Raspberry Pi 5 Review : Is it still a viable low cost general PC?

Find a Pi bundle from Canakit on Amazon - lon.tv/483bc Also the mentioned Chuwi N100 PC: lon.tv/is0xw (compensated affiliate links). I finally got my hands on a Raspberry Pi 5 - With cost of Intel and AMD based mini PCs continuing to drop are the Pi's still good for general computing purposes? We'll explore that question in this review. See more Pi:
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VIDEO INDEX:
00:00 - Intro
01:01 - Price & Additional Costs
02:56 - Windows Mini PC Comparison
04:20 - Pi 5 Hardware Specs
05:35 - Ports, GPIO, NVME, Other Headers
08:03 - Power Switch
08:45 - 4k Desktop Performance
09:35 - HEVC video playback
10:07 - 1080 Desktop Performance
10:48 - KZbin Playback
11:36 - Browserbench Speedometer Test
12:11 - LibreOffice
12:54 - Game Emulation: Dolphin & Redream
13:57 - Geekbench Benchmark
14:23 - Conclusion
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[@LonSeidman]

This video clearly upset some folks which quite honestly is surprising. But my process in evaluating products has always been from a consumer perspective. The foundation's own marketing states "The everything computer. Optimised." and later they say "the newest version of our operating system delivers a superb desktop performance, making it an ideal computer for work, leisure, enterprise, and more." My coverage of Pi products in the past has always been based on its utility as a functional and affordable computer. It still is but the cost of Intel/AMD based mini PCs has dropped to such a level that you can get a lot more bang for the buck with those. That wasn't the case a decade ago when the Pi first became available to market. My baseline is always to look at a product vs. its marketing.

[@justthestuff3324]

Not sure why people are upset. Thank you for the informative video. I think that the biggest selling point for Pi at this point is its platform as a whole and community because the performance you get for the price, like you mentioned, can be had elsewhere.

[@estusflask982]

@@justthestuff3324 Windows is a much bigger community than Raspberry Pi

[@jothain]

@@justthestuff3324 Yes. Pi isn't good value device anymore. No need to suck peas into nostrils for simple fact. Rpi3 was great for its price and time. Rpi5 just doesn't make a lot of sense anymore. It's overpowered for many, yet it's still not good/fast enough desktop alternative in any good metric and even power consumption is getting higher, but competition has been getting lower. Price has gone to roof so.. There just aren't many reasons to look into it.

[@easymoney480]

buy Ebay refurbished and those intel/amd mini pcs get so cheap that it's a no-brainer

[@PhoticsTV]

I did an unboxing of the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 starter kit and I too was surprised with the response to the video. The downvotes were higher than usual. There's a common problem with the Raspberry Pi 5. You load up KZbin, look at the stats, and see dropped frames… even in 1080p. So, the two HDMI ports don't seem so useful. Comparing the Raspberry Pi 5 to a mini PC is also common. I don't think that's where the Raspberry Pi excels. Although, I like that the Raspberry Pi 5 says “Made in the UK”. I also like the presentation of the CanaKit. That made computing feel fun again.

[@superoctane]

LON your channel is a treasure trove of extremely useful information. Thank You for years of enlightenment.

[@dannyboy42223]

Love the pi but as it was cheap and tinkerable. But now with newer ones being finicky about video decoding (no more HW mpeg-2) and general 32/64 bit software acceleration issues it's now easier to just get a minipc. Oddly thanks to them making this it forced Intel to make a affordable alternative

[@si4632]

Who needs HW MPEG 2 DECODING a pentium 3 does that in hardware lol

[@dannyboy42223]

@@si4632 arm is very different work per mhz wise. Software mode for mpeg-2 on a pi 4 at 1080p made the CPU go up to 100%. Same on pi3 at 480p without hw decode purchased and enabled.....and only in 32 bit. That's fine if your just watching but good luck if your watching and want to browse a web page

[@azbesthu]

@@si4632Wase of power. If you want to do image processing, you would be happy to have cpu power for that. Also, those older codec are literally license free to use now. Maybe they are still exists in the soc, but got disabled. This is so anoying. Most likely they were not able to make the api for general use to replace omx so they cut it.

