this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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The price of a mini pc includes the price of the case, power supply, heat sinks, fans and such. The hdmi is the only thing suspect but if the case doesn't expose the hdmi port that will be in the minipc as well. when you compare just the board of a pi to a full pc that is unfair.
I didn't compare the board to the full price of a mini PC, I was giving the information for context.
Further the raw power of a Pi 5 with 16gb of RAM is genuinely equivalent to a lot of thin client desktops with a lot more extensibility. I think you're getting what you pay for, honestly.
I'm not going to say they shouldn't be a little cheaper, but the Pi 5 is kind of a powerhouse compared to older Pis and you have to push for the 16gb of RAM version to make it actually expensive.
Once again the 4gb kit is $140 and with a lightweight Linux distro that's honestly more than enough for basic desktop life of web browsing and email.
4 GB is not enough for web browsing