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▲ OhMeadhbh 3 hours ago

Sure... but... the original $35 RasPi is closer to a modern RasPi Zero 1, which looks like it's selling for $45 - $50 on Amazon.

Modern top-of-the-line RasPis seem more like ARM PCs with fast, efficient multi-core CPUs and GigE. I bought a RasPi 500 at the beginning of the year just to see what it was like and it's my new "email and light web browsing" daily-driver. Though yeah, I probably wouldn't have paid $410 for it.

I bought my original RasPi mostly for the I/O. I wanted to blink some lights, drive some servos. And if I wanted to do that again, I would probably buy a Pico or Zero.

▲Aurornis 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Sure... but... the original $35 RasPi is closer to a modern RasPi Zero 1, which looks like it's selling for $45 - $50 on Amazon.

You want the Pi Zero 2 W, which is under $20 when it's in stock.

You also need to buy somewhere other than Amazon, which is where sellers go to unload their inventory at exorbitant prices between restocks.

▲OhMeadhbh an hour ago | parent [-]

Absolutely. Amazon isn't the go-to place to pick up electronics. I think I picked it because prices there are probably the highest you'll reasonably find for Pi stuff. Though they often have availability when everyone else is out of stock (likely because they have a bit more mark up than most everyone else.)

▲oakchris1955 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Sure... but... the original $35 RasPi is closer to a modern RasPi Zero 1, which looks like it's selling for $45 - $50 on Amazon.

Yeah, because a second-hand 13-year-old computer is gonna last quite a long time.

▲PorciiVorbesc 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A 13 year old computer is gonna use a lot more power than a RPi, that's for sure.

▲OhMeadhbh an hour ago | parent [-]

You would think... but if you don't have to run the 13 year old computer at full tilt, then the power difference may be minimal. The LEON SoS SPARC clones I used wound up consuming MUCH less power than modern intel cores.

And CPU power consumption is only part of the whole system. And a lot of the system power scales with bus speed rather than inverse CPU age. It's possible recent systems will consume more electrons than older systems.

▲OhMeadhbh an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I have a 60 year old computer attached to my Minuteman III and it's doing fine. A 13 year old computer that still works is a computer that still works. And if it's worked 13 years, then it might last another 13 years (unlike the Intel NUC that died after 18 months.)

▲nyargh 2 minutes ago | parent [-]

Your /what/?