[@tommyvanpelt2408]

I'm going to agree that the price of the raspberry pi has increased and one can get into an n100 for not much more money but there is something to be said for it's community support and its backwards compatibility. For my needs, it's still a worthwhile purchase and that's partially because I'm a pi fan boy and enjoy how easy it is to access the gpio's. I will likely purchase pi's into the foreseeable future.

[@joesalyers]

You know after all these years Lon is still the place to go if you want an honest opinion and not bull. He might not have 12 million subs but he's fair and honest and that means more to me than subscriber numbers and popularity!!

[@xellaz]

Unless you have a specific need or use for a Raspberry Pi SBC, getting a mini-PC is overall a better option. I have a Pi 5 and yes it can play 4K videos but that still stutters and forget about multitasking as it struggles with it. For me, my specific use-case for the Pi 5 is as a headless (no desktop environment) low power server which it does a good job. But even with this, my Beelink SER 5 mini-PC with a Ryzen 5700u CPU puts shame on my Pi 5 as with little tweaking with the power options and fan profile, the 5700u only draws 2.3-2.6w when idle and 10w during 4K video playback and light office tasks without missing a beat while being absolutely quiet! This means no dropped frames when playing 4K videos while multitasking with a lot of open windows and apps. Let's get real. If you will use the Pi 5 as a desktop replacement, just don't. Get a cheap mini-PC instead that will already come with RAMs, SSDs, and a case just for a little bit more. Avoid the Intel N100s, 95s, 97s. Yes those plays 4K vids ok but it struggles real quick when you multitask and tries to get real work done.

[@exodous02]

As a gaming machine now sub $100 handhelds that can plug into my TV through HDMI and use bluetooth controllers can handle everything retro I want to play so a pi isn't as attractive for me as they used to be. I think that is most of their sales in the past, gaming. I just worry gaming was floating them.

[@jarchdm]

I'm using the pi 3b plus as intended to control iot things in my house, i usually like to have an extra one on hand but where i live they are still prohibitively expensive. The 3 is for me the best balance between power use since it runs of solar/ battery and speed/power

[@asan1050]

Thanks for posting this video.

[@kumarp3074]

The Pi still has a niche market with the various Pi Hats and low power consumption. But as your review shows for things like video game emulation and media playback there are far superior choices in the same price range.

[@stevephipps9305]

Thanks for the video. Next pie review What do you think about trying the pi 5 with motioneye for RTSP cameras as far as lag goes? 7 3

[@bbgarnettTotallyNotABot]

Keep up the great work

[@MINKIN2]

My Pi5 is running on my Pi4 power adapter. It runs fine for desktop use and retro gaming (non OC) without any power warnings.

[@frustratedalien666]

The Pi 5 and the N100 are comparable when it comes to computing power but anything graphics related is going to work much better on the N100. I think the price increase for Pi 5 is to be expected, but what we didn't have 4-5 years ago are really cheap but reasonably powerful x86 mini PCs. With those around, the Pi just doesn't feel as useful any longer.

[@djdonbentley2141]

The deal breaker for me was when I wanted to buy a pi 5 , but found out that retropie is having issues creating a new install iso for the board. I don't know exactly what the hold up is , but either way it made me go in the direction of an x86 mini pc instead. Just too much headaches on arm .

[@PolymorphicBytes]

I have many RPI's. However, unless someone needs an SBC for specific case, they are not worth it anymore. For the price and performance, an x86 mini PC from Dell, HP or Lenovo is the way to go. They will destroy an SBC. You can pick them up used for about $60!!! I even use them as game servers.

[@ctyl5686]

If a) your budget is nearer $100 than $250, b) you can live with Linux and/or c) you are interested in IOT and/or broader world of 'enthusiast' electronics, then Raspberry Pi and other similarly prices ARM (or RISC-V??) single board computers are fantastic. For under $250 (or less is you buy 'pre-owned'), 'mini PCs' such as the Mele Quieter 3C are also a great option. Power supply and Windows 11/10 both included in the box + capable of running most x86-x64 operating systems and applications. I fell lucky to have the so much choice!!

