this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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You can get thin clients for much less than that... Better performance if needed, similar power efficiency for similar loads, they sometimes bring storage, power supply and ram and you don't generate more e-waste as these are already being thrown out by many big companies every few years.
The only reason to go for the PI is if you really need the GPIO, the tiny form-factor and even then there are cheaper alternatives with similar or better spevs.
It's all about the idle power and software support.
🌈 The software support! 🌈
Anything that runs on an SBC has a Pi image. Download, write, go. And Pi OS (Debian) for anything else. Or Ubuntu LTS.
Thin clients are just regular x86 boxes, they're miles ahead of every SBC. The only downsides for consumers are slightly bulkier sizes, slightly higher power draw and of course the gpio/Hat ecosystem is not available, but I would argue that for most people that's not really relevant.
Yeah. As someone running a NAS/Jellyfin server of a SBC/USB SSD I would love to pick up an x86 sffpc too properly put everything inside but idle power and quiet aren't easily beat.
Software support olinwouldnt really agree since x86 gives a lot more options than ARM
My RPi 3b pulls 5W, while my thin clients draw about 6-7W on idle, one of them doesn't even have a fan, the other one could easily be modded to lose the fan.
Interesting, do you have examples?
Not sure where you're from. But here is a random one from ebay . You will find many like it. I got this model with 4gb ram, 256 ssd and power supply for ~80€ on europe, much less then I could pay for any PI4 at the time that came with no case, no psu, no ssd. It idles around 3-4w headless with no peripherals running home assistant. There are other models too ofc. Just have a look around used hardware stores if you have them around your area.
Uhuh, for work we love raspberry PIs as they're small enough to stick behind a wall mounted TV and good enough to run our display apps. All for the low price of £80~. I'd love it if you have viable alternatives.
When I was looking for a pi4 I stumbled upon orange pi, rock pi, banana pi and libre computer. They have models both cheaper and more expensive than the rpi. All depends on the specs you need.