If you don't need GPIO, then you don't need a RPi. They are useful, but an old laptop can do most things a Pi can do, and putting them to use keeps them out of the landfill longer.
I'm a bigger fan of Dell desktop that companies have put out to pasture after a refresh cycle. They're very expandable, have plenty of horsepower, and the idle power draw isn't that bad. The better thermal characteristics compared to a laptop usually lead to very long life as well.
Related to a sibling comment, a decent UPS could power a Dell like that for a couple of hours if it's mostly idling.
Yes, I've got a Dell T3610 under the desk here now. My only beef is that it has weird Dell proprietary hardware, so I can't easily fit quieter fans to the PSU, or reuse the case with an ATX mobo
Agreed. A laptop also comes with battery backup, screen, and input devices out of the gate. Granted, it consumes more power than RPi. But a laptop is definitely a solid choice, based on my experience with RPi resets and corrupted SD cards, etc.
> A laptop would consume significantly more power than an RPi.
Not necessarily true. Even some of the TinyMiniMicros mentioned in the article have a single digit W consumption when idle (because they are basically laptop parts).
Now, when loaded this would be true. However, their higher processing power also means tasks get completed faster, so they don't stay at the higher power states for long.
I hear this argument all the time. But unless you're doing something that's solar, battery, RTG or otherwise non-grid powered, then what does it really matter? At what scale is a person running so many old laptops that they need to switch to RPi's to save power?
And if that person can afford the Pi's, they can afford the power, so there's no point quoting power costs.
I didn't say that having resources meant they should be abused. I said that if somebody can afford $150 for a RPi can afford $2.50/mo for power instead of $0.50/mo for power, and that as a result, factoring in lower power use is a poor reason for buying something you don't otherwise need, especially when that power is easily available.
If that power were coming from locally finite source such as solar or wind, or battery, it's a different story.
Related to a sibling comment, a decent UPS could power a Dell like that for a couple of hours if it's mostly idling.