New 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 on sale now at $120
188 comments
·January 9, 2025txdv
bayindirh
I run a couple of N100s with 32GBs of RAM. They're great machines, but they are actively cooled, so they have dust (and noise) issues, and they're bigger than a RPi 5.
On the other hand, I have an "armor case" for my RPi5 which has contacts for every major IC on the board, and it runs at most at 50 degrees C (if I saturate it to the point of choking).
Plus it's way smaller, and there's no performance or software problems. One of the hidden tricks is to get an A2 card like Kingston Canvas Go+, which completely removes SD card related lag from the system.
gizmo
There are many good options for passively cooled N100s (or even machines with significantly faster chips) roughly the size of a mac mini.
bayindirh
A Mac mini is still significantly bigger than a Raspberry Pi 5. On the other hand, there are N97/N100 machines with 12GB of soldered DDR5 RAM, but they are also actively cooled and their smaller blowers are whinier than their bigger cousins.
A passive RPi5 connected to a small 4TB external SSD is an almost industrial device which you remember you have one because it becomes unresponsive to a power cut or something. They're that reliable from my experience.
I have a newly acquired habit of getting the thing which requires the least amount of maintenance for my needs. I can replace it with a more powerful, power hungry and noisier device if I really need that, however this is rarely the case for me, and I can use my laptop for that oddjob.
ksec
>I like it because there are no software issues anymore
I keep saying this despite being somewhat a fan of ARM. If x86 or subset of x86 opens up it will still be able to compete in many areas.
Oh well. Pat is gone now I need to remind myself I shouldn't care about Intel.
qiine
In a ideal world isa shouldn't matter so much but x86 has been so dominant for so many years... It's hard to imagine a world without x86
josefresco
Ah the ol' obligatory "a mini pc is much better" reply we see on every. single. Raspberry Pi post. I kid but seriously do we need to do this every time we discuss the RPi?
throw646577
Like clockwork.
The HN community's response to the Raspberry Pi is the most sustained example of tech industry gift-horse-examination I can think of.
Here they are with a wide range of SBCs and microcontrollers at a wide range of price points, with a level of industrial support, OS support, community support and documentation that none of their competitors match, committing to (and displaying the fruits of that commitment to) support each piece of hardware for over a decade, and HN is like:
"Who cares I got this N100 on Aliexpress from a company with a procedurally generated brand name who don't respond to support requests, will never issue a firmware or driver update, and will be impossible to find before my next birthday, if I can figure out who actually manufactures this at all"
Dudes. It's not the same picture.
And sure, secondhand PCs. Good. But that is a completely different, entirely subjective comparison.
swiftcoder
I feel like it kind of needs to be said, ever since RaspberryPis stopped being price-competitive. Most of the original sales pitch for why you should adopt an extremely weird proprietary ARM-variant was centred on price.
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dcminter
Is that really true? I thought the pitch was always, pretty much in order:
• GPIO for hacking - basically an Arduino but a real computer
• Low power use (practical to run from a battery for some purposes)
• Tiny form-factor
Price seemed to be more of an "it doesn't matter that much if you break it while hacking with it" factor than a reason-to-buy.
cchance
It needs to be said as long as RPI's are this expensive they were supposed to be VERY cheap SBC's and instead they're approaching and in some cases exceeding full commercial boxed products
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bdcravens
Every topic has typical comments that are predictable.
tw04
Because there are a shocking number of folks that don’t realize just how cheap you can get a used mini-pc off eBay. And if the only thing you’re missing is gpio that can easily be added.
And frankly our planet needs to do a lot more reusing in that “reduce, reuse, recycle” system if we plan on leaving anything to our great grandchildren.
antman
The discussion is how RPi raised its price close to a PC rather than one of a hobbyist board
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dijit
The reason that safety briefings on every single plane take-off is not because people might be flying for the first time- it's to reiterate important points to bury important information in your mind despite not using it.
Our brains are extremely good at getting rid of data that it thinks is not relevant, if you don't apply knowledge or information your mind will "optimise" it away. Hence, the infinite repetition.
The same is true here. If you're buying a raspberry pi just for hosting: it's foolish not to consider alternatives.
This is important for two reasons, and less important for a third.
1) It free's up supply of rPIs for people who will actually use them for GPIO and education
2) It actually gives people a better, more wholistic experience, at a better price.
