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For years the answer was easy: a Raspberry Pi was the cheap way to run a small server, and a mini PC was the upgrade. In 2026 the memory shortage changed that. After several price rises, the Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB lists at $175 and the 16 GB model at $305, board only. Add the official 27 W power supply, a case with a cooler and an SSD, and you are in the price range of an Intel N150 mini PC with 16 GB, an SSD and a case included.
So the question is no longer "which is cheaper" but "which fits the job".
What a mini PC does better
- x86 software. Windows, Proxmox, OPNsense and every Docker image run without hunting for an Arm build.
- Storage. Most N150 boxes take one or two NVMe SSDs inside the case. A Pi 5 needs an M.2 HAT for one.
- Networking. Boxes like the Beelink EQ14 have two 2.5 GbE ports; the Pi 5 has one gigabit port.
- Video transcoding. Intel Quick Sync converts HEVC for Plex and Jellyfin in hardware. The Pi 5 has no video encoder at all.
- RAM. 16 GB is normal, and many models have a SO-DIMM slot you can upgrade.
What a Raspberry Pi does better
- Electronics. The 40-pin GPIO header and thousands of HATs, tutorials and libraries. Nothing else comes close.
- Software and documentation. Raspberry Pi OS, official Home Assistant OS images and a huge community: problems are already solved somewhere.
- Power. A Pi 5 idles at a few watts, and its small size fits anywhere.
- The 1–4 GB models are still cheap for single jobs like Pi-hole or a sensor hub.
Our rule of thumb
| If you want… | Choose |
|---|---|
| A general home server (Home Assistant, Jellyfin, backups) | An N150 mini PC like the Beelink EQ14 or GMKtec NucBox G3 Plus |
| A router with OPNsense or pfSense | An x86 box with two Intel ports |
| Electronics, robotics or learning Linux | A Raspberry Pi 5 with 4–8 GB |
| x86 with GPIO pins | The Radxa X4 |
Our Home Assistant and Media server pages rank every device in the catalogue for each job, with the reasons taken from the specifications.