Hacker News Reader

Comment by akho | Hacker News Reader

In a world where N100 exists, only Zero and Nano Pis are interesting. The main/x00 lines are not good deals for desktop or self-hosting use.

Not sure what the point the monitor makes.

View on HN

Can you spec a N100 system with 8GB of RAM and at least 32 GB of (slow) SSD and land around the £100 / $120 price point of a Raspberry Pi 500 with 27W power adapter?

Not to mention the GPIO header.

Yes you can mate. In fact less then a £100 for n100, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM, just look it up on AliExpress. You have promos on hotukdeals all the time.

Yes

N100 with 8gb ram and 256gb ssd is around 130eur on AliExpress

This[1] semi-random example comes with 16GB RAM and 512GB of SSD for $130 + $10 shipping. Here's[2] another form factor with similar specs for $140 with free shipping.

That said, I'm sure the included RAM + SSD isn't the greatest. The ones I got in my case (different model and store) has been working fine so far, but it's a bit of gamble.

[1]: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807325349169.html

[2]: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805048559264.html

As others pointed out, yes you can. But you can get even better specs and at a lower price on eBay. Any of the Lenovo or Dell mini pc's are cheaper (around £50-£70 depending on the model) on eBay and SIGNIFICANTLY more useful.

For people buying these as a computer the power difference isn't something that even enters their mind. How many average people do you see debating one tv over another because it uses 5w more power?

But that's comparing apples (new computer, whether N100 mini PC or RPi 400/500) to oranges (used/refurbished office mini PCs).

Even excusing used hardware you can litterally buy brand new ready to go windows based pc's in that price bracket.

Prices from Pimoroni. The price of a Pi 500 is £84.60 for the unit + £11.40 for the PSU + £3.90 for a micro hdmi adaptor (which I'm adding because almost everyone will need one). Giving you a total of £99.90 plus shipping. You'll also probably need more storage as it only comes with the 32gb micro sd (down to about 27gb after OS space) but I'll exclude that from this for now.

- For £74.99 including delivery & PSU you can get a Kuyia Win10 Pro Celeron J4105 mini pc with 8GB rand and 256gb SSD.

- For £80 including delivery & PSU you can get the GMKtec G3 N100 with 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD, or pay £10 more an get 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD.

Theres so many of these around now. I know people have a soft spot for the Pi but it's really not the best option for most applications, and hasn't been for a long time now.

All of these, for a desktop experience are better. All of them have hardware Windows licenses should they be wanted. All of them support Linux, all of them are upgradable.

Unless you need GPIO the prices just do not make sense, and if you're willing to buy used/refurb the leap in specifications is even higher.

Right, but you’re missing the person I replied to, who was clearly referring to the used office PC market:

> Any of the Lenovo or Dell mini pc's are cheaper (around £50-£70 depending on the model) on eBay

I am the person you replied to. And I have personally bought brand new Lenovo and Dell mini pc's on ebay in that price range. I only didn't mention them in the follow up comment as they are admittedly snapped up very quickly so you do need to be on it to grab one.

> I am the person you replied to.

Ah, apologies. Guess I missed that.

And I see, alright. I usually know of that range just for the used PCs or office clearance.

The other replies have covered your first paragraph. This is easy.

For tasks requiring GPIO, a Zero is usually more than enough, in my experience.

N100 are at least twice as expensive.

If we're comparing the Pi board to the N100 computer, maybe.

But add case, cooling, M2 board, M2 drive, power supply, mini-hdmi to hdmi and it's close.

~$100 is not twice more expensive than ~$100. Where are you getting your prices?

(See other replies to my comment for links & names)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com