Comment by scosman
17 days ago
New vs used is mentioned, but kinda critical for the comparison. Yes a $60 board is definitely less capable than a $300 PC. The cost difference is primarily driven by the factors compared: better CPU, better IO, and more memory. You get what you pay for and you can get deals in the used market.
Pi's are great for their ecosystem, being fanless, and cost for a brand new device.
Aside: ESP32/ESP8266 have taken over a lot of the hobbyist realm for connectivity + GPIO. $3 dev boards that are plenty fast for almost any single use-case scenario.
In the article, the author found a mini-PC at a lower cost than the Pi, when accounting for all the accessories he would have needed.
I gave up on Pis when I could not longer get them easily in my part of the world. And I agree with you, ESP32 boards are perfect for simple GPIO+Wifi connectivity.