Sure, but “better” is massively subjective. For me, when I set up a pi, I’m not usually making use of the GPIO or the camera inputs. I’m generally throwing together a headless server. To do that, in addition to the board itself, I need storage, power, heat sinks, an fan and usually some sort of case.
Using the prices at CanaKit as a rough guide, you can come up with this search on Ebay.
The first entry I saw drew my attention. It’s a 7th gen i5 with 16GB RAM and a 120 GB SSD. Not sure the 500 GB HDD would survive shipping, but it’s $100 shipped. Biggest concern is that the seller only has 65 sales. Possible scam?
On the higher end of that bracket there is this. 6th gen and only 8GB RAM, but the seller does have a history.
With the prices on the Pi5 your potentially getting into the price range where it might make sense to look at the Beelinks mini PCs, based around a 12th gen Intel.
Like I said, prices right now are at a spot where I can’t just say throw a Raspberry Pi at the problem. They are great boards but for someone self-hosting their own services they don’t necessarily always make sense anymore.
With the prices on the Pi5 your potentially getting into the price range where it might make sense to look at the Beelinks mini PCs, based around a 12th gen Intel.
Wow, wish I had known about that before. That looks amazing! I ordered one and will give it a shot. Do you happen to know of a community based around mini-pcs? If not Lemmy, forum, etc. I use places like Tomshardware but would love to see things like the Beelink when they pop up.
The only time I heard anyone talking about it was on the podcast Self-Hosted . Supposedly it’s a NUC clone with performance similar to a then current (2023) mid range laptop and draws about the same amount of power. I think they said the N100 processor had Intel QuickSync for hardware transcoding.
Thin clients! I “upgraded” from a RPi3 to an HP T630 that I got new off of eBay for $65, including power supply (and case). I was able to upgrade the M.2 storage easily. I use mine as a home server running over a dozen Docker containers. It’s x86 instead of ARM too.
The only bad part was installing Linux. It took a while for me to figure out where the UEFI expected the boot files and documentation isn’t great.
I see. I went a bit pricier and am running a refurbed EliteDesk 705 G4-Mini for one of my linux desktops but I’m also running linux desktops with a Pi4 and 5 elsewhere. All three have been working great but as you mentioned, running linux on ARM takes away a lot of software options, unfortunately.
Could you share what you consider better options at the same price point?
Sure, but “better” is massively subjective. For me, when I set up a pi, I’m not usually making use of the GPIO or the camera inputs. I’m generally throwing together a headless server. To do that, in addition to the board itself, I need storage, power, heat sinks, an fan and usually some sort of case.
Using the prices at CanaKit as a rough guide, you can come up with this search on Ebay.
The first entry I saw drew my attention. It’s a 7th gen i5 with 16GB RAM and a 120 GB SSD. Not sure the 500 GB HDD would survive shipping, but it’s $100 shipped. Biggest concern is that the seller only has 65 sales. Possible scam?
On the higher end of that bracket there is this. 6th gen and only 8GB RAM, but the seller does have a history.
With the prices on the Pi5 your potentially getting into the price range where it might make sense to look at the Beelinks mini PCs, based around a 12th gen Intel.
Like I said, prices right now are at a spot where I can’t just say throw a Raspberry Pi at the problem. They are great boards but for someone self-hosting their own services they don’t necessarily always make sense anymore.
Wow, wish I had known about that before. That looks amazing! I ordered one and will give it a shot. Do you happen to know of a community based around mini-pcs? If not Lemmy, forum, etc. I use places like Tomshardware but would love to see things like the Beelink when they pop up.
Not that I’m aware of.
The only time I heard anyone talking about it was on the podcast Self-Hosted . Supposedly it’s a NUC clone with performance similar to a then current (2023) mid range laptop and draws about the same amount of power. I think they said the N100 processor had Intel QuickSync for hardware transcoding.
Thin clients! I “upgraded” from a RPi3 to an HP T630 that I got new off of eBay for $65, including power supply (and case). I was able to upgrade the M.2 storage easily. I use mine as a home server running over a dozen Docker containers. It’s x86 instead of ARM too.
The only bad part was installing Linux. It took a while for me to figure out where the UEFI expected the boot files and documentation isn’t great.
I see. I went a bit pricier and am running a refurbed EliteDesk 705 G4-Mini for one of my linux desktops but I’m also running linux desktops with a Pi4 and 5 elsewhere. All three have been working great but as you mentioned, running linux on ARM takes away a lot of software options, unfortunately.