Whats your smartest hardware buy recently?

[Tia88]

Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 Mini PC: Which Is the Better Value Home Server in 2026?
The power consumption difference over a year matters more than people think at current UK electricity prices. 5 to 8 watts versus 10 to 15 watts sounds small but at 25p per kilowatt hour the Pi 5 is meaningfully cheaper to run continuously

Thoughts?

[CollapseState87]

The home server and mini PC market has bifurcated in interesting ways in 2026. At the sub-£200 end you have two genuinely compelling options that serve different use cases: the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB at around £75 with appropriate accessories, and the Intel N100-based mini PCs from manufacturers including Beelink, Minisforum and Trigkey that start at around £130 to £150 for the base models. Both are capable, both are efficient, and the right choice depends entirely on what you want to do with the device.

The Pi 5 wins on power consumption, community support and software ecosystem maturity for its specific use cases. A Pi 5 running as a 24/7 home server draws around 5 to 8 watts under typical load, compared to 10 to 15 watts for an N100 mini PC. Over a year at UK electricity prices that difference represents meaningful savings and the Pi 5 does not need active cooling for most server workloads. The Raspberry Pi OS and the vast library of community documentation make setting up services like Home Assistant, Pi-hole, Jellyfin and Nextcloud extremely straightforward.

The N100 mini PC wins on raw performance, compatibility and flexibility. It runs full x86 Windows or Linux without any architectural compatibility concerns, handles light gaming and video transcoding significantly better than a Pi 5, and typically includes 8GB or 16GB of RAM plus internal NVMe storage in the base price. The Beelink EQ12 and Minisforum UM350 are the most recommended in 2026 for general-purpose home server use. If you need to run Docker containers at scale, transcode 4K video locally in Jellyfin, or run Windows for specific compatibility, the N100 is the better choice.

Best mini PCs of 2026: Compact desktop power for business, creative, and gaming set-upswww.techradar.com

[Amber90]

The N100 being x86 and running full Linux is the compatibility argument that is hard to dismiss. Everything that runs on x86 Linux just works without checking for ARM builds. For some workflows that architectural decision is made for you before you even start

[Cass93]

Home Assistant on a Pi 5 is the single best home automation setup available at any price. The hardware matches the software perfectly and the community documentation is extraordinary. If that is your primary use case the Pi 5 wins easily

[BiasField16]

4K transcoding in Jellyfin being the N100's killer argument is significant if that is your use case. The Pi 5 can play pre-transcoded content but struggles with on-the-fly transcoding for formats that require decoding work. A Jellyfin server with multiple concurrent streams needs the N100

[Sharp Shannon]

The Beelink EQ12 and Minisforum UM350 being the specific recommendations reflects that the N100 mini PC market has settled. There are many competing products but these two consistently appear in the comparison reviews as the best balance of price, build quality and thermal management

[Frost Jay]

Docker on the Pi 5 works well for lightweight containers. Running ten or fifteen containers simultaneously with competing memory requirements is where the 8GB ceiling starts to bite. The N100 versions with 16GB have more headroom for that use case

[Layla17]

The Pi 5 plus Argon ONE V3 case plus M.2 HAT plus NVMe drive ends up at around £120 to £130 for a complete build, which puts it in the same price range as the cheapest N100 mini PCs. At that point the choice really does come down to your specific workload

[QubitZero68]

That power draw point is exactly why I stopped chasing the absolute cheapest hardware. Spending a little more up front for something that sips electricity can work out better over a couple of years, especially if it's left running 24/7.

A few months back I picked up a used mini PC with an N100 processor, and it's probably been my smartest buy in ages. It idles at very little power, is completely silent most of the time, and absolutely flies compared to the old office desktop it replaced.

The funny thing is I originally bought it just to tinker with a couple of services, then it slowly became my media server, backup box and test machine. Mission creep at its finest.

Raspberry Pi prices creeping upwards definitely make the decision harder now. Once you add a decent PSU, case, storage and extras, the gap isn't nearly as wide as it used to be.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the Pi ecosystem, but for someone starting from scratch I'd definitely compare the total cost before assuming it's automatically the cheaper option.

It's nice that there are finally several good choices rather than everyone recommending exactly the same board every time.

[WaveFunction30]

Reading through the numbers, it feels like people sometimes underestimate how much convenience is worth alongside the purchase price.

