So, I have been conviced by the argument that at the current price point, getting a rPi to set up my own BTC node doesn't make economic sense, compared to using an old desktop/laptop.

Now, the question would be: what specs should I look for? I'm not talking about the minimum reqs to run Bitcoin core, which I can just look up (I guess), but whether there are any specific pieces of hardware that will do it better than others, and what's important to look for, and what isn't, when checking out machines.

Also, is there an OS preference? I will use this machine for this purpose only, so I don't really mind running some flavor of linux or whatever if that's more efficient.