the problem for me is, intel NUC are EXTREMLY expensive. case in point

https://www.amazon.in/Intel-Core-Mini-NUC8i5BEH-500GB/dp/B07... (INR 52K or US$ 600) https://www.amazon.in/Intel-Performance-NUC11PAHI5-Thunderbo... (INR 42K or US$ 488)

or you can get a celeron https://www.amazon.in/Intel-NUC7CJYH-NUC-Kit-BOXNUC7CJYH/dp/... (INR 12K or US$ 139)

https://robu.in/product/raspberry-pi-3-model-a-with-official... (inr 2800 or US$32)

or https://robu.in/product/raspberry-pi-3-model-a/ (INR 2500 or US$29)

so the NUC are being sold at obscene prices....

i am very much interested in buying old tech because

1. it is cheaper and has seen a lot so it usually isnt flimsy. 2. no need for warranty as the local repair scene is pretty good with aftermarket spares readily available.

i broke 4-5 Pis last year because of a bad usb cable that was transferring data and i didnt realize until later the cause. anyway, i am stuck with pis with USB overcurrent problem.

At least in the U.S., you can get refurbished Dell OptiPlex Micro and Lenovo ThinkCentre M Series PCs for just over $100. I opted for the moderately more expensive Intel Nuc because I could buy the barebones version since I had some spare memory laying around that I wanted to use up. Plus, I only needed one such computer for my server needs.

NOS (New Old Stock) NUCs can be had for really nice prices if you're patient and don't mind having mildly outdated hardware (which will likely run circles around rPi anyway).

If you don't mind buying used, the prices drop even further.

Look for used Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q or M715q...thank me later ;)

> so the NUC are being sold at obscene prices....

A question I keep asking is what happened to the cheap NUC's?

This question has been bothering me since the $199 J1900 NUC disappeared years back and was never replaced by a comparative low power and low cost NUC. Instead we got $400+ i3/5/7 NUC's and some silly $1200 NUC with a skull on it for gaming. They were at one point cost effective but that suddenly stopped.

Few weeks back I picked up an i5 NUC on sale for $300 from Newegg which is the lowest I've seen a quad core NUC in a long time (maybe I'm not looking hard enough). It's hooked to my TV and is just another desktop that also happens to play Hulu.

Pi makes sense if you need the IO it provides, if you don't, well, that's just a shitty computer