>very energy efficient

If your server has a lot of idle time, ARM will always win.

My home server mostly not used. It triggers some simple bash scripts each hour, or each night. It serves some simple personal web pages. I access them a couple of times a day, each time randomly. I have a Raspberry Pi 1B, and it looks like despite being massively underpowered, it’s the most energy efficient. And in my use-case, I think of using it for the task.

One day my primary Raspberry Pi broke (turned out to be a PSU issue), and I thought of having an old laptop running 24/7 as a home server. While being not very power hungry, it’s still wants much more energy (plus it has fans). For a casual usage (I forgot to mention Pi-Hole) it feels like an overkill. So, while a Raspberry Pi isn’t the best, it has its niche, and I’m happy of having one (actually, a few).