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Can You Use Raspberry Pi 5 as a Desktop Computer?
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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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Been able to use rPis as a desktop for a while now. The 2s and 3s weren’t particularly pleasant but it was doable. The Pi 4 8GB with an USB3 jump drive as root partition was a lot more pleasant, at least until you hit thermal throttle.
Right now though, there are more powerful options in the same price point, once you account for power, storage and optionally, a case. At least for desktop and home server use.
The Raspberry Pi’s just aren’t the go to hardware for the home lab anymore. Probably won’t be again unless the price comes back down on the Pi’s or the price on new and used amd64’s goes back up.
Could you share what you consider better options at the same price point?
Thin clients! I "upgraded" from a RPi3 to an HP T630 that I got new off of eBay for $65, including power supply (and case). I was able to upgrade the M.2 storage easily. I use mine as a home server running over a dozen Docker containers. It's x86 instead of ARM too.
The only bad part was installing Linux. It took a while for me to figure out where the UEFI expected the boot files and documentation isn't great.
I see. I went a bit pricier and am running a refurbed EliteDesk 705 G4-Mini for one of my linux desktops but I'm also running linux desktops with a Pi4 and 5 elsewhere. All three have been working great but as you mentioned, running linux on ARM takes away a lot of software options, unfortunately.