3) It forces people to consider the reason for purchase; instead of piling up some e-waste because the RPI was purchased for a yet unknown reason "I can use it for anything*".
justin66
Your post just highlights the extreme absurdity of these urgent "my God, don't you know about mini PCs!" and "you could just buy a used computer on eBay!" posts that accompany every Raspberry Pi announcement. You really believe you're offering a safety briefing.
spockz
Same here. Just spent €150 on something more powerful and versatile and more complete than this pi. IMHO the pi is tremendously overpriced.
FrustratedMonky
What was it? Model?
bayindirh
GMKTec G3 is a very good N100 PC. It's not the smallest one and its SATA port is also M2, but its NVMe port is x2 instead of x1.
Another alternative is BeeLink's S12 series, which accept 2.5" SATA drives and M2 NVMe drives. However, the NVMe port on these systems are x1.
Both are silent (for active cooling), dependable systems, but not as silent and small as a passively cooled RPi5.
nosioptar
Not parent, I'm mostly looking at small thinkcentres for that price. The last one I looked at was about $60 for a unit that needs a power supply (about $20) and a couple drives. I haven't figured out a specific model I want yet.
nine_k
If you need a PC, as in a desktop or a generic server, by all means buy a PC.
If you need a ton of fast and sophisticated GPIO, small size, light weight. passive cooling, battery-powered operation, a PC starts looking a bit problematic. That's where an RPi fits in.
Gasp0de
I don't know, all my use cases where I needed GPIO are better satisfied by an ESP32. If I need more compute, I connect the ESP32 to my server via the internet.
nine_k
Makes sense for many applications. But what if you are building an autonomous flying drone? That's the kind of application at which RPi shines, to my mind.
(Otherwise, indeed, an ESP32 has rather adequate amounts of compute and RAM for many control applications.)
matt-p
Great unless you need low power, ARM, small form factor, GPIO, or ability to load your software to a compute module.
Also not an argument for users buying 2GB/4GB models I suppose.
izacus
RPi5 is far from low power these days.
geerlingguy
But a lot closer than anything from Intel (except a few Celeron-style chips that are even slower).
domh
Which one did you go for? I have a raspberry pi 4 with 8gb RAM which is fine for now but may be on the look out for a replacement in the coming years.
herbst
I like using dell Wyse 5070. Cheap and available, basically same or less power than a Rpi but without all the limitations.
Building any server on a SD card or external HD is just causing stress for their future self.
JKCalhoun
Yeah, beginning to think the SD card is the Pi's Achilles' heel. They should put a 64 GB (or so) SSD on the board for the RPi 6.
whiskers
There's been much debate about Raspberry Pi straying from its mission to provide affordable computers. I disagree.
Raspberry Pi offers models ranging from $10 to $120, all readily available — more so than ever.
Adjusted for inflation, the original $35 Raspberry Pi Model B (launched 2012) would be $50 today. The Raspberry Pi 5 2GB is also $50 today and vastly outperforms the original, delivering far greater bang for buck.
Though I can’t speak to their internal decisions, it’s seems from the outside that they continue to try to maximise the value of the Raspberry Pi while maintaining the original price point.
Disclaimer: Co-founder of Pimoroni, one of the first Raspberry Pi resellers.
caseyy
I hope this is a one-off expensive Pi and not an indication of a new pricing strategy. It would be very disappointing if these hacker computers became expensive toys.
The article is very feel-good with the carbon credits and all, but the inflating pricing is a disservice to the hacker community. It shouldn’t be sort of greenwashed.
diggan
Locally (Spain), the new 16GB model costs ~140 EUR, while the 2GB model costs ~60 EUR. So if you just want a very cheap RPI, seems it's still out there, you just cannot aim for 16GB (or go for something else than RPI).
caseyy
Indeed, there are options. But rpi 3 was launched for €32/$35. I hope rpi 6 is not launched starting at €120/$120+, that’s all I’m saying.
It would make it inaccessible for hobby projects that need more than one and to most kids that need to buy it for computer science classes (or schools that budget for these things). Those were very important purposes for pi, the main purposes, according to some.
And yes, one might say — but inflation. To which I would say — bust cost of living crisis. Anyways, computing should be accessible to everyone, it’s what Steve Jobs called a bicycle for the brain. If raspberry cannot afford do make this pi cheaper, they should design one they can afford.
