Hey all, I’m looking to build a couple dashboards out around my house. I’ve done this before with rokchip boards and they are… fine, but not great. Is rpi the best option right now? Are there alternatives you really like? I’d like to keep it a single board to easily mount behind things where it doesn’t take up a lot of space, and I won’t lie I like the DIY feeling of it over something like a thin client.

49 points

Many have said this. If you don’t need the GPIO, get a small PC.

permalink
report
reply
24 points

Or if you do not care about power consumption.

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points

The n100 and n200 have quite low TDP values for much better performance than a Pi.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

They still consume way more power than the pi. My pi fully loaded uses less power than my N100 router idle.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

A refurbished tiny/mini/micro PC will use more power in terms of sheer numbers, but the cost is still so small on them that it’s really not worth considering for most.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

If you search ebay for Intel based thin clients, many are more powerful than RPi while being passively cooled and having very similar power consumption.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

Never have seen a thin client that goes below 7ish Watt on idle. Basically every RPi does. https://www.pidramble.com/wiki/benchmarks/power-consumption

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

What if I want a computer I can power via PoE?

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

I have never thought about this. Thanks for pointing it out.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

You’re welcome.

And I do. I have a PoE switch so the more things I can make PoE the easier it is.

permalink
report
parent
reply
31 points
*

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
LXC Linux Containers
NAS Network-Attached Storage
NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
PSU Power Supply Unit
Plex Brand of media server package
PoE Power over Ethernet
RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
SBC Single-Board Computer
SSD Solid State Drive mass storage

[Thread #558 for this sub, first seen 29th Feb 2024, 20:15] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

permalink
report
reply
10 points

This is a cool bot! Thanks dev!

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Good bot. Here’s some electricity. ⚡

permalink
report
parent
reply
19 points

as long as it is something simple they work fine.

But compare their price to some 1L mini PCs on the second hand market. you will get a lot more guts at around the same price.

permalink
report
reply
10 points

Second that.

RPis are still unbeaten in terms of power usage, but the difference to a low end thin client is small.

Cost isn’t really an argument either, you can get thin clients with case, psu and SSD for something like 40€.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

RPis are still unbeaten in terms of power usage, but the difference to a low end thin client is small.

Not even close when it comes to tuned idle power usage.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

My pi 3 idles at 3-4W, my Futro at around 5-6W. I’d say that’s pretty close.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I feel like its not very fair to compare prices of a new product from a shop to a second hand product price. Then again, I am not even sure you can find many second hand rpis so maybe it is just the reality.

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points
*

For an SBC, yes. I don’t think anyone’s come close to its software support. I’m using quite a few in different applications, some 24/7. I’ve yet to experience hardware or software failure. I’m using official/quality PSUs and SanDisk Extreme Pro/ Samsung Evo Plus SD cards.

permalink
report
reply
15 points

For projects, yes… most of the things I want to build don’t need to go fast, so the pi zero is amazing and so so small. If you are just talking little cheap computer to stash somewhere, then no. I do think it would be neat if someone made a SBC N100 in the “credit card” size.

permalink
report
reply

Selfhosted

!selfhosted@lemmy.world

Create post

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don’t control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we’re here to support and learn from one another. Insults won’t be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it’s not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don’t duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

Community stats

  • 3.4K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.3K

    Posts

  • 71K

    Comments