[greggyb]

If you want a Pi (or alike) for specific reasons, go for it!

But, if you are looking for cheap and relatively low-power compute, I strongly recommend looking at used ultra small form factor PCs. You can get much more computational power and expansion, often for cheaper than a Pi. And eBay is riddled with these things, unlike recent Pi availability.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/171957/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%28len...

The pricing gets even better if you want to buy them in a lot.