's chainstate directory is currently 12 GB, and keeps growing. Last time I did a full download from scratch as a test with 8 GB, it wrote almost 5 TB to disk, and that was already the limiting factor. With less RAM, you can expect much more disk writes, slowing it down further. Personally, I set the minimum at 8 GB now, but more RAM is always better.

I agree with LoyceV's take. But with such limited RAM amount, you may want to check whether zram (compressed RAM block) is enabled on linux distro you use. The performance penalty using zram is much lower than swapfile or zswap. Some people perceive IME (along with AMD PSP, ARM TrustZone and similar stuff) as security issue, privacy issue or even as backdoor. At very least, i think you should care if government or organized cybercriminals is after you.

The core of UmrelOS is Debian 12, and the Debian kernel has included zram for some time now.  I think it's the default for any systemd process, which is how Umbrel starts up, but I'm not technical enough to know if each individual docker container (which is how bitcoin core is configured in Umbrel) also defaults to using zram.

no no no no no. no no no no no. no no no no no. no no no no no. fast search on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/256723233639? loyce will tell you find a laptop and make sure you can fit a big 2tb nvme 2 ssd in it. i usually say get a dell or a hp or a lenovo mini pc make sure it has 32gb ram and a 2tb ssd in it. it is not a lot more money. if you carefully shop on ebay you can find good laptops or mini pcs dont go the route of a raspberry pi fast search on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/256723233639? only 87 dollars find a 2 tb ssd for under 125 and you are done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxN3fEMX-Q put in an ssd like this https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Technology-Intelligent-Turbowrite-MZ-V9S2T0B/dp/B0DHLCRF91/ref=sr_1_1_sspa? this pc would have an i5 7500t cpu and 16gb ram and a 2tb ssd. you could run win 10 or win 11 or linux. 87+139=226 plus some tax. fast search if I look hard enough i can find better it should work fine for two or three years as the blockchain is under 800gb

I just checked mine (Debian 12 VM) with cat /proc/swaps, but ZRAM isn't enabled. I'm not sure whether it';s because Debian detects VM usage or it wasn't enabled by default when Debian 12 ISO just released. I may be wrong, but you probably just need to enable ZRAM on host OS since docker container doesn't pre-allocate maximum allowed RAM.