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Raspberry Pi is now manufacturing 70,000 Pi 5s per week, will surge to 90,000 in February
(www.tomshardware.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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Ok, I can buy a quad core thin client for $30. The prices for these are too high for what they are.
Does it have dual band wifi, wide software support, dual 4k output at 60hz, 4gb of ddr4, NVME support via addon?
Your cheap thin client likely isn't a modern computer. The PI 5 is, and costing another $30 isnt exactly a roaring failure.
4GB of DDR4 is a lot worse than 8GB of DDR3. Those (slightly) older business SFF computers are plenty capable compared to the pi and their software support is at least as strong.
You're also going to have to add several peripherals to the pi that aren't included in the price.
It's pretty good ddr4, but okay. You can have 8Gb of ddr4 for another $20. Not exactly a bank burner for a server or client.
How about the other features? Does that 8GB ddr3 computer have dual band wifi? Dual monitor 4k support at 60hz? Native hardware hevc/vp9 decoding?
Id love to see a link to these $30 PC people are talking about. Even older SFF aren't going for $30 generally, unless youre buying in lots.
Can you beat a raspi 5 with a recent-ish SFF going for $200? You bet, but that flips the "pi is bad value for the money" on its head.
I‘m not sure about the $30. but look at the Fujitsu Futro S740. They can be had for about $50 with 8gb of ram and an included ssd, have support for dual 4K monitors and so on. No WiFi out of the box, but they do have a second m.2 that can be used with a cheap WiFi card if that is what you need (or you could install a second ssd).
Is it possible to get these pi's for that price now though? Because I member 2 years ago looking at paying rediculous scalper pricing for a pi to run octoprint on, and by the grace of my brother having a spare one was able to avoid spending 150 bucks on scalper bullshit.
When I found myself in that same situation I ended up getting a board from libre.computer. I've been nothing but happy with it and they're only $35.
Oh shit thanks for the tip 🤔
Yeah np. They just came out with some new boards too. I've been trying to think of some projects I can use to justify buying one or two.
Yes, but it's a hassle. I bought a 4gb from digikey a few weeks ago. They have a list of stock on their site, although it looks like they are currently out. They are a b2b seller, so you need to verify your identity to buy from them, but they will sell you 1 or 2 Raspi 5s directly.
All that said, the article is about Raspi ramping up production. It will get easier to buy them soon.
You can always check RPiLocator.com. Looks like there is a reasonable supply in Europe for the Pi 5, and some variant or other is available in many places worldwide.
I unloaded my pi 4 on eBay those past summer because the prices were so high and got the thin client for cheaper. No regrets.
It comes with built in storage and a power supply, plus a passive cooling system, a case obviously, and removable RAM up to 16gb. It has dual display port, idk about resolution, I run it headless anyway. There is also a bigger version with a pice slot.
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04017240
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125917442953?
That's a 2013 CPU. Pretty ancient, likely no modern codec hardware support. Also look like it hits a 208 on geekbench 5 single treaded, where a raspi 5 is getting 574. Multi treaded, you have the above at 708, versus the Raspi 5's 1608.
So just off the cuff on the cpu, the +$30 raspi5 has 3x single thread speed, and 2x multithread speed. The PI does even better on newer tests. That doesnt take into account the large improvements to RAM either that you get going from decade old ddr3 to ddr4, or wifi 5, or being able to add an nvme, etc. Looks to me that youre getting a lot more computer in a $60 raspi5 than this $30 sff.
Im betting this $30 sff stacks up better against a $30 raspi 4, in which case, yeah, that tracks.
It's pretty rare to have high performance requirements in an embedded application. Many people load one project onto their pi and for most cases it's overkill. If you need modern codecs, then buy a streaming box. If you want a nas, then buy a nas. You also need to factor in the additional ~$20-$30 of stuff that you need just to boot up a pi.
So your argument is that a raspi 5 is too good of a machine for most use cases? That's a wholley different argument than the "raspi 5 is too expensive for its specs."
I would argue that you can't really speak to people's individual computing needs without knowing what they are.
Im personally using a 5 as a media box with libreelec, and after paying for everything, I'm out $90. That's still $10 cheaper than a roku 4k ultra, and it does everything and much, much more without locking me into a ad-riddled ecosystem on static hardware. That's a great value for money that the $30 SFF options can't compete with.