Comment by giantrobot

I've gone this direction with my home lab stuff as well. I have an assortment of older RPis up to a couple RPi 4Bs. Most I bought to use on projects where I wanted Linux plus GPIOs and they were and still are good for that purpose.

I've also given in to the temptation to use them as little servers on my LAN for various sorts of things. I've even tried to use them for HTPC boxes and they have worked ok.

However I have sent all my Pi's back to projects where I just want Linux plus GPIO. For everything else I replaced them with cheap mini PCs.

1) a bare Pi on a workbench/desk is fine but when connected to a TV in the living room has a very low WAF.

2) the arrangement of ports on a Pi are a complete pain in the ass. Even with a case any installation of a Pi looks like a careless hack job.

3) MicroUSB is complete fucking garbage. The port/connector wears or breaks and the slightest bump powers off the Pi. MicroUSB power supplies are usually also garbage and typically have criminally short cables. "Appliance" appropriate power for a Pi costs more than the Pi itself. USB-C in the 4B is better but I've only got one of those.

4) like power supplies a decent microSD card that won't randomly fail in a Pi ends up costing as much as a Pi.

I replaced a bunch of individual Pis running servers with a single mini PC with an N95. The Pis weren't taxed with the server loads so the N95 doesn't break a sweat. It's also way easier to manage since the various server apps are managed by a docker compose file.

The mini PCs replacing the HTPC Pis are just a better experience overall. The ports are all on one side, they have same barrel connectors for power, and their local storage doesn't magically corrupt itself because the unknowingly cheap power supply didn't provide enough power.

I still love the Pis for small nerd projects but just don't want to deal with them anymore for pretty much anything else. If you don't need GPIO for a project and physical volume isn't a prime concern a <$100 mini PC is a far more convenient option today than a Pi. That wasn't true ten years ago which was why I started using Pis for servers and stuff but today it is definitely the case.