[@GadgetAddict]

I used to be a big fan of the raspberry pi, but the constant stock issues and over-pricing has put me off. Obviously for retro gaming, the anbernic devices are leading. For IOT purposes, with GPIO, you have the esp32 boards. And for general computing, the N100 mini boxes are an affordable alternative - especially considering it already includes the case, heat sinks, cooling fans, power supply etc etc. It's hard to see any space for the raspberry pi anymore. Maybe there's still a space for the generics, like the $25 orange pi.

[@Lorenzo-wh4wc]

Is the orange pi zero 2w good enough for emulation? 🤔

[@SpaceJazz3K]

Might want to look at booting from USB with a faster flash drive (400mb/s+) which requires the rpi high amp PSU. Noticeably faster performance than SD cards without going to a pcie card. You also need the cpu cooler to get the most performance.

[@russg4313]

This still really comes down to do you "need or want" a licensed Microsoft OS as part of your general PC needs. If you don't there are a ton of options of which the Pi5 is one of. There are a lot of pi knock offs which are cheaper but which are benefiting from all the spit and polish being put into things like the Raspberry pi imager and various flavors of Raspberry Pi OS,,,,,while they themselves aren't burdened with that overhead. If you are factoring in that refinement of the raspberry pi imager and the OS support (ad free and non invasive like Microsoft is and without a ridiculous EULA) then the pi is still a HUGE VALUE over anything else.

[@RomanOnARiver]

I think the issue with price is that they haven't released the 1 GB model of the Pi-5 yet. That's the model that's $35. I'm using a few Pis that run on half a gig of RAM, it really just depends on what project someone has.

[@mushtang2]

I prefer the BeeLink SER mini computers

[@dfbess]

I'm using a Beelink Mini S 12 Pro.. got Linux running on it but had to use a bluetooth dongle..

[@xellaz]

They are awesome! They have better BIOS than my more expensive Minisforum mini-PC. I have the SER 5 5700u version that only consumes 2.3-2.6w at idle and 10w when playing 4K videos and other tasks after tweaking the power options and fan profile in the BIOS that makes it absolutely quiet too!

[@eryck123]

have you tried hardware acceleration in chromium? I used to get no frame drops in youtube on my raspberry pi 4 in 1080p once I activated hardware acceleration, so Raspi 5 shouldnt fare any worse imo,

[@gutwallst6645]

Love my π3

[@luizsalazar87]

Wouldn't the benchmarks be invalidated due to no fan or heatsink being attached? Also, the official power supply isn't being used, potentially not delivering optimal power. Regardless of the configuration, my take is that the RP5 has priced itself out for most users. For media consumption, a Fire TV Stick is cheaper, has widevine support for streaming apps, hardware acceleration for video playback, and is ready out of the box with a great remote that integrates with your TV. As a server, a Dell Wyse 5070 with a 10W Intel J5005 for $60 is a better option. As an HTPC an Intel N100 is a better option. Benchmarks show it consuming 4.2W at idle and 21.4W during load, while a RP5 consumes 4.7W and 11.6W, respectively. Yes, it is double the wattage, but it is also double the performance.

[@Volker-Dirr]

Totally true. He only need a no-name 3A power supply and he should add a small fan (like with the official case), because the Pi run int thermal throttling very fast if more then 2 cores are used. Only if you use single core applications, then you don't need a cooler and even a 2A = 10W power supply will also work fine in that case.

[@xellaz]

Ryzen 5700u CPU/APU only consumes 2.3-2.6w at idle and 10w when playing 4K videos and other tasks after tweaking the power options and fan profile in the BIOS that makes it absolutely quiet too! Max load is about 19-21w too but I only see that when stressing both the CPU & GPU of the APU.. :P

[@Volker-Dirr]

@@xellaz Depending on what you want to do a Ryzen 5700u is much better than a Pi 5 or much more worse. For example if you want to play games, then the Ryzen better. But the Pi 5 for example has WLAN and Bluetooth build in and enabled if idle and you have the GOPI ports. The Ryzen doesn't have that even it is much more expensive. More power is not always needed. There are a lot of tasks where even the Pi 5 is much too fast. Of course there are also tasks where the Pi is too slow. There is no better or best computer for all tasks. First you need to know what you want to do and then you can only answer which one is better.