One of the best hardware buys here was actually a decent UPS. Not the most exciting thing to unbox, but after a couple of power cuts it paid for itself in reduced stress alone. No more worrying about storage corruption or abruptly killing machines halfway through updates.

That changed how I look at purchases. Instead of asking whether something is the fastest, I tend to ask whether it'll quietly solve an annoyance for the next five years.

The Pi 5 setup being around the £120 to £130 mark definitely changes the conversation. At that price there are plenty of refurbished tiny PCs worth considering, especially if someone wants x86 compatibility.

On the other hand, the Pi still wins on community support and accessories. If you enjoy experimenting, that counts for quite a lot.

Funny how the smartest purchases are often the boring ones rather than the shiny gadgets everyone gets excited about.

[StoneCold_99]

Not completely convinced that power consumption should always be the deciding factor. It matters, but it depends a lot on how the machine is used.

If something only gets switched on for a couple of hours over the weekend, saving a handful of watts isn't going to make a dramatic difference compared with a system that's running day and night.

Performance has value too. Waiting less time for builds, backups or transcoding jobs is worth something, even if it's harder to stick a pound value on it.

That said, if we're talking about home servers then the argument changes completely. Every watt counts when the box never sleeps.

Best purchase recently was upgrading to a proper NVMe SSD after putting it off for ages. It wasn't glamorous, but the system suddenly felt new again and boot times became almost an afterthought.

Guess the real answer is that the smartest buy depends on what problem you're actually trying to solve rather than whatever happens to be popular this month.

[Fatima]

The biggest surprise for me recently was how much value there is in the second-hand market. Brand new hardware is great, but there are some incredible bargains if you're willing to buy refurbished from a reputable seller.

Picked up an enterprise-grade SSD that had barely been used, and it's been rock solid. A few years ago I wouldn't have trusted used storage at all, but checking the SMART data before buying made the decision a lot easier.

That also makes comparing against a fully kitted-out Pi more interesting. Once both options end up around the same price, the used business hardware starts looking very tempting.

Still, there's something satisfying about the tiny footprint and low noise of the Pi. It feels like a project even before you switch it on.

Half the fun is spending an evening arranging cables neatly, then somehow ending up with an even bigger tangle than when you started.

Whatever people choose, having efficient hardware that's reliable is usually a better investment than endlessly upgrading to chase benchmark numbers.

[Natalie_86]

Going to push back a bit on the power obsession here. Yeah, it matters, but only in certain setups. If your machine is idling most of the day or only used a few hours, the savings can be pretty negligible compared to just getting something that is faster or more reliable. Not every build needs to be a 24/7 efficiency monster.

The second-hand angle mentioned earlier is where I think the real wins are. Picked up a used business mini PC recently and it absolutely crushed the value equation, even if it is not the most efficient chip out there. Paid less upfront, solid performance, and I am not sweating a few extra watts. Sometimes the smartest buy is just grabbing something that works great and calling it a day

[Plateau45]

Completely agree that looking at the total package is more useful than focusing on the board itself.

People often say, "A Pi only costs..." and then the shopping basket quietly fills up with a case, cooler, power supply, storage, adapters and suddenly the total is something entirely different.

My favourite recent purchase was a decent mechanical keyboard. It won't save electricity or improve benchmark scores, but it's something I use every single day and the typing experience is miles better.

Sometimes the smartest hardware buy isn't the one with the biggest specifications. It's the one that improves your daily routine without demanding attention.

The discussion has definitely made me look at low-power mini PCs a bit more closely though. They seem to occupy a really nice middle ground now between traditional desktops and SBCs.

It's a good time to be shopping for compact hardware because there are finally genuine choices instead of one obvious answer.

[Midnight Aoife]

That wattage gap really sneaks up on you over a year, especially with UK rates being what they are now. People look at a 5W difference and shrug, but that is basically a couple of extra coffees per month for doing absolutely nothing differently. Add in always-on devices like NAS boxes or mini PCs and it stacks fast. Suddenly the "cheap" option is not so cheap anymore.

At the same time, performance per watt is where things get interesting. Some of the newer low-power chips are absurdly efficient, so you are not even sacrificing much anymore. That is why I have been leaning toward slightly newer hardware rather than bargain basement older gear. Feels like the sweet spot right now