[tambourine_man]

If your alternative to RPis are used NUCs or laptops, than you lost me.

I want reliable and quiet. I have RPis running for more than a decade everyday with not a single crash.

In what conditions are those used PSU? Who knows. I'm also not a fan of bringing other people's dust and keyboard grease along.

[afavour]

Many NUCs are whisper quiet and just as reliable as an RPi. Often more so given the number of folks that run everything in their RPi off an SD card without considering the lifespan of them.

I didn’t replace my RPi with a NUC but I did get a Celeron powered mini PC. It’s basically silent and has been happily running Ubuntu under my desk for over a year now.

[tambourine_man]

If new, sure, but then you're in for a lot more money than the Pi.

If it's used, I'm not interested.

[unethical_ban]

Used = value. But if you want new and still cheap, there are mini PCs with SoC style pentiums, barebines around $200, $20/8gb ram and 20/256gb nvme. And they can often have 2.5gb Ethernet these days.

[afavour]

My mini PC was $150. Definitely more than a RPi but not insane.

[mhandley]

I've got a mix of boxes ranging from Raspberry Pis to NUCs to many-core Xeons. They each have their roles - for example, a NUC acts as a DVR for security cameras, and I want it separate from other stuff. But I agree that RPIs can be very good for basic stuff. I've had one running as a print server for an indestructable old laser printer for 9 years now with no issues whatsoever. It's outlived two older Mac Minis I used before the NUC.

[sangnoir]

> I want reliable and quiet. I have RPis running for more than a decade everyday with not a single crash.

I had the original Model B running continuously for 8+ years until the USB contacts rusted-out due to high humidity.

The prices in the article are absurd: why would I choose a $260 SFF PC vs a $5 RPi Zero W I got 5 years ago? The comparison may make sense for new purchases with the ongoing shortage.

[Delphiza]

"NUC"s can be fanless PCs. The fanless part makes them quiet. There are no moving parts to make a noise.

[meepmorp]

I still miss the sound spinning disks, sometimes; it let me know the computer was thinking hard.