this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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There are a lot of reasons not to give them your money. They're assholes to the maker community and they openly talk shit on a lot of their customer base. That's beside the point, though, really.

It's just not a spectacular option for hosting. In order to get a Rpi competitive with even the shittiest laptop from 7 years ago, you're going to end up spending more than you would spend on a decent laptop from 7 years ago.

If it is a computer that turns on, it will likely function orders of magnitude better than an Rpi and won't bind you to ARM architecture. My entire hosting setup was pulled out of a recycling pile for free. Install ubuntu/ubuntu server and enjoy yourself.

If you intend on spending any amount of money on this hobby, I cannot express enough how much I recommend against any of that money going toward a Raspberry Pi.

EDIT: A lot of you seem to be reading this as "Raspberry Pis are all nonfunctional" and getting mad about it. Don't do that.

Edit 2: Good to see that all the stupid parts of reddit made it here

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (28 children)

Can you expand on some of this?

I haven't really heard much regarding them being bad to their community/customer base, though I haven't bought in a few years.

In regards to cost/performance, what are you meaning you'd need to spend extra on to match that of an old laptop or recycled machine?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

Not OP, but my Lenovo tiny computer on ebay is about $60 and will run circles around a raspberry pi

Power usage isn't too much higher, it's upgradeable, and it's x86-64 architecture so more things are supported.

My tiny has an i7 and was a bit more expensive, but it's a powerful little guy. I added more ram for a total of 32, and it does better than my "old" server (technically from same era).

Can't speak for the other stuff.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Same with the HP elite desks, and don't forget you can get off lease Chromebooks with much better specs than pi for ~$60 as well

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The EliteDesks are nice, but beware top venting if you're planning to stack them vertically

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah if someone is planning to stack I would definitely suggest they make sure they aren't buying the top venting models

[–] Richard 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a few PIs already and like them, but if I was doing a system today I’d probably go with the HP Elite Desk (800 Gen 2 or 3 perhaps), sourced as an ex-gov unit which can be had very cheap. The PIs have gotten expensive enough that they’re basically price equivalent once you add a case and possibly an SSD to it, at least locally. Have used those HP systems at work and they’re decent little boxes.

The caveat is that I’m not too fussed if I’m drawing extra power, as long as the performance justifies it. If power was a primary concern then the PI may still win out. I’m also not going to need to consider size in anything I do, and then then the micro PC form factors aren’t massive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, choosing between the two definitely isn't a black and white situation. I still use my pi's for a lot of things, and power is definitely a factor. Neatness is also a factor as well. Having a project where you need an SATA or m.2 drive especially as buying an enclosed case alone for that is gonna cost $40 at least and you have to give up a USB 3 port to do so. Again though not every project needs that and a lot of projects like a pihole or emulation box can function just fine with SD.

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