[@xellaz]

@@Volker-Dirr I got the Beelink SER 5 5700u version for $279. At one point it was as low as $249 but I missed out on that. The Pi 5 costs me almost the same after all the upgrades I got for it---hats, NVMe SSDs, case, fans, etc. I wouldn't really consider the 5700u for gaming as I play at 4K 240Hz. I have another much more powerful PC for that. For lower res/indie/retro games, I play those on my newer Steam Deck OLED. I use the Pi 5 as a low power headless server running Debian with CasaOS as a docker management and dashboard. It's also my sync server and have two Synology NAS'es connected to it via SMB. NFS works too but I switched to SMB since I feel its a little more secure since it can use more credentials to authenticate while NFS only uses the IP address. The main use for the SER 5 for me is as a Windows 11 Pro mini-PC. That's it. My main OS is Linux (which is on another more powerful mini-PC) but some things requires me to use Windows and that's what it is for. I'm just impressed with the Ryzen 5700u CPU as it can compete with my Pi 5 in the power efficiency department and much more after a few tweaks in the BIOS.

[@Volker-Dirr]

​@@xellaz Well. I must say that i don't understand why guys buy an SSD for a Pi5. It is like buying an Gefore RTX 4080 for an Intel Celeron or an Ryzen 3. Yes, you can do it. But there are not many use cases where that is useful. I bought an mSD for 6€, a case with fan for 11€ and nothing else. I use the old power supply of my phone and the Pi 5 is running like hell in my use case. In fact it is too fast for my use case and the cheapest possible variant. There is no other variant out there that is as cheap and fast enough for my use case. And what in the hell should a do with a 240Hz screen? The KZbin videos have max 60 Hz and while coding I also can't see my IDE faster by that. I fear most guys don't understand for what a Pi is good. They just try it everywhere since it is possible, but that is not very clever. It is as stupid as the guys that buy a AMD Threadripper to play games. It is clever to think for what you want to use your computer before buying one. There is no "best" computer. There are use cases where a Threadripper is perfect. There are use cases where a GeForce 4080 is perfect and there are use cases where a Pi 5 is perfect. But there are also a lot of use cases where a Geforce 4080 is totally stupid, a Threadripper is totally stupid and a Pi5 is totally stupid.

[@domramsey]

I don't think that anyone is really using a Pi for a general computing device. People might use it for emulation, but that's as close as it gets. Beyond that, it's used for its GPIO or as a small server for a homelab or something like Home Assistant, as well as being very widely used in industrial settings. I do agree that price makes it less compelling than some earlier models, but people just don't have them sat on desks running Office.

[@asdfrozen]

Regarding KZbin, you probably have to install a few things to get hardware acceleration working.

[@markconger8049]

Video playback in a web browser is dependent on the browser’s implementation. That’s why performance varies from browser to browser and in players like VLC. Admittedly there needs to be some GPU optimizations for the Pi 5 chip. But is video playback in a browser really what the Pi (any Pi) is for? It’s not a PC although it can do some PC stuff.

[@dutchdykefinger]

is video playback in a browser really what a PC is for? because an old laptop, without a graphics card that has a hardwrae h264 decoder, it's equally unusable on watching videos. (i'm saying this is really a weak moving the goal posts argument)

[@si4632]

That's why they're crap overpriced as well

[@si4632]

@@dutchdykefinger not true any dual core CPU with inbuilt graphics made within the last 13 years will play a h264 1080p video in a browser

[@frustratedalien666]

@@dutchdykefinger Depends on your definition of "old". I have a 10 year old Thinkpad that plays KZbin videos just fine up to 1080p. I have other uses for a Raspberry Pi, so I am not going to complain a lot, but when you have a model with 8 GB RAM and costs $80 without the power supply, cooler, and case, yeah, I'd want it to play 1080p videos without dropping frames. I've got Celeron j4125 based mini PCs that cost ~$120 and do almost everything you can ask for except open 10+ tabs on Chrome. Finally, Pi 3B and 4B+ work just fine for other uses, like running HomeAssistant and other home automation tasks. I don't see much of a use case that specifically calls for a Pi 5. I use mine just to build some native arm64 packages that I don't want to bother setting up qemu for.

