Who would buy a Raspberry Pi for $120?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Value and Pricing of the 16GB Pi 5

  • Many argue $120 is poor value vs alternatives; biggest complaint is the $70 jump from 2GB to 16GB.
  • Several call it “Apple-like” price discrimination: low margins on base models, much higher on max RAM to extract more from “must-have-the-best” buyers.
  • Others defend it as standard business practice and necessary for funding R&D and satisfying public-market expectations post-IPO.
  • A technical sub-thread notes high-density LPDDR4(x) packages are genuinely expensive; single-package constraints on the Pi board make RAM upgrades costlier than PC DIMMs.

Alternatives: Mini PCs, NUCs, and Thin Clients

  • Widespread sentiment: for desktop, homelab, or server use, used/refurb mini PCs (NUCs, tiny enterprise desktops, N100 boxes) offer far better performance-per-dollar.
  • When you add case, PSU, storage, and cooling, a Pi 5 approaches or exceeds the price of complete x86 mini PCs that “destroy” it in CPU, RAM upgradability, and storage.
  • Power-efficiency debate: some say modern N100/NUC systems can idle at 3–5W, others note many mini PCs idle closer to 10–20W, while Pi 5 is still more efficient under strict power constraints.

Where the Pi Still Makes Sense

  • Strong support for Pi in roles needing:
    • GPIO and direct hardware integration.
    • ARM-native environment and easy ARM package builds.
    • Stable software ecosystem, long product lifecycles, and predictable availability for industrial/educational deployments.
  • Some niche justifications for 16GB: ARM build servers (e.g., Nixpkgs, Docker images), in-house CI, power-constrained environments, ARM-focused development, and specific cluster or virtualisation workloads.

Critiques of the Platform and Ecosystem

  • Several say the Pi has shifted from a cheap learning tool to an overpriced SBC, with microcontrollers (ESP32, etc.) and mini PCs now covering most use cases better.
  • Complaints include SD card fragility, Pi boards running hot, and Raspberry Pi OS–specific quirks that make general Linux knowledge not always transferable for beginners.
  • Others counter that competitors’ boards often have poor or short-lived software support, while Raspberry Pi’s long-term support and documentation remain a key differentiator.