You can run Klipper on any Linux SBC with a USB port, RPi works but so does an old router that supports OpenWRT, a cheap Android TV box that could be flashed to run Linux, or any of the OrangePi/Banana Pi/Alliwinner H3 boards. You don't really need hardware UART because most of the printer boards you'd be using have either native USB or USB to UART converters. For that pedal, would an old Android tablet that supports USB OTG work? Because that's got to be much cheaper, and with much better SDK.

Yeah sure, for niche use cases it's the best and only choice, but that's why it now commands niche prices ;)

You don't buy the Pi for its price: performance as a desktop replacement, you buy it for the incredible stability of the platform as a target, the support, and the addon ecosystem. If you want to screw around with taking a motherboard out of a laptop, go right ahead. €160 for a 16GB Pi5 that I know for sure will be available, replaceable, and supported for the next decade is more than worth the small investment.

> I don't really understand the purpose of RPi 4 and 5. They're not cheap compared to the price nor very powerful in any measure.

They are good for commercial installations like smart displays in stores (think big screens with menus behind fast food counters) and information kiosks. The extra HDMI port lets you drive two screens with one pi and the extra processing power keeps the UI smooth on high resolution. They also have hardware acceleration video decoding for shops wishing to play hi res promo videos and hobbyists building media terminals.

Cost is not a major concern here because the installation volume is low and there are far bigger expenses anyway. Just take a look at how much commercial displays are. The Pi company’s future supply guarantee is also nice because you know that within a given number of years if something breaks or you need another screen, you can just buy another identical pi and be done with it. Good luck sourcing a Chinese mini pc with compatible footprints, port orientations etc five years down the road.

I love the idea, but the price/power ratio is just a teeeny bit on the expensive side for me.

For 100€ that would be something I'd buy for every niece and nephew to play with. For 200€ it's not even for me, I'd rather buy something like the uConsole RPI-CM4: https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-rpi-cm...

I have seen quite a few the size of a Mac Studio / Intel Nuc, what are the device called that are the size of a pi?

yeah, depends on what the used market looks like where you live. Here I see way more laptops for sale for cheap than those enterprise thin clients.

And the thin clients when they are for sale tend to have their SSDs ripped out by IT for data security, so then it's a hassle to go out and buy and extra SSD, compared to just buying a used laptop that already comes with display , keyboard, etc.

then remove the battery?

I got a fanless Celeron N4020 4GB RAM 64G Storage new on Amazon for under $150 in Jan 2025, and it has been running home assistant ever since.

I don't think I could a RPi as cheaply once parts and power supply etc are taken into account.

> And mechanically reliable.

What moving parts do competitors have to be less mechanically reliable?

In fact, a NUC or used laptop would be even more reliable since you can replace NVME storage and RAM sticks. If your RPI ram goes bad you're shit out of luck.

>RPi will still have lower power consumption and is far more compact.

Not that big of on an issue in most home user cases as a home server, emulator or PC replacement. For industrial users where space, power usage and heat is limited, definitely.

>I'm in the market to replace my aging Intel NUCs, but RPi is still cheaper.

Cheaper if you ignore much lower performance and versatility vs a X86_X64 NUC as a home server.

I agree completely - the NUC segment has a gaping hole post 2023, and faster raspberry pis can probably fill a lot of it especially for small scale commercial stuff.

Its not

Go price out a used 1l form factor PC.

After you buy a case, and a real disk, the pi, cost savings is gone.

Meanwhile you can pick up a used 8th gen intel 1L form factor for about 100 bucks. You can pick up one that will take a PICE card for 150ish bucks, with remote management.

The 8th gen or better intel has all sorts of extra features that may make it worth while (transcoding/video support).

Yes, anyone can buy it.

What? I ordered the original Pi in May 2012 from Farnell/Element14 without a Chamber of Commerce registration (KvK nummer). A couple of my colleagues did too.

Don't know what your source is for that, but that's not my experience, and i've had dozens of laptops through my hands due to my hobby.

The ticking timebomb lemons with reliability or design issues, will just die in the first 2-4 years like clockwork, but if they've already survived 6+ years without any faults, they'll most likely be reliable from then on as well.

3-5 years for a cheap laptop [0].

3-5 years of office use for a Pi. [1]

Sure, there's other numbers to find as well, but I'd suggest that they're pretty comparable in the way they handle environments. If one would fail, so would the other.

[0] https://pcpatching.com/2025/11/extend-your-pcs-life-how-long...

[1] https://raspberrypicase.com/how-long-does-a-raspberry-pi-las...