So long as there are cheap pis (as you mention), I will continue to love the brand. Even if they have premium models. But if they shift to more expensive pricing for all pis, which is sort of what seems to be happening very gently, that would be disappointing. That’s my point.
diggan
> But rpi 3 was launched for €32/$35
It also had 1GB RAM, 1.2GHz CPU and 100mbit Ethernet, while the RPI 5 has 2.4GHz CPU, iGPU, hardware HEVC decoder, 2GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and more.
But yeah, overall I agree, they seem to be slowly raising the prices (even when accounting for inflation) which isn't too hopeful to see, but at least they seem to have some footing to raise the prices, as the new ones has a lot more features than the old ones.
In the end, there are alternatives that will give you more performance/spent money, although probably with worse software support...
justin66
> expensive
It costs $120. If you're not an impoverished person living in the developing world, this is not "expensive."
SergeAx
It depends on intended usage. If I want to run it as a desktop computer - this is one case (who would do it - another question). It is very different if I want to deploy it in every room of my home. RPi used to be the solution for the second type of problem: ad-hoc smart things with exceptional connectivity and above-average computing power.
justin66
It's worth remembering, we're talking about the most expensive member of a pretty full product line. I have had a few "every room" applications (streaming music with some pretty inefficient software) for these things, and I found the original Zero to be a little underpowered, but the 1GB RPi 4 that my local Microcenter sells for $30 would work fine.
(I think I'm actually more irked than most people about RPi going public, but their product pricing still seems okay to me)
relistan
Finally. I was seriously looking at competitor's boards for more RAM. Now despite some of the competition being faster, the convenience and ecosystem factor is in favor of the RPi, and I'm in. Now, if I can actually get one...
qwertox
I agree. While the hardware is a bit lower spec'd than what other SBC manufacturers like Radxa, Banana Pi and others have to offer, even at a better price, nothing comes close to how Raspberry Pi supports their products.
You get solid OS support right from the beginning, and HATs are designed for their boards.
I still have a Raspberry Pi 1st Gen running as an OpenVPN server, which I upgraded last year to the back-then latest official Raspbian 12.
I also have a Radxa ROCK 5B with 16 GB RAM which is crazy fast compared to the Raspi 4 (this R4 is currently the core of my network), but the OS support is a horrible experience.
So I just ordered mine, which will allow me to finally upgrade and merge 2 Raspi 4, and move the MongoDB database from the Radxa over to the Raspi again, since MongoDB stopped supporting devices up to and including the Raspi 4 around 3 years ago.
The only two issues I had with Raspberry Pi was the problem they caused when they upgraded the camera stack, and now the move from Raspbian to Raspberry Pi OS, which will affect around 5 of my older, low memory boards (mostly Zeros).
sho_hn
> You get solid OS support right
One thing that frustrates me after running Raspberry Pis for years is that RPiOS doesn't really support in-place upgrades. You have to more or less set them up a new with each major release, despite the Debian origins where this is of course robustly possible.
nicce
Bluetooth is serious issue on older models, at least. It is very unreliable. I wonder if it is finally fixed in the latest model…
geerlingguy
It's been solid for me on the Pi 5.
JSTrading
Who needs 16GB ram on a PI! Like what are the actual use cases?
geerlingguy
I covered a few potential use cases in my blog post [1], but I'll list them here for brevity:
1. LLMs / AI: you can run llama2:13b on the Pi 5 natively, though at a pokey 1.4 t/s or so. Training small models for use with camera projects is easier too.
2. Web apps / consolidating containers: You could run a few 'beefy' websites off one Pi, as they're often memory constrained more than CPU-bound nowadays (my Drupal site requires 256 MB per PHP thread). (Though an N100 mini PC could be a better option if you care less about the energy efficiency).
3. Experimental gamers (probably like 1/10,000th the size of the other markets) who want to run modern AAA games with eGPUs on arm64... I'm one of like 10 people I've heard of who have attempted this lol
4. Clustering enthusiasts: usually we have more dollars than sense, and having arm64 nodes that cost $120 new with 16 GB of RAM per node means we can have more raw container or MPI capacity than with 8 GB nodes...
[1] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/who-would-buy-raspber...
magicalhippo
However you can get an N100-based box for about $150 (including shipping) with 16GB RAM and 500GB NVMe storage[1].
The N100 has a more powerful CPU[2], and can use OpenVINO which llama.cpp supports, so better token performance than the Pi. The N100 has far better storage performance due to x4 M.2 slot, and if you need even more RAM you can upgrade[3] it to 32GB.