[@tommyvanpelt2408]

Lon, when you were playing KZbin videos, we're you connected via wifi or eathernet?

[@LonSeidman]

Ethernet

[@HamRadioDX]

Interesting that they swapped the locations of the USB and LAN ports from what the Pi 4 had.... my guess is so it isn't backwards compatible with the Pi 4 cases.

[@LonSeidman]

Correct you’ll need a Pi 5 specific case on the new one!

[@MINKIN2]

They put the LAN port back to where it was originally due to space constraints with the new headers and required traces. However the Pi 5 is backward compatible with a number of 3rd party Pi 3B+ (and earlier models) cases as long as they are the open sided designs.

[@songsan807]

I got four Pi 4s about four years ago to learn about the Pi and do different projects. The Pi 4 cost went up significantly during Covid. As others in the comments stated compared to other alternatives the Pi 5 is not a clear winner. I would still get one or two Pi 5 just to learn about it.

[@anonytuser711]

The operating system support for RPi 5 is lacking out the gate. So far, there are Debian flavors (RPiOS, Armbian, MX-Linux and Kali), Ubuntu and RecalBox and Batocera for gaming. Let me know if I'm missing any flavors, but development has been slow compared to all other models.

[@jjones2582]

Since the entry level Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB) starts at $60, and low end RAM seems to be dirt cheap, I think they should probably kill the 1 GB RP4 model and shift the other RP4 models down a bracket. Sell the RP4 (2GB) for $35, the RP4 (4 GB) for $45 model and the RP4 (8 GB) for $55.

[@cyborgmetropolis7652]

I tried to have my son use a Pi for school but the Google apps his school uses are not allowed to run on it.

[@Volker-Dirr]

hmm... I only tried Google classroom, sheet, docs, drive and calendar at school. And it is running fine with google on the Pi.

[@DalmationProductions]

Me who just bought the Raspberry Pi 4 back in December on Amazon

[@burstnib4491]

Loving the flexibility of Raspberry Pi now that they're back in stock! Quick question for the amazing community: could we connect a powerful Pi 5 to a Pi 400 (keyboard or processing unit) to create a distributed computing setup for specific performance boosts? It's a unique idea, but the Pi community thrives on innovation!

[@cpaek72]

You also need a heat sink or cooler to prevent the pi5 from throttling. Surprised you did benchmarks without one.

[@LonSeidman]

Scores were consistent with other benchmarks in the Geekbench public database

[@Volker-Dirr]

@@LonSeidman The geekbech is using much too less power and for a very short time only. That is why your geekbech results are nearly the same. But as soon as you run it longer, the Pi reduce the speed very much. Maybe check my videos. I done several measurements. If you use the Pi 5 mainly single core only, then you don't need a fan. But if you run the Pi with 2 or more cores for longer time, then it is slowing down pretty fast without a fan. A small fan like from the official case is fine to avoid that. You don't need the "active cooler" or "bigger" coolers.

[@harleyn3089]

@@LonSeidman The most likely place it would throttle is with video playback. Your video playback results may improve if you cool it properly. The official active cooler is only about $5.

[@ivancain]

Is this recorded with vintage equipment? it kind of looks like it was recorded on VHS or something... By the way I'm not complaining I like the look and I subscribe to this channel as soon as I saw the first few seconds.

[@LonSeidman]

Nope modern gear but the bulk of my tv production skills I learned in that era :).

[@jjones2582]

Are you watching the videos in 240p or something? This doesn't look anything like the VHS videos I'm used to from the 90s.

[@anothergoogleuser]

$60 for the 4 GB model will do exactly what you have shown in this video. And a lot of people have a 5 V five amp USB-C power supply, so you don’t have to buy another one or a case. At $60 there is no windows based cheap PC that can compare.

