--- title: Cheap mini PCs are the death knell for Raspberry Pis description: Cheap x86 mini PCs powered by Intel N97/N100 chips or old SFF systems (OptiPlex, ThinkCentre, EliteDesk) are increasingly outperforming Raspberry Pi boards for... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Cheap mini PCs are the death knell for Raspberry Pis | daily.dev og:description: Cheap x86 mini PCs powered by Intel N97/N100 chips or old SFF systems (OptiPlex, ThinkCentre, EliteDesk) are increasingly outperforming Raspberry Pi boards for... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/sEMC5hZCw.png og:image:alt: Cheap mini PCs are the death knell for Raspberry Pis og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Cheap mini PCs are the death knell for Raspberry Pis **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Cheap x86 mini PCs powered by Intel N97/N100 chips or old SFF systems (OptiPlex, ThinkCentre, EliteDesk) are increasingly outperforming Raspberry Pi boards for DIY and home lab projects. The Raspberry Pi 5 costs $60 for the base 4GB model, uses an ARM Cortex-A76 that was already five years old at launch, dropped hardware transcoding and the AUX port, and its PCIe 2.0 x1 slot throttles many devices. Sub-$150 x86 mini PCs run a far wider range of operating systems (Windows 11, Proxmox, TrueNAS, Unraid, Qubes OS) without the ARM compatibility headaches around containers and packages that plague Raspberry Pi setups. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do people say the Raspberry Pi 5 is underpowered compared to mini PCs? The Raspberry Pi 5 uses an ARM Cortex-A76 processor that was already five years old by the time the board launched, and its PCIe 2.0 x1 slot throttles most connected devices except certain first-party accessories. It also dropped hardware transcoding and the AUX port found on earlier models, while the cheapest 4GB variant costs $60. _Anyone weighing SBCs against mini PCs for a home lab build can track these tradeoffs on daily.dev._ ### Can I run Windows 11 or TrueNAS on a Raspberry Pi? Not well. TrueNAS, Unraid, and Qubes OS don't work on ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi at all, and Windows 11 and Proxmox barely function on it even with workarounds, whereas cheap x86 mini PCs support all of these operating systems natively along with NixOS, OpenMediaVault, and RetroPie without extra tweaks. _daily.dev helps homelabbers comparing OS support before picking hardware for a project._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Budget mini-PCs peaked with the N100, and nothing else comes close for the price – not even the Raspberry Pi](https://daily.dev/posts/budget-mini-pcs-peaked-with-the-n100-and-nothing-else-comes-close-for-the-price-not-even-the-rasp-vyphkofxw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I stopped buying Raspberry Pis since refurbished mini PCs cost the same and do far more](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-buying-raspberry-pis-since-refurbished-mini-pcs-cost-the-same-and-do-far-more-irx9xszkd) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Raspberry Pi is cheaper than a Mini PC again \(that's not good\)](https://daily.dev/posts/raspberry-pi-is-cheaper-than-a-mini-pc-again-that-s-not-good--91zjuysv7) · Jeff Geerling · 92 upvotes · 4 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#raspberry-pi](https://daily.dev/tags/raspberry-pi), [#homelab](https://daily.dev/tags/homelab) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Cheap mini PCs are the death knell for Raspberry Pis","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T13:35:17.108Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T13:35:42.820Z","description":"Cheap x86 mini PCs powered by Intel N97/N100 chips or old SFF systems (OptiPlex, ThinkCentre, EliteDesk) are increasingly outperforming Raspberry Pi boards for...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b9a495d091424ae6d52c77dd78459c31?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b9a495d091424ae6d52c77dd78459c31?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,raspberry-pi,homelab","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Cheap mini PCs are the death knell for Raspberry Pis"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cheap-mini-pcs-are-the-death-knell-for-raspberry-pis-semc5hzcw#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do people say the Raspberry Pi 5 is underpowered compared to mini PCs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Raspberry Pi 5 uses an ARM Cortex-A76 processor that was already five years old by the time the board launched, and its PCIe 2.0 x1 slot throttles most connected devices except certain first-party accessories. It also dropped hardware transcoding and the AUX port found on earlier models, while the cheapest 4GB variant costs $60. Anyone weighing SBCs against mini PCs for a home lab build can track these tradeoffs on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I run Windows 11 or TrueNAS on a Raspberry Pi?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Not well. TrueNAS, Unraid, and Qubes OS don't work on ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi at all, and Windows 11 and Proxmox barely function on it even with workarounds, whereas cheap x86 mini PCs support all of these operating systems natively along with NixOS, OpenMediaVault, and RetroPie without extra tweaks. daily.dev helps homelabbers comparing OS support before picking hardware for a project."}}]} ```