The RPi 5 was a very niche board to begin with, the 16GB option at $120 even more so IMO.
[1]: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007511663921.html (semi-random example)
[2]: https://bret.dk/raspberry-pi-5-review/#Raspberry-Pi-5-Benchm...
[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/179c9m1/comment/k5... (needs to be single module, not dual)
alias_neo
I'm not sure why you're being down-voted; If you're not using a Pi for the GPIO/HATs and tinkering of that kind, but for hosting software/services, a mini-PC destroys the Pi in every regard.
I have a couple of dozen Pis, I typically buy 3x of each generation, but recently I retired everything below a Pi4 and use a Minisforum mini-PC I got for ~£260 with a 8c/16T Ryzen 7 mobile, 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD, it can do what all of the Pis were doing before and still have a tonne of CPU headroom, and I can double the RAM to 64GB if I need more.
Factoring in the cost of the Pis, coolers, PSUs, storage etc it was literally cheaper than all of the Pis and has performance and features in a different league to the Pi.
Power consumption is lower than the number of Pis required to run the equivalent workload by some way.
lloeki
Great!
All of these are quantitative metrics I (and many others) don't care about.
- All save for one machine in my home are now ARM. I like the consistency, e.g I can share Nix derivations or Docker images.
- N100 has no GPIO, which I like to tinker with from time to time.
- N100 does not support my favourite HATs that I own or consider as potential buy.
- N100 are one size fits all. There's a whole array of Pi cases and thermal management that can be picked up for any reason ranging from purely technical and practical purposes (fan vs passive, sealed vs open, human/environment protection...) or simply because it's fun and engaging (e.g NESPi case with SSD cartridges)
- N100 come in subtle variations that you have to care about. Pis are "fixed targets" physically, hardware-wise, and culturally, which makes them easy to consistently target, support, recommend, educate about, or find books for (e.g gifts for kids).
- N100 are this century nondescript dull beige boxes, while Pis are engaging through and through.
Pis and N100s are qualitatively different. A Pi5 is simply an upgrade over a Pi4. All that matters is that they're fast enough.
PaulKeeble
It also uses a lot more power all of the time for something that will be on 24/7. There is a trade off between these devices, the pi is more expensive to kit equivalent to the N100 machines (which are a bit quicker) but it uses less power all the time especially under load.
computer23
Jeff,
Price is precisely linear, not polynomial! $5/GiB (price= $40 + $5 * xGiB)
The graph isn't spaced correctly on the x axis, which causes confusion.
denysvitali
If you want cheaper (sort of) K8s nodes, with similar more compute power / RAM you can reuse old devices (smartphones, tablets) and run postmarketOS on them.
Shameless plug: https://blog.denv.it/posts/pmos-k3s-cluster/
_joel
More RAM for ZFS perhaps, Jeff?
geerlingguy
Heh, indeed—that's my plan for the 16 GB Pi 5, to swap it out for the 32 TB all-SSD Pi NAS setup I've been running for the past year! https://github.com/geerlingguy/arm-nas
moffkalast
I mean it's funny that people even have to ask, pretty much every piece of software treats RAM like it's free and unlimited nowadays. Even the most memory conscious cpp programs are so bloated at compile time that you need swap to even build them on <8GB boards.
16 GB is really a minimum for anything that's not embedded.
eGQjxkKF6fif
Bigger caches. Making entire RAMFS or tmpfs partitions (filesystems but in RAM) for applications or tinkering with things. https://wiki.debian.org/ramfs , Virtualization / VMs, databases. Loading large files into RAM instead of having to read by row/column on a HD.
I'd rather have more RAM available unused than not have RAM available and need it. Been the general rule of thumb for me for the last 30ish years.
JeremyBarbosa
RAMFS is a genius idea. That solves most of the SD card health and speed issues without needing to get a whole hard drive. I know Puppy[0] and MX Linux[1] were made to run like that too.
[0] https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/ [1] https://mxlinux.org/
alias_neo
I used to run a Pi as a Wireguard entrypoint to my home network, I made the filesystem read-only and created a RAM disk and moved logs and any other writes to it to protect the longevity of the uSD, it had the added benefit of security of a read-only FS. I'd remount it r/w occasionally and run updates. It ran flawlessly for years (at a time when I was killing a Sandisk uSD in Pis roughly once per week) until I decommissioned it.
unglaublich
Your kernel will already cache all IO in memory.
