Raspberry Pi prices are out of hand, and this $50 thin client makes a better home server

Single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi became synonymous with DIY projects, and they're excellent for small-scale home servers. The idea of a credit card-sized computer with 4GB of memory and quad-core chips worked perfectly for these use cases. Economical pricing was another major reason for the Raspberry Pi’s popularity. But if you look at last year's market trends, SBCs have become expensive gadgets. They used to be affordable, but I can't say the same now.

Raspberry Pi prices are pushing astronomical boundaries after a rise in memory costs. But there are other alternatives, like old thin clients that can work as a functional home server. I recently bought one such thin client or mini PC for less than a brand-new 1GB Raspberry Pi 5. Let's discuss why it's a better pick than most SBCs in the current scenario.

Current SBC prices are a tough pill to swallow

Refurbished thin clients and mini PCs are cheaper

Before I start comparing the current price of Raspberry Pi models, let's focus on the thin client I purchased. It's an HP t620 model that was available for around $15 without memory and storage. It's similar to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W's original price. I purchased an 8GB DDR3 memory stick along with a 128GB SATA SSD for almost $35. So, I had to pay around $50 for a complete, usable computer. While the SSD and memory arrived, I tested them with external storage and a salvaged 4GB DDR3 stick from my old laptop.

So, it's possible to build a functional server for just $50 with a powerful enough processor. My HP t620 is a decade old and can still work as a small-scale server under this budget. The seller was kind enough to include a new power adapter with it, helping me save money. In contrast, the Raspberry Pi 5 1GB memory variant retails for $45. The older Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 1 GB costs $35.

Both of these are significantly higher than the thin client I purchased and don't include a power adapter. A one-gigabyte memory board, no matter how fast its memory is, will feel limited by today’s standards. If you compare it to my setup, which has 8GB of memory, the price seems horrible. The 4GB memory models of both Raspberry Pi boards cross the $100 mark, and this is without any peripherals.

I agree that both these boards have a more powerful CPU than my mini-PC, but most self-hosted tools need more memory than CPU power. The old DDR3 memory in my thin client is comparable to the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B’s memory, but it lags behind the LPDDR4X memory available with the Raspberry Pi 5. If I spend $100 on a refurbished thin client, I might score a more powerful processor than these SBCs. But if I want to run more tools, I need more memory, and the thin client does that at a very low cost.

Superior connectivity and upgradability

SBCs cannot match it

My HP t620 has better connectivity than most of the SBCs available today. It has multiple USB ports, Ethernet, display ports, and all the other necessary connection inputs, along with a speaker. A Raspberry Pi 5 has similar USB and Ethernet ports, but that's about it. The older version doesn't support either SATA or PCIe connections, and the latest one needs an additional HAT module. So you first have to buy the board and then the HAT to attach an SSD to the PCIe Gen 2.0 interface. While the Raspberry Pi 5 supports up to Gen 3, the whole setup becomes unnecessarily complex.

The thin client supports M.2 SATA SSDs of multiple form factors and can handle up to 16GB of RAM in a dual-channel configuration. So, I can upgrade the storage without purchasing additional connection modules, as I need for an SBC. I can also boost the memory capacity when my self-hosted setup demands more. As you expand your self-hosted tool library, the additional memory capacity makes it feasible to use the same computer for more demanding tasks.

On an SBC, I don’t have the luxury of memory upgrades and have to switch to a better model. It means spending twice the money on the same computer with double or quadruple the memory. Earlier, any new user would obviously go for a 4GB or 8GB variant because of soldered memory, but the current prices would force you to buy a 1GB or 2GB model. GPIO connectivity is a plus point of the Raspberry Pi boards, but only if you plan to build embedded projects. For a home lab, you don’t need it.

Power consumption is higher

But don’t sacrifice the other good things

The whole idea of an SBC is to use very little power. I have had a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W running as a Vaultwarden server for over a year, and it has had a negligible impact on my electricity bills. A thin client like the HP t620 won’t use more than 15 watts under stress, and that’s less than one percent of my annual bill amount. Raspberry Pi 5 and 4 B can work with slightly less power, but you need separate power adapters for them.

Don’t trade in all the other good aspects of a thin client just for the sake of a trivial difference in power consumption. You don’t need to be locked into a memory configuration or have to purchase multiple accessories like a Raspberry Pi. The ample connectivity options and upgrade room for a significantly lower price are another compelling reason to pick an old thin client.

Switch to a thin client

If you'd asked me the same question a few months ago, I would have leaned towards the Raspberry Pi 5. But the current pricing is horrible and makes the SBC a bad pick unless you need the embedded computing support. For home lab systems, a thin client is a better pick because it's cheap and effective. You can easily host multiple tools on it without ever wondering about performance. It might not be feasible for AI computing, but the x86 architecture supports a lot of operating systems and software.