Are there cheaper boards that mimic the pi available?
Sure. Are they good? "It depends."
They're a real mixed bag in terms of community and drivers, especially in the long-term.
When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#12We all lived through the same chip shortage during/after COVID right or did I miss something? Was this even a question of why prices went up?
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#13Inflation + Demand?
Change in goals. Adding "more".
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#14If you need a computer it’s better to use a mini pc form factor from a major vendor that benefits from economies of scale. NUC’s aren’t great value. You can get used HP and Dell stuff used from IT recyclers for ~$150 that do circles around the Pi in terms of performance. I never understood the fascination with the Pi. Especially with all the options today.
> I never understood the fascination with the Pi.
Ecosystem. Everybody was gaga over the RPi so if you wanted to do "Task X" you could find an online tutorial for it.
Of course, almost everything that doesn't involve an RPi Hat also works just fine on standard Linux machines. But not everybody gets that.
I watched this play out in real time. People wanted Octoprint to drive several 3D printers. They wanted one per printer and bought a whole bunch of RPi stuff. I pointed out that a used x86 desktop of any flavor was way cheaper and far more powerful, but shrug. Not my circus; not my monkeys.
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#15If you need a computer it’s better to use a mini pc form factor from a major vendor that benefits from economies of scale. NUC’s aren’t great value. You can get used HP and Dell stuff used from IT recyclers for ~$150 that do circles around the Pi in terms of performance. I never understood the fascination with the Pi. Especially with all the options today.
Uh, ARM, low power, and GPIO. The fascination is in its applications beyond a desktop computer. It was dirt-cheap for what it did and enabled.
A Beaglebone Black is a FAR better fit for the description of "ARM, low power, and GPIO".
A Beaglebone Black actually runs off of a 5V 500mA USB interface unlike the RPis that require non-standard 5V multi-Amp USB supplies. And it's GPIO system (along with everything else) is well documented and doesn't require NDAs.
And the RPi was only dirt cheap while it was being subsidized by Broadcom. Now that it's not, the RPI is more expensive than low end x86s that run rings around them.
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#16Personally, I’m loving my Pi 5. It is just in the sweet spot, enough performance for what I need it to do, it’s portable, very low energy usage, it runs off an SD card so it’s very easy to re-image or swap images. The NUC device is a desktop computer. If you want a desktop then buy a desktop, that’s not what a Pi is for (despite some unwise marketing to the contrary). If the v5 is too expensive then pick up a v4, the…
This is a good take on it — I also like running mine off microSD cards, which makes it trivially easy to swap OSes when I'm tinkering.
It's a different type of device for a different purpose than standard desktop computing.
I would be interested in a Pi 500 if they decide to make one, but would really like having an M.2 2280 slot built in. Anything else would be a bonus. I have a Pi 400 set up for my kids to use to learn typing and mess around (I put some old Mac/DOS emulators on it and all my ancient apps from my old computers).
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#17If you need a computer it’s better to use a mini pc form factor from a major vendor that benefits from economies of scale. NUC’s aren’t great value. You can get used HP and Dell stuff used from IT recyclers for ~$150 that do circles around the Pi in terms of performance. I never understood the fascination with the Pi. Especially with all the options today.
NUCs are a tremendous value over previous generation surplus hardware in areas where the cost of electricity has skyrocketed (SF Bay Area).
We’re talking more than one order of magnitude less power consumption when you compare to 2-3+ generations ago.
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#18If you need a daughterboard and an SSD to get away from SD cards then yeah it's going to get expensive. Maybe find an SBC family that likes to use eMMC? Gen 1 was also an overstocked orphaned SoC. It was literally a freebie from Broadcom. People got spoiled.
That doesn't really explain how Intel can do more for cheaper though.
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#19Personally, I’m loving my Pi 5. It is just in the sweet spot, enough performance for what I need it to do, it’s portable, very low energy usage, it runs off an SD card so it’s very easy to re-image or swap images. The NUC device is a desktop computer. If you want a desktop then buy a desktop, that’s not what a Pi is for (despite some unwise marketing to the contrary). If the v5 is too expensive then pick up a v4, the…
This is a good take on it — I also like running mine off microSD cards, which makes it trivially easy to swap OSes when I'm tinkering. It's a different type of device for a different purpose than standard desktop computing. I would be interested in a Pi 500 if they decide to make one, but would really like having an M.2 2280 slot built in. Anything else would be a bonus. I have a Pi 400 set up for my kids to use to l…
Yes M.2 and an audio port. That was sorely missing for a computer that's really built for use as a desktop.
Re: When did Raspberry Pi get so expensive?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uh, ARM, low power, and GPIO. The fascination is in its applications beyond a desktop computer. It was dirt-cheap for what it did and enabled.
A Beaglebone Black is a FAR better fit for the description of "ARM, low power, and GPIO". A Beaglebone Black actually runs off of a 5V 500mA USB interface unlike the RPis that require non-standard 5V multi-Amp USB supplies. And it's GPIO system (along with everything else) is well documented and doesn't require NDAs. And the RPi was only dirt cheap while it was being subsidized by Broadcom. Now that it's not, the RPI…
The word "was" is doing a lot of heavy-lifting here. The Black was 2013, and the Pi was 2012, mate.
Arguably, the branding of the Pi is much better too, and they conquered the education market, and are widely available at various retailers. Not to mention the Pi compute modules being used in a lot of products by the likes of Korg.
Point of the Pi wasn't perf, even on release.