[@mikeburke7028]

Thanks for the review Lon. I'm looking forward to a USB powerbank that can support it, otherwise it's use cases compared to the previous versions are somewhat limited.

[@markconger8049]

The Pi 5’s use cases are limited?? How? It has *more* functionality than the 4.

[@estusflask982]

@@markconger8049 Because it can't be used unless you are near a wall outlet.

[@sativagirl1885]

A PC should be grounded, shielded and operated in a Faraday cage with conditioned power sufficient to melt any 16 lane GPU and fast-recharge your e-bike.

[@Mario00064]

Would love to get your thoughts on pi5 vs pi4 as a Plex server.

[@si4632]

A mini pc lol

[@estusflask982]

Neither

[@LonSeidman]

Neither - it’s incapable of hardware transcoding

[@estusflask982]

Orange Pi 5 or Intel Mini PC are better deals with much more performance.

[@ikjadoon]

Just to check, the Geekbench scores are 6.1+ or is this Geekbench 5?

[@LonSeidman]

6.1+

[@HALEdigitalARTS]

Not a fan boy, I take it. Thanks for an honest review.

[@NexGen-3D]

Here in AU, I picked a 4GB one up, cost me nearly $200 AUD including power supply, case and sdcard, tried a heap of distro's, then sold it 2 days later, I prefer Dell/Lenovo/HP used ex business micro PC's, I can get those for under $150 AUD, they include a real CPU like an i5 or i7 6500/7500/8500, 8gb DDR4 ram, 128GB SSD, built in power, more USB ports, wifi, bluetooth and totally destroy the RPI5 10 ways to Sunday, since the rpi 4 was released, they have lost their value, there is so much more around that is far better value.

[@jothain]

Exactly. I bought one of those and moved all pihole's, openmediavault s etc. to one running Proxmox and it still can run fairly well Windows and Linux VM's. Way, way more versatile solution. Raspberry is only good for if you want that gpio connectivity or such and in most cases rpi5 is monstrous overkill to run something like octoprint, I have one on rpi3 and it's plenty fast enough for it, even with that Webcam support.

[@NexGen-3D]

Spot on, I have a stack of them and it looks like a blade server, all running Proxmox with node fail over, even the ram uprades were cheap, 8gb SODIMM was only $10 a stick used, one of mine also runs a Coral M.2 in the wifi card socket.@@jothain

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

You could at least buy it. Others just enjoy the video, but never see a real one. People want to keep an electricity bill low, when they need a computer running 24/7.

[@piotrekzielinski920]

IOT, small setups = raspberry video/streaming = minipc

[@timmark4190]

The best advantage of raspberry pi is not how powerful the CPU is. Its the power draw. If you plan to run it 24/7 as a server, you will save a lot on the electricity cost.

[@si4632]

Mini pcs don't use much more power though

[@si4632]

And are just vastly superior in general especially for say a Plex server

[@christophervanzetta]

There are better options though

[@tonysheerness2427]

It is its size with its power consumption and software support that makes it popular with businesses. Raspberry pi can not keep up with demand.

[@si4632]

@@tonysheerness2427it's a toy for basement dwellers 🤣

[@vinsan98]

Raspberry Pi 5 - or should I say, the elusive unicorn of SBC. Seriously, what's up with the availability? It's like trying to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot in the wild - you hear rumors, but actually getting your hands on one? Good luck! And don't even get me started on the pricing. I mean, come on, Raspberry Pi used to be the poster child for affordability. Now it's trying to compete with luxury cars in terms of pricing! Who do they think they are, Apple?But here's the real kicker: while Raspberry Pi is busy playing hard to get and hiking up prices, other mini PC options (Like Beelink, Minisforum) are swooping in and stealing the spotlight. It's like watching a once-great empire crumble before our eyes.It's time for Eben Upton to get his act together. Bring back the accessibility, reign in the prices, and stop making us chase after unicorns. Otherwise, he might just find himself left in the dust as the competition races ahead.

[@XVa-uj8m]

I think what kills me is even getting it at cost you HAVE to buy a heatsink as this didn't use to be the case before.

