[avidphantasm]

I've been pricing out small systems recently for a light weight server at home (to use in part with a weather station). Given the lack of availability/expense of RPi 4s and the expense of a decent NUC, I'm leaning in the direction of an M2 Mac Mini, which has better idle power than AMD64 options, and not much worse than an RPi 4.

[3np]

Availability has been and is still OK at other "piish" SBC vendors like Hardkernel, Radxa/Allnet, friendlyelec, orange, banana, pine64, etc. Most of them get new stock regularly even when things sell out.

If OS options is making you skittish, pick one with good Armbian support.

If you need the extra power (even an rpi4 sounds like overkill for a weather station) you could also look at Intel embedded systems. I haven't verified but I'd wager you can find something comparable to the M2 in size and power for half the price or less.

[cfiggers]

Isn't the very cheapest M2 Mac Mini still like, $600...? That seems to put you in a completely different price and performance category than even the most kitted-out RPI possible, even at inflated grey-market prices.

[DeathArrow]

You can buy an Intel Compute Stick for cheap.