The Raspberry Pi 5 has become so expensive that my cheap DDR3 SBCs make more sense for most projects

Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with his head stuck inside a PC or tinkering with a server operating system. Besides computing, his interests include spending hours in long RPGs, yelling at his friends in co-op games, and practicing guitar.

If you’d asked me for some single-board computers a decade ago, I would’ve pointed to Raspberry Pi boards without hesitation. After all, rival ARM boards could barely hold a candle to their Raspberry Pi counterparts when it came to software. Likewise, the very few x86 SBCs out there used to cost a lot more than mainline Raspberry Pi systems.

Sadly, the Raspberry Pi prices have gone absolutely bonkers as of late, and although I’d still recommend typical x86 boards featuring full-fledged N100 processors, the latter aren’t cheap, either. In fact, the SBC market has become so expensive that I’ve started turning my attention to DDR3 boards.

The Raspberry Pi 5 isn't what I'd call affordable

When the Raspberry Pi 5 came out, its $60 price tag justified its somewhat outdated CPU, especially since it added a couple of new upgrades to the uber-popular SBC lineup. Truth be told, it’s not a bad board by any means, and with the talented community of tinkerers building cool projects practically every other day, I’ve always got something or the other I can create with the SBC. Unfortunately, its pricing has gotten way out of hand as of late. The cheaper models are practically out of stock everywhere, while the mid-range boards like the 4GB variant cost around $130 – assuming your favorite retailer even has them.

Now, combine that with the microSD card, CPU cooler, and micro HDMI adapter you’d have to grab for the Raspberry Pi 5, and your board will quickly get to the $150 mark. And that’s without all the HATs, cases, and other optional accessories that can add some much-needed oomph to this SBC.

Not to mention, the Raspberry Pi is based on the ARM architecture, meaning it’s pretty restrictive on the OS front if you’re building anything other than simple hobbyist projects. Yeah, the RPi community has created custom ports for plenty of operating systems, but they often have annoying workarounds or ship with missing features.

DDR3 boards may be slow, but they can handle server-grade projects better than an RPI 5

Even my Zimablade can double as a reliable NAS

With the RAM crisis showing no signs of recovery, it’s no surprise that typical x86 SBCs boards cost more than high-end Raspberry Pi 5 models. Of course, they’re definitely more capable than their Raspberry Pi-flavored counterparts, to the point where practically every current-gen x86 board in my arsenal leaves the RPi 5 in the dust when it comes to performance, connectivity options, and OS support.

But since I often need simple, budget-friendly machines for my DIY projects, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to splurge on a $300+ board. And that’s precisely why DDR3-powered boards aren’t so terrible in 2026. For reference, the DDR3 SBC I own is the ZimaBlade, which has such a weak Atom processor that even the Raspberry Pi 5’s outdated CPU can surpass it in sheer performance. But its RAM and pricing are what justify its existence in this day and age.

You see, this board costs around $69 for the base model, and roughly $120 if you go for a 16GB RAM module (which you can buy for even cheaper on the likes of eBay). That’s insanely cheap when you compare it to a similarly specc’d RPi 5, especially since the latter’s 16GB variant tends to retail at well over $300. And it’s not just this SBC, either. I’ve tinkered with a few other dinosaur mini-PCs from the DDR3 age. Of course, they’re far from ideal in terms of sheer firepower, but their affordable price and high memory capacity make them more than capable of running typical server-tier tools.

For example, I’ve repurposed my ZimaBlade into a TrueNAS server, and despite its weak CPU, it has no problems driving the two hard drives I’ve hooked up to it. Heck, even the SSD where I installed TrueNAS just needed an old PCIe-to-NVMe board I’ve hooked up to an old PC, as opposed to requiring a dedicated HAT that’s not compatible with anything else in my home lab. On a Raspberry Pi, however, the same project required me to deal with HATs, external drives, and broken Ethernet drivers. Proxmox runs just as well on my DDR3-era SBC, while I’d have to jump through some hoops to get the virtualization platform up and running on my Raspberry Pi.

GPIO pins are the only reason I recommend certain Raspberry Pi boards

And even then, ESP32 microcontrollers are better for cheap DIY projects

If there’s one reason why I’d prefer a Raspberry Pi SBC, it’s the GPIO support on these boards. With the RPi being the mainstream SBC, most HATs adopt their pinout structure, which may not correspond to the same GPIO configuration. So, if you’re planning to work on specific sensor HATs, it might be a good idea to opt for a Raspberry Pi Zero module… if you can find a 2 W module that isn’t out of stock or costs more than $60.

I’ve been playing around with a first-generation RPi Zero module for the last few weeks, and despite featuring a processor that has been abandoned by most tools, it’s still good enough for sensor projects. But at that point, I’d suggest giving microcontrollers like the ESP32 family a shot, as they're capable of powering DIY gadgets, circuitry components, and even random sensors hooked up to a smart home, all while costing less than the cheapest Raspberry Pi Zero.