[@lap456]

I seen many retail storts drop Intel or AMD based mini PCs and only sell Raspberry Pi kits; Why they are doing this is thier saying beep you Mriocsosft.

[@nikobellic570]

Really sad how component prices have driven up computer prices in the case of the pi. We may be coming to the end of the Raspberry pi phenomenon

[@SkyDomeVIZE]

I have the Raspberry pi 3, 4, and 5 and I have to say they definitely have gotten way more expensive. Only really worth getting if you have a specific project in mind. Personally Im learning AI learning techniques for robotics, and great tool for teaching young kids about computing. Personally the pi 3 was my favorite and used it a lot more than the 4 and 5 because of power efficiency.

[@tarungupta2001]

Some intel bases processor mini pc consumes around 5 to 10 watts when idle. I dont think that raspberry pi offer any significant advantage over other computational machines. For electronic projects which require GPIO pins, arduino is enough. For NAS or plex , a refurbished mini pc might be better option.

[@johnjames7332]

I used to run a Pi purely for retro gaming purposes but the realised I could get an HP G4 Mini for £80 on Ebay with a Core i7-8700, 256GB nvme and 8GB ram. As expected performance wise it its in another dimension. Loaded up Batocera and sad to say I will never look at a Pi again.

[@vinsan98]

Totally agree with you, I also went with beelink eq12 mini pc. For my homelab.

[@jessragan6714]

Any thoughts on Microsoft's anticipated withdrawal from the game console wars? Or is that outside your field of expertise?

[@LonSeidman]

It wouldn’t surprise me as gaming has largely moved to commoditized hardware. Both the Xbox and ps5 are built on what is essentially a pc platform. Microsoft has always been a software company - they made Mac software even when they were competing against the platform.

[@AG-bp3ll]

This thing is a hard pass at that price. Too bad because at $35 these were great devices. I lost interest when the pi4 could never work out video playback of things like h.265.

[@ziggy8757]

for $30 bucks i could consider buying it (but still not for sure).... for $80 never....

[@azbesthu]

Right. In december I was able to buy N100 mini pc with 16GB ram and 512GB ssd in palm size form factor complete with case and power supply for 110 usd. That has 3 x 4K hdmi, 3 usb3, dual Gbit lan.

[@ziggy8757]

@@azbesthu exactly. The n100 y much much better than the pi and extremely cheap. Theres no point in buying the pi5 anymore. They should lower the price aggresively to be able to compete.

[@IAmKAZMO]

Forgive me for being new but i thought this video would call out more unique qualities of this Pi5 but it's kinda just like, "You were an idiot for purchasing now just go purchase what you've always purchased". Holy crap! I've never even owned one before now... And it's like hearing it's practically obsolete less than 6 months after its's release? I knew it would be hard as I'm not a very smart and knowledgeable in this field , obviously!. I didn't think so many people could be so wrong about these. I think I've spent close to $150.⁰⁰ on this stuff bc i thought i was missing out on so much enthusiasm... But from what i know now, the Pi Ecosystem is outdated, underperforming and Overpriced... according to this review this new release is just a Cash Grab and the entire concept has been destroyed by capitalist greed, mediocrity and planned obsolescence. I wish i would have ever saw this product, now. It's just too weak.

[@snakeye2669]

Pi boards are not a great value anymore. A 5,6,7 years old Windows PC with i5 or i7 are faster and cheaper these days, also you can upgrade as your the budget expand at a later date.

[@Volker-Dirr]

You don't need 5A power device. You can use a 3A also fine even if you push it with a benchmark as hard as possible. So far i needed max 11W and with my 3A phone power supply I have (only) 15W. That is totally fine. You need more then 15W only if you add a lot of power consuming external USB devices that haven't got an own power supply. You video is mainly slow, because you are running into thermal throttling. If you want to watch videos, you should have a small fan. The official case with the preinstalled fan is fine. You don't need the "active cooler". Also your Benchmark is too slow, because you also run into thermal throttling. Well, with that thermal throttling you can even use an old 2A power supply only, since if the Pi is throttling, then it consumes less power.

