Raspberry Pi 5. I'll Pass
I bought my first Raspberry Pi (RPI) in January 2014. I've since bought 3 others, the most recent being a Pi 3B in 2017. Aside from the novelty of the small, single board design the biggest draw for me was the low power consumption. These boards were ideal for running WeeWx weather software and other always-on scenarios. Today, I maintain one at my father-in-law's home where we run WeeWx and MotionEye for his weather cam, uploading weather data and images to webpage and (previously) to a couple of weather services. Works great, sits in the corner drawing nearly no power but doing the job.
I'm an amateur radio operator (KN4IED) and have tinkered with some of the SDR software and other radio uses that others have found to work well on the Pi, though most of that tinkering was just that -- tinkering.
I have also found the RPI to be useful for running a FlightRader24 feeder service (can also be used for FlightAware separately or together) and as a Network UPS Tool (NUT) server. I'll do a write up on that shortly.
Aside from those uses, though, my RPIs have tended to sit in a drawer for want of anything to use them for. And I guess that's a bit unfair. After all, they are great project boards and there are a ton of websites and Youtube channels that show you how to do all sorts of things with the RPI. The problem is that none of those project really excite me. They do things that I have no need for or require a far greater investment than I'm willing to put into a device when other devices may be more powerful and easier to use.
Now that's not to say that I'm not into experimenting and learning. Currently I'm working with ESP32 and an Arduino board, mostly just to understand what the hype is all about. The ESP32, particularly, interests me as I experiment with Home Assistant and look into creating useful sensors with that board. But while those are much less powerful, they're also much cheaper and for the use that they're intended, are not a terrible value. Particularly for learning.
Despite the lack of apparent utility, I was very interested for a time in the RPI 4. After all, I still like shiny new things! Problem, of course, is that they were not available. The RPI 5 is out and appears to be quite a step up from the prior versions and may actually be far more useful. There are two key things holding me back from buying one: Price and competition.
Before I get into those two issues, though, I do want to acknowledge that these are my issues with the device. As I mentioned above, if you're interested in being a maker and exploring what all the device can do or learning more about computer technology, programming, etc, then the device may be a pretty good deal. On the other hand, If you're really more interested in running specific services and not tinkering around with the hardware, I think there are better options.
Now, price
I will assume that you already have a mouse, keyboard, and spare monitor that you can use, along with the necessary cables for connecting those devices. To get started with a basic RPI 5, one with 4 GB memory, you'll need the board, an mini-hdmi to hdmi cable, and power supply at minimum. And, because the RPI 5 tends to run a bit hotter, you'll need either a case with a fan or an active cooler. Adding a case with a fan (the cheaper option) will set you back about $901. That price does not include a microSD card, which I am assuming you have nor does it include a storage drive. Let's assume you already have an NVME drive, to be able to use it as a storage device for the RPI 5 you'll need to add another $20 for a base board for the M.2 drive. (Which then won't fit in the case we included.)
In terms of connectivity, the RPI 5 includes 2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0 ports, an 1GB ethernet port, 1 PCIE 2x1 port, a USB-C port for power, and 2 mini-hdmi ports. Wireless and bluetooth are standard.
The competition
In contrast, pop over to Ebay and you'll find a ton of 'thin clients' for $30 - $60 each. These are complete systems. Some include the keyboard and mouse, while others don't (hence the price differences). Many of these come with 8GB ram (rather than the 4GB we quoted above). Some have space for two SATA or NVME drives. A few even include the drive. I have several Dell Wyse 5070 thin clients that I paid about $50 each for. These devices are powered by a Celeron J4105 (or similar) chip and come with 1 USB-C, 5 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, 2 full-size displayport ports, and a 1GB ethernet port. There are options for adding bluetooth and wireless, though neither comes standard, as in the RPI. And it's all packaged in a case so that no electronics are exposed.
You can even get brand new low-end laptops for as little a $100 which includes a screen, keyboard, and pointing device. Yeah, they're not going to do a whole lot of power things, and lack the expandability of either the RPI or the thin client, but they're still comparable in the performance department with either of those options.
So, what's my point? The Raspberry Pi, and similar SBCs, are great products if you're a tinkerer. there are a ton of YouTube videos showing folks doing all kinds of crazy things with the Pi. And I applaud them for their ingenuity. But I wonder how useful many of those project are. How many of the things they've created are actually in use? Yes, you can create 64TB NAS based on a Pi, but is that really useful? Does it work as effectively as a more purpose built unit? I don't know. And I don't have the financial wherewithal or the motivation to find out. My guess is that most of those projects are proof-of-concept kinds of things and are primarily built in order to provide content for videos.
While I've been a tinkerer for most of my life, and still am in many ways, I've also gotten to a point with computers where there are some things that I just want to "set and forget". I have services that run either on my ProxMox server or my Unraid server that I don't want to muck with. Beyond those, I don't have a need to tinker so much on the computer side any more. (As I mentioned above, the ESP32 and Arduino are intriguing because they serve different purposes that the RPI and offer different learning experiences and, perhaps, utility. Experimentation will tell.)
So, for now I'll pass on the RPI 5 and other SBCs for my computing needs. I'm content with the thin clients I'm using for distro hopping, exploring software, programming, etc. And leave the tinkering to folks with more money and time than me.