You can decrease the to-disk syncing to e.g. once per day.
```sysctl.conf vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 86400000 ```
weberer
Now you can finally run basic Electron applications, like Slack. If you're lucky, you might even be able to run 2 at the same time!
slyfox125
Outside of a real use-case, RPi products are well-polished and fun to play with. There are few other products with an overall presentation - from design to marketing - that are as clean and well done. Personally, I enjoy supporting that.
Tor3
>Who needs 16GB ram on a PI! Like what are the actual use cases?
If you use it as you would a PC then it's actually not enough RAM. I have 16GB on my laptop and desktop computers both, and as I always keep browsers running they're always out of memory, even with 16GB swap added.
Just came in to my office.. and my office computer with the same spec had killed all the desktop applications due to memory overuse, just as it always does when I leave it alone for a few days.
Granted, I do have a lot of windows and tabs open, that's because I need to move away from stuff and do other things for a while, but when I go back I need it to be there just as I left it. But browsers are eating memory. All of them. Chromium, Firefox, Vivaldi.. you name it.
For something working as a desktop PC I'm looking for way more RAM than a meagre 16GB. For a Pi which I use just for a single purpose I'm fine with those I have.. 2GB , 4GB, 8GB (which I use for different things). I'll never run a browser on any of them though. No way.
rollcat
It's theoretically viable to run a 16TB ZFS NAS, which would be perfectly respectable for SoHo/homelab workloads.
I've been looking to upgrade my aging PowerEdge T20 (also hate the fan noise), this is looking very interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if Jeff Geerling makes a video about this exact use case.
PaulKeeble
The latest android phones are adopting 16GB now, so the SBC's for equivalent performance are going to do so too. One use of them is running android for development purposes among many many others. They make great self hosting servers that are really low power.
TomK32
It's just a bigger hammer, the only tool you will ever need in your life.
pmkary
Wasn't the whole point of Raspberry Pi being cheap and accessible?
whiskers
It is still cheap and accessible. The cheapest Pi model is just over $10 [1], the most expensive is $120 [2].
And within that range there are a number of options with different CPU power, connectivity options, and RAM. Take your pick!
[1] Raspberry Pi Zero - https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero
[2] Raspberry Pi 5 16GB - https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-5
kbumsik
As a homelab guy, the only thing I wish is multi-gig ethernet. (2.5gbe)
magic_smoke_ee
2.5 GbE is too slow for my home lab. I want 10 GbE-T PoE++ without having to add a craptastic hat that has a lot of failures.
My network test boxes run 100 GbE of various flavors supported by E810-CQDA2.
kbumsik
Right. PoE will be fantastic.
geerlingguy
With you there, the Pi 5 can handle 2.5 or even 5 GbE pretty adequately.
inray
16GB is fine, although I would prefer an rpi5 revision B with onboard nvme connector. I've always wondered why they didn't do it in the first place when there is enough room for a 2230 disk.
jccalhoun
I hope that rpi6 goes nvme and usb c. I would love full size hdmi but I can see going usb c for displays as well
diggan
I think they sell those connectors as addons/"hats" or something now.
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dns_snek
Who are these for? Raspberry Pi made sense as an educational and dirt cheap hobbyist platform when it sold for ~$30. At $120 + accessories it's just another expensive toy.
dagw
We use them for all kinds of one off R&D projects at work. University students and researchers build all kinds of stuff with these. I know several companies who build low volume specialty industrial applications powered by RPi hardware. In all these cases the difference between $50 and $150 is meaningless
rbanffy
It's still a reasonably competent very small desktop computer, and the best supported small ARM machine you can find.
nottorp
Yes but at this price it competes with machines with real nvme storage and upgradeable ram.
And it’s not even low power any more.
teamonkey
2W idle isn't low-power?
n144q
You can find plenty of YouTube videos for that but I bet you rarely find anyone who actually uses it that way on a daily basis. The performance and desktop experience are just miserable.
paulcole
They should also sell the dusty drawer it’ll end up in.
Bought a mini pc with N100 and 16GB of ram, SSD included, no need to buy an enclosure, everything setup and ready, just needed to install Linux from a USB stick with the normal procedure.
I might have chosen RPI5 if it had 16GB ram, but I went with x86 and I like it because there are no software issues anymore (redpanda was not working on rpi)