Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

adafruit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 354 posts

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#131

Post by pibaker »

AngryData wrote: post #110
Levitating wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't know who this is targeted at. As a development board these are extremely expensive and as a mini computer you're far better off with something N100 based or similar. What market is this trying to compete in?

To me it seems like they are just cannibalizing their customer base that bought into their ecosystem early.

Ecosystem bought in does not require you to buy the latest and most expensive board.

The Pi 1 model B+ was released in 2014. They still make and support it today and will keep doing it until at least 2030. You can just buy that instead. They are not apple.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#132

Post by tzs »

It has definitely been a crazy few months for prices.

On 2025-12-18 I bought a RPi 5 kit on Amazon from CanaKit that consisted of an 8 GB Pi 5 with the official RPi 5 256 GB SSD, case, fan, 45W power supply, and some cables which came fully assembled.

It was $209.99.

Today it is $339.97.

On 2025-09-02 I bought a Samsung 1 TB EVO Plus M.2 SSD along with along with a Sabrent USB-C M.2/SATA enclosure to use with my RPi 4.

It was $64.99 for the SSD and $22.75 for the enclosure.

Today the SSD is $255.00 (down a little from the $261.08 it reached last month) and the enclosure is $29.95.

BTW, if you are looking for an RPi it looks like you can't rely on the prices shown on rpilocator.com.

Right now for example it lists RPi 5 8 GB in stock in the US for $80 (Digi-Key), $175 (Pishop), and $200 (Adafruit). Similar for 4 GB ($60, $110, $130 at those three sellers, in the same order). Same pattern for RPi 4. 8 GB from the same three sellers in the same order: $75, $165, $190. 4 GB $55, $100, $120.

Clicking the links reveals all the Digi-Key entries are wrong. Their actual price is the same as Pishop (whose rpilocator.com entries seem to be correct).

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#133

Post by pseudosavant »

steveBK123 wrote: post #103

It's crazy how Raspberry Pi & Apple prices have moved in converging direction. Pi 5 8GB is $200 MacBook Neo 8GB is $600 (probably some edu discount available) Sure 3x the price, but it comes with - 256GB SSD, battery, display, keyboard, trackpad.. So the Pi has slowly become too expensive for weird one-off projects and also price competitive with a cheap Mac by the time you add all the stuff you need to use it as a c…

Not a completely invalid or uncommon take, but also not completely correct. People lament that it isn't the $25 like it used to be with the Pi 2/3, but ignore that you can get a Pi Zero 2 W (quad A53 cores like 3B, 512MB RAM) for https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w/

I wish a Pi 5 (and RAM in general) was cheaper, but Raspberry Pi can't control that.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#134

Post by 8fingerlouie »

steveBK123 wrote: post #103

It's crazy how Raspberry Pi & Apple prices have moved in converging direction. Pi 5 8GB is $200 MacBook Neo 8GB is $600 (probably some edu discount available) Sure 3x the price, but it comes with - 256GB SSD, battery, display, keyboard, trackpad.. So the Pi has slowly become too expensive for weird one-off projects and also price competitive with a cheap Mac by the time you add all the stuff you need to use it as a c…

I was recently looking for an upgrade for my aging HA Green, and I had an 8GB RPi5 with a m.2 hat, case and PSU selected, but when I checked prices I could get an 8GB Zimaboard 2 that includes 32GB eMMC for $10 more than the RPi, and that gets me a n150 processor, 2x2.5Gbit networking, 2 SATA ports and a PCIe expansion port. It idles at 5-7W.

So yeah, the RPi5 has gotten prohibitively expensive, at least to the point where a chinesium mini pc is cheaper, has better performance, and about the same power consumption.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#135

Post by pseudosavant »

Saris wrote: post #26

I really struggle to see where this fits in to most use cases. The appeal of the Pi back in the first iterations was being a relatively cheap linux computer with GPIO.

You should really look at the Pi Zero 2 W. Similar capabilities to the 3B for <$20. The Pico 2 is also cheap and very capable if you don't actually need Linux. Most projects don't need a Pi 5.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#136

Post by elorant »

steveBK123 wrote: post #103

It's crazy how Raspberry Pi & Apple prices have moved in converging direction. Pi 5 8GB is $200 MacBook Neo 8GB is $600 (probably some edu discount available) Sure 3x the price, but it comes with - 256GB SSD, battery, display, keyboard, trackpad.. So the Pi has slowly become too expensive for weird one-off projects and also price competitive with a cheap Mac by the time you add all the stuff you need to use it as a c…

Raspberries are basically for DIY projects. I have one on my router handling call blocking for my landline. If it was costing $300 I would rather get a mini PC or use one of my defunct phones with UserLand on it. I can't see any world where a comparison to an entry level laptop makes sense.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#138

Post by justin66 »

schappim wrote: post #39

Some folks might have missed that memory prices on the whole are up [1] 90% since Q4. The memory used by the Pi 5 is up 700% [2]! Raspberry Pi are working the issue by releasing new memory variants that are cheaper[2]. Edit: You can still walk into a Microcenter and get Pi 5 16GB for US $289! 1. https://au.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory/ 2. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/a-new-3gb-raspberry-pi-4-fo...

Microcenter doubled the price of the 500+ kit shortly after I bought one. Still $90 cheaper than Adafruit, unsurprisingly.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#139

Post by pibaker »

pseudosavant wrote: post #133
steveBK123 wrote: post #103

It's crazy how Raspberry Pi & Apple prices have moved in converging direction. Pi 5 8GB is $200 MacBook Neo 8GB is $600 (probably some edu discount available) Sure 3x the price, but it comes with - 256GB SSD, battery, display, keyboard, trackpad.. So the Pi has slowly become too expensive for weird one-off projects and also price competitive with a cheap Mac by the time you add all the stuff you need to use it as a c…

Not a completely invalid or uncommon take, but also not completely correct. People lament that it isn't the $25 like it used to be with the Pi 2/3, but ignore that you can get a Pi Zero 2 W (quad A53 cores like 3B, 512MB RAM) for https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w/ I wish a Pi 5 (and RAM in general) was cheaper, but Raspberry Pi can't control that.

Some people seem to think raspberry pi is a consumer tech company and whenever a new model is released, the old one will be discontinued. They will complain about the product being changed and the company robbing them of a cheap SBC.

I can only assume they don't actually work with the pi because if you spend just a minute looking at any reseller's inventory or even just the official website you will see they still make and sell and support boards from a decade ago.

Re: Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM

#140

Post by 1-6 »

binarymax wrote: post #46
Saris wrote: post #26

I really struggle to see where this fits in to most use cases. The appeal of the Pi back in the first iterations was being a relatively cheap linux computer with GPIO.

The original vision IIRC was to provide a cheap computer for students in low-income families. You could plug into your TV at home and start learning. Then the hobby community got wind of it and proceeded to buy out all the stock on every release (myself included, I still have one of every first 3 versions sitting in my cabinet)

The concept of a cheap new computer like an RPi for poor families is a 1st world solution that doesn't understand markets. Used computers are way more popular in countries where the price of new computers are out of reach.

It's a supply chain problem, n

Post reply on HN