The "problem":
My current cheap Chinese mini PC runs an Intel N100 CPU with 16Gb of RAM. It's not too slow, it handles what I need it to handle, it's been a good machine for a year.
Lately, however, it seems to be running a little slower and a little hotter. I've made sure the physical internals are clean, that it has unobstructed airflow for cooling, and that, insofar as I can figure out how to, all the software is optimized for efficiency so that I'm not burdening the CPU any more than necessary.
I'm not really worried, just a little concerned that it may be reaching what I consider a fairly early end-of-life, perhaps components are breaking down under usage, etc.
My previous computer of choice was a Raspberry Pi 4B, upgraded to 8Gb of RAM. It did what I needed it to do as well, just a little slower.
I've been looking at mini PCs with faster CPUs and 32Gb of RAM, but the price point is still a little more than I want to spend (I like to keep my PCs under $200; the cheapest plausible machines I'm seeing with those specs are $300+).
I was hoping the newer Raspberry Pi 5, even at 16Gb of RAM (its max capacity), might be the next daily driver machine, but after comparing CPU benchmarking, its Broadcom ARM CPU isn't as good as what I'm running, and requires bulky cooling under any significant load (one thing I love about the Pi is that it's generally about the size of a pack of cigarettes).
The Raspberry Pi 6 is supposedly coming in late 2026 or early 2027. I expect it will have a faster CPU and support more RAM ... but by that time the competing mini PCs with the specs I want will have probably come down to within my preferred price range.
I'll keep watching for those price drops, or for Pi-like alternatives.
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