When Did Raspberry Pi become the villain?

Is it possible to buy brand a brand new Intel N100 mini PC for less than a Pi 5?

Yes! But is it better? Watch the video and we'll see...

Mentioned in this video:

- Where are the Pi 5s? Eben Upton interview: TODO

Contents:

00:00 - Raspberry Pi, the villain?
00:58 - N100 is cheaper than Pi
02:38 - Pi: Some assembly required
07:47 - N100: Prebuilt
10:32 - Pi first boot
12:33 - Pi performance
16:11 - N100 first boot
17:55 - N100 performance
20:28 - Which one's best?

[mamdouh-Tawadros]

The magic about the pi was the price around $35. Once it rose sky high, comparisons like yours had to be made.

[inebriatedengineering]

They made a case for raspberry pi's and didn't call it crust?? The marketing team dropped the ball on this one.

[zebcode]

"Is it a good time to Segway to a sponsor?"
*reaches for the mouse*
"no it's not"
*resumes listening* :D

[selseyonetwenty]

My takeaway from this is that computing is so cheap nowadays! My first PC cost $1500 and had only a fraction of the CPU and storage of any of the machines shown. Now I have mini PCs, several Pis and even an old HP refurb from Amazon that lived out its life computing spreadsheets on someone's desk. I run various different OSs, have networks set up as a playground. When I started as a programmer I used to go into work at the weekends just so I could play with the hardware in the machine room, now I have all that and more sitting around my den at home.

[nyanmisaka]

The problem is that you can wipe the Windows and install any free and open-source Linux distro on N100 mini PC. Intel's mainline Linux support has always been top-notch.

[MunitionsDudTester]

For me it was definitely during the shortage when every content creator and their mother had seemingly endless access to whatever they wanted so they could show off cool projects that no normal consumer could hope to replicate unless they spent exorbitant prices to scalpers.

[BlckBasecoat]

Also, as a former dell service technician for laptops: get a magnet mat with a grid on it, to keep those pesky screws in place. Also helps with remembering in what order you took them off, though that's less of a problem with this few screws.

[Psyden]

i mean the main advantage of using a raspberry pi is really the GPIO pins, not it being a usable computer

[biswaviraj]

One of feature that he missed in the video is that You can upgrade the RAM to 32GB for the N100 Mini.
But you're stuck with 8GB RAM on Pi

[jblack]

Most of the "issues" with the N100 box were issues with windows, not the hardware itself, put debian on it for a decently fair comparison. For reference, my N100 box, which is very similar to the one here, idles at around 4-5W, not as good as the pi, but much better than with windows.

Also I think we're kinda missing the point of an SBC here, for general desktop computing, an SBC is always gonna be a poor value. The strength of the pi and other SBCs is their IO. They're great for projects where you need to interface with the real world through sensors, actuators, indicators, and non-USB user inputs. If you're building a robot that needs potentiometers on each joint, position sensors, and status LEDs, then use a pi, that's what it's made for. If you want a small, portable, low power desktop, get a mini PC, that's what they're made for.

That's why I'm not a big fan of the Pi 5, it just doesn't really fit anywhere, it's too expensive to casually embed into a project, but not powerful enough for a good desktop experience. It's cool to have the capabilities of a Pi 5, but how many situations actually need GPIO pins AND 8GB of RAM? The niche case of moderately high-end robotics that actually has those requirements has long since been filled the Jetson nano stuff (granted, the pi is a fair bit cheaper). It just doesn't have much a real place.

[klavsrommedahl]

Being an electronic designer, I would say it is rarely DIY is cheaper than buying, so pricing was not a surprise, but the excitement in DIY is in general worth the difference :).

[AntisepticHandwash]

"Some assembly required"

The DIY nature of the Pi is not a negative at all IMO. In fact, it's to a large degree the very point.
A part of the use-case of these devices since its inception is to teach children/people about computing and electronics.
Making people navigate through relevant conventions, standards, processes, and procedures to do things gives them a logic and intuition for computers, and problem-solving skills that would simply not be there if all it was was a plug-and-play solution. And for experienced people, the assembly is either enjoyable, or so easy that it's no trouble at all.

The DIY nature and requirement of Pi's is a good thing.

[srvuk]

You have to remember why the Raspberry Pi was created in the first place. As a tool for schools, children and the like, which earned the company charitable status. Upton decided to prioritise business's but did not relinquish the charitable status, which he clearly abused in making the decision. So it is not the Pi itself that may have become something of a villain but the creator.

[saddle]

In Australia, today's price for a Pi5 without the hat, using a micro SD, with all the other bits is $214. At the same time, an 8Gig ram, 128G ssd windows 10 PC from Amazon is $158. We are a long way from the originally touted benefits of a $35 computer (which it never was here anyway).

[CeliniaGava]

Good luck with the not-dropping-a-screw mission. I've never been able to beat that one yet either and I've been doing DIY electronics for 45+ years. Great video!

[jasonpatterson]

Found the Windows setup "Will they steal all my data?" and "Why is this taking so long?" stuff a bit disingenuous. What data did they steal? Regarding the time - It's an operating system that is designed to run on a huge class of equipment in a huge range of environments and the manufacturer typically doesn't preconfigure any of it. Contrast that with a barebones operating system that has been specifically tweaked to run on the Pi and is preinstalled on the SD card ready to run. I'm not saying it didn't take longer, but the way it was presented was as if this were a surprise of some sort or there wasn't a good reason why.

[someidiot]

the pi 5 defeats the point of the pi imo

[Ancient_West]

I laughed out loud at "Nobody is sponsoring this video. Everything you see here I bought, thanks to this channel's... sponsors."

[HellHatch]

Fun thing I found out with dropping screws, if you just put a hand towel on your desk and put the screws on that when you drop them they almost always stay exactly where you think they went.

[Ken-Creates]

How do you add a load of io pins to the n100 so you can do all the fun stuff like you can with the pi? Do people sell pci boards with them or similar?