Raspberry Pi 5 16GB Model Launches For $120 USD

[specs]

The RPI-Zero is the only one true to the spirit of RPI imo.

It works as long as you only need a half system, but I would have liked to see the Pi Zero2 using A55 cores instead of reusing A53 cores from the RPI3 SoC. But it is in the line with the Raspberry strategy of reselling obsolete junk, limited by not delivering a 2 or 4GB option.

[specs]

I used to buy RPi, but the RPi 4 was my last. An N100 mini PC is 2-3x the performance of a RPi 5, and comes in cheaper (considering the RPi needs a case, cooling, power supply, and storage).

Where do you get the conclusion the N100 is 2-3x faster?
I would expect something like 1,3-1,5x except for raw memory and nvme performance. Most reviews I saw share that conclusion.
In applications the abysmal raw performance is mostly less prominent.

BTW If speed really is a dealbreaker I'd never look for either N100 or RPI5. If powersaving is an issue my first choice would also be neither.

[Cmdr_Zod]

I just ordered one... Just for fun. No other reason. My use is not for a desktop as I already have all the 'desktops' I need. These credit card size computers are for hobby software/hardware projects or small servers. I really don't know how people use all the memory. I am writing this on one of my desktops (running KUbuntu) and have firefox open and thunderbird and few other apps and I am 'only' using 2.26G of memory.... 16GB really is overkill. Just checked my RPI5-4G that I am using as a redis/pihole/etc server and it is using 610M. Checking my running Startrek computer it is using only 258M. I remember the days when we talked about K bytes ... not giga....

I belong to the group of people which apparently didn't discover the "close tab" function in their browser for themself yet.
On my light use notebook, I currently use about 10GB of Memory, so 16GB is fine, and I could probably do with 8GB.
My desktop is a different story, I sometimes run games (And I don't bother to close the browser before I start the game), I use gimp on large pictures. I did run into limits on the previous box with only 14GB of RAM. I have put 64GB in it, which is overkill, 32GB would do it, but, well, I thought it would be fun. Also the GPU is discrete, to this doesn't consume RAM.
I still have very old hardware in use as a server, and recently OOMs some old system, when I was bench marking various compression tools on a very old system with only 1 GB memory.

Most important reason to get more RAM for me on this class of system is the fact, that you can't upgrade it. My desktop was sold with 8GB RAM, and I can still use it because I upgraded. If the RAM is soldered on, you can't do that. Of course, if you are limited by the CPU, you may need to replace the whole system.

[rclark]

I belong to the group of people which apparently didn't discover the "close tab" function in their browser for themself yet

Drives me crazy if I have more than a few tabs. Never get back to them, so why have open... Only time I seem to do more is if researching something... but then close back down after I've found the info for the task as hand. The one usage that does consume memory is VMs. That is why I have 64GB on my workstation as I could give a lot of memory to them. But the RPI systems will never have VMs installed. Lol, I tried to max out a desktop with 16GB once by opening every app I could think of, gimp, FreeCad, firefox, thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, Lazarus, netbeans, etc.... And I think it was still under 8GB back then...

[brad0]

I just ordered one... Just for fun. No other reason. My use is not for a desktop as I already have all the 'desktops' I need. These credit card size computers are for hobby software/hardware projects or small servers. I really don't know how people use all the memory. I am writing this on one of my desktops (running KUbuntu) and have firefox open and thunderbird and few other apps and I am 'only' using 2.26G of memory.... 16GB really is overkill. Just checked my RPI5-4G that I am using as a redis/pihole/etc server and it is using 610M. Checking my running Startrek computer it is using only 258M. I remember the days when we talked about K bytes ... not giga....

8GB would be the bare minimum I would consider for a desktop, but 16GB is what I provision for anything new. 8GB is too limiting and I don't want a system that would be swapping on a regular basis, especially to an SSD.

[rclark]

8GB would be the bare minimum I would consider for a desktop

Especially with 32G going for ~$100... Memory is cheap cheap cheap. 16GB is my min spec as well even though I would 'rarely' get any where needing it. Again talking 'desktop' . Now a workstation running VMs different story. 64G seems like plenty at the moment. But for an RPI5 ... I can't fathom what application needs 16G for problem solving on it in a timely manner. Just me though. Not 'into' the LLM craze that seems to have taken hold .

[Cmdr_Zod]

8GB would be the bare minimum I would consider for a desktop, but 16GB is what I provision for anything new. 8GB is too limiting and I don't want a system that would be swapping on a regular basis, especially to an SSD.

Outside Linux, even 16GB is borderline. The device given to my at work is running the usual "business and communication" apps (it always amazes me, how much resources some commercial "antivirus" and communication software is consuming nowadays) and I also run a small Debian in a VM for convenience, sometimes an IDE, and performance wise, the system is just laggy at times, most likely due to lack of memory, if the monitoring can be trusted. In comparison, my much, much older private notebook just flies with the same amount of (slower) RAM, slower CPU and a slower SSD running Linux.
At the previous job, I was running more or less the same business software on a Linux system with the same amount of RAM, and performance was much better.

[Eirikr1848]

Ah, sucks. Honestly I thought Pi 4 was 8GB, and the Pi 5 started at 16GB and capped out at 32GB.

whoops I guess I set my expectations too hard.

(Is it too much for them to have an SO-DIMM slot?)

[waxhead]

that is so expensive for a pi5 board.

If there was a like button I would have clicked it...

In any case. RasberryPI was supposed to be affordable. 16GB is fine if it does not add significantly to the cost but that does not seem to be the case.

Actually the pi would have been nice if it was used as a demoscene platform. A common platform with common hardware just like the Amiga/C64/other platform from that era.

[Cmdr_Zod]

(Is it too much for them to have an SO-DIMM slot?)

An SO-DIMM slot costs space and creates additional costs for the socket and the SO-DIMM itself. Furthermore, non-soldered RAM tends to be a bit more power hungry for the same performance. I still hate the trend to solder RAM on notebooks or small desktops, but for this very space constrained board I can understand that it is soldered on.