(A fully functional fanless atom x5-Z8350, 4GB ram, 64GB flash, Win10 pro x64 Mini-PC will set you back $139. A copy of Windows 10 pro x64 is $168...)
And I know, some folks might say "why not a lattepanda?" to which the response really is "because that costs three times as much". Sure, you don't get GPIO pins on a minipc, but given that you can just buy a $10 data acquisition module that connects via USB, and that you can talk to using UART... that's hardly a problem?