[LeafItAlone]

> You can get considerably more powerful mini PCs for less than a 4GB Pi5 with needed accessories that is upgradable

What suggestions do you have for this?

I’m sure some people can find these, but every time I see comments like these (or ones that actually give specifics), it’s always used ones on eBay that aren’t actually better and are in unknown condition.

I’m not doubting that some people come out ahead, but for me, being able to get* the same hardware each time, new, has value. Also, a huge draw for RPIs for me are the GPIO pins.

* Yes, the past few years were hard, but not impossible.

[dewbrite]

When RPi 4 was going for $200, I got some Orange Pi 5s for about $140 each. My configuration included 8GB RAM, the power supply, and a 250GB NVMe drive.

It seems like it's about on par with the RPi 5 in terms of power. The OS support is lacking, but the M.2 and +4 "Little" cores make it pretty compelling regardless.

Edit: just saw the pi 5 has PCIe :0

[agloe_dreams]

The used on ebay is the actual upside. The issue is that most people do not need the size of a Pi and using used hardware is reducing eWaste. That said, my personal grab was an Acer refurbished Acer XC-830 J4125 for $89.

[esrauch]

While that looks like a nice small-ish tower PC it doesn't seem like it's in the same class as an rPI on a lot of axes, it seems half way between an rPI and a full desktop tower.