[@Plasmacore_V]

Selling a Windows 11 computer for $189. Windows 11 itself costs $139. There's no way something fishy isn't going on. And the recent proof of these cheap minipcs coming with malware on them only proves the point.

[@estusflask982]

Windows 11 costs $139 for consumers.

[@ernstoud]

As a general PC? No. You can buy a Windows mini PC for USD 80. the BMAX B1 plus. 6/64 with M.2 slot, Windows license, power supply, wifi/bt, Ethernet etc. Bought two last year, work great. The Pi is for Tweakers, tinkerers, anyone buying it as a general PC? Weird.

[@fernandoblazin]

short answer, no

[@BodyByGaming]

the raspberry pi foundation is a non profit, but the company that designs and sells the raspberry pis is not a non profit, and theyre doing an IPO!

[@junkman226]

Idk what’s wrong with your pi 5 but I’m getting much better performance than you showed here on my own pi 5

[@cpaek72]

The ecosystem and community is why Raspberry Pi is worth it.

[@estried86]

At least it doesn't come with key logging malware like the AceMagic does...

[@LonSeidman]

I was not aware of this until I saw this comment. Oddly I did not see any of the malware mentioned in some posts I’ve now found as that would have been something I’d notice when testing. All of the ace magic / magician PCs I tested were clean installs when I reviewed them. I will re-investigate with the ones I still have to verify.

[@estried86]

@@LonSeidman I had no idea either. Britec09 just did a video called "AceMagic Mini PC Comes Pre-Installed With Malware"

[@LonSeidman]

@@estried86 Ahh this looks like a relatively new problem. I didn't review the one he had but some of the older ones which were clean.

[@betag24cn]

i cant belueve yoy just complained about the product and then gave us the review you put the idea in my mind that you want us to buy those old celerons and atoms from intel what a negative way to present a sbc that is meant for different things, not just desktop pc usage there is people living and dying for that gpio and you tell us to buy a cheapo nuc at 200 dollars? i cant believe it

[@LonSeidman]

Their marketing language reads “The everything computer. Optimised.” I review products based on how they are marketed to consumers.

[@betag24cn]

@@LonSeidman so many years watching your videos and i really cant believe this, this is the last time i visit this channel.

[@moltenwood]

Why do these comparisons exist? Raspberry Pi was never meant to be a desktop PC. It was a cheap way to get students into coding. And it has GPIO pins for electronic projects. Yes , the version with most memory has become quiet expensive but for a lot of use cases you don't need it.

[@christophervanzetta]

They advertise it as being capable of being used as a computer… Obviously they’re trying to aim for more buyers but continuously fail to provide something viable

[@estusflask982]

They literally say it is meant to be used as a cheap desktop PC, with dual 4K monitors.

[@mikedw6748]

At 80 dollars without any accesories, it's not cheap imo

[@longdang2681]

The problem is that the rpi was always meant for specialist use with gpio etc. And then they released the rpi4 desktop kit. Are people not expected to compare it to other desktops? Why have they released a more expensive 8GB RAM version, who is it for?

[@lutrueson9000]

Pi 5 is a joke, useless crap and for the price their are lots of better cheaper options, even free ones if you crack open an old phone

[@markconger8049]

Wow. I normally like your videos but this one is quite a disappointment indeed. The price keeps going up and up? Seriously? So does the RAM amount. The 1GB and 2GB boards haven’t been released yet but you can bet they will be about $5 higher than the Raspberry Pi 4 of those RAM amounts. So about $40 for the 1GB. The whole premise of the video is the Raspberry Pi being a PC. Let’s be clear. It is nota PC. Can it do some PC stuff? Sure. But the board is for projects. It is for helping kids learn about computing. It is for being digital signage. Or handheld battery powered devices. Those GPIO pins aren’t there for looks either. Does a mini-PC have them? No. So please stop comparing the Pi to a PC. Please?? Did you mention anything about the long term durability of the Pi or a mini-PC? Those mini-PCs are almost all out of China and likely don’t have a long life ahead of them. I have Raspberry Pi boards that have been running for years flawlessly. I’ll stop there. [edited for one typo]

[@LonSeidman]

All of the points you raised I mentioned in the video.