Raspberry Pi Alternatives

Raspberry Pi cost is few bucks. You won't save significant money here, but will lose very significant computing power and software ecosystem.

Would it still make sense to use a raspberry pi over an x86 mini PC in those cases, economic and performance wise?

Do you need a Pi specifically? A used usff sized box with a 4th or 6th gen Intel CPU can be found for under $100 if you poke around ebay.It'll be a much faster CPU, much faster storage, more RAM, and only uses about 5-10W of power.I don't see the point of a Pi unless you need all the GPIO pins.

I'm not sure how this is better than a raspberry pi. $5 more would get you a lot more power.

The lesson I've learned over the years of purchasing several Raspberry Pi's is this: Unless you're in the need to integrate a project through the GPIO's interface I would be better off spending on one of those (second hand) mini-pcs by lenovo, dell, etc. Even if you want to use it for a low budget mini server, performance for the buck is way better off with a mini pc.

Don’t those often cost more than the raspberry pi?

Unless you need a small form factor and GPIO, I don’t think the Raspberry Pi is a good deal anymore. A Raspberry Pi, SSD, case, and power adapter would be much more expensive than well-known N100 mini PC brands like Beelink and Minis Forum. However, they still have low power consumption. So my answer is no. (Was a happy RPI4 user but now much more happy with mini pc's)

I don't see why people are so attached to the pi when much more capable computers - 2013/14 era used Intel NUCs or Mac Minis - are available for a hundred bucks on ebay. Maybe lots of people are using the pi for low-power-draw projects but if people are running a pihole and other services on them you might as well go for the other option.There's also the QUARTZ64 boards from Pine64 which are definitely available and include fun things like a neural processor: <a href="https:&#x

All sorts of *pi's exist and have better hardware for a lesser price. rpi only excels on OS packaging and a sort of early mover advantage.

I suspect you are describing a large part of consumer behavior.Someone gets a sporty-car, then starts working on the engine, the suspension, the exhaust, gets new rims and tire, new seats...and in the end they could have bought a porscheThing is, it all depends on your use case.For the pi, it is lots better for hardware projects than a nuc style machine, via the gpios/csi/dsi. and specialized hats. There is also a huge community of forums/documentation/people to