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this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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Fuck AI
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A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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To be fair, who needs 16GB of RAM on a Pi? The hell are you running on it that needs that? Are you trying to use it as a desktop?
Considering the 3 only had 2GB of ram, and the 4 only had 4GB of ram for the longest time, it's probably better to compare the 8GB model. Which is still $135.
Even the 1GB model is $50. Fucking ridiculous.
I have the 8 GB one.
I agree the 16 GB one is useless (especially how weak it is,I would rather buy a Optiplex or Thinkpad for that price with 16gb ram)
Power efficiency is still a consideration. I am 100% for rehoming business waste. I have several optiplex and think station's. Modern AMD and Intel are getting better. But still not there in efficiency. And older systems certainly aren't. But sadly, at this point unless that or space are at a premium. For home lab use they are much less viable now.
Oh true.
Thats why i bought a rpi5 (when it was still 80 usd),I love how you can run it from a powerbank and a usbc screen concurrently.
Which am currently doing with mine.
I also like how you can make it portable.
Yes I'm very interested in different ISAs myself. Looking to make a super portable system from an SBC. Although I'm waiting to see what these upcoming RVA23 RiscV SBCs are going to bring. And hopefully build something around one of them. If by the point they come out later this year Hardware just hasn't become unaffordable entirely.
Tbh I've been running some repurposed "office waste" as you put it on 8-10W and 10-12W (idle but also even with some load the consumption doesn't tick up meaningfully). On 8th gen and 7th gen intel core i5s respectively.
I don't recall how much RPis use up - I'm sure it is/can be less, but 10W is also really low, no? Especially as far as a full server box with spinning rust and all that goes.
The irony? 16GB is enough for running a mid-size LLM, to not connect up to the cloud.
even at $135, what does a pi offer than i can't solve with an refurb/off-lease corporate 1L minipc?
Low power consumption, GPIO pins, small form factor.
There are use cases for it. If you have robotic applications that heavily rely on machine vision and image processing it might be needed. You can also upgrade the Raspberry pi 4 and 5 with this so called AI shield, to increase performance.
ZFS pool needs like 8 GB of RAM.