It is crazy to think that both the N100 and the Pi 5 are in a similar class to some older quad core chips like the Ryzen 2200G or intel's quad core ivy bridge chips like the popular i7 3770, whilst both drawing extremely low power. We have come a long way
I am reading this running an old i7-3770K. The TDP is "only" 77W on the CPU but with a poorly ventilated case the fans spin upp to 80% as soon as I do anything remotely taxing and the core temps runs over 100C pretty easily. CPU tech has come a long way in ten years but I should probably also move my motherboard into another case I have sitting here, and put on some new thermal paste while doing so :)
AMD had 3000G Athlon CPUs with a TDP of 35W they were great for HTPCs with their onboard Radeon Vega 3 graphics and could play 4K videos. A pity they stopped making that line
dude they are in noway near the same class, maybe if you want to claim that based purely on core count. im no engineer but even the pi4 struggles performance wise to tons of stuff the "same class" 3770 has no problem running. doubling the pi4 performance still doesnt bring it close to the 3770
@@dtmt502for 45W and much cheaper used you can get an i7-3770T which performs like a 3770 and fits in the same motherboards so some ewaste Dell, HP or Lenovo will gladly take them.
Tom's Hardware Guide picked you up!! Congrats! I am very surprised that the Pi5 held up so well. I make music so, I would pay the extra $$ for connectivity and compatibility. I am impressed with YOUR performance, CHRIS !
Another great video. The Pi did very well, but if I had to choose I would go for your N100. I particularly like the extra connectivity afforded by the VGA connector and the serial port. Weird, I know, but that’s me!
@@ldkbudda4176 😀 I haven’t used one in a while, but I still have a USB one in my laptop bag, just in case. It’s a relic from my days as a field service tech.
Having an actual serial port that's properly configured is amazing when you want to run a a system without a monitor. I've got a couple of home servers and some network equipment with serial on them, and they've spoiled me. When they fail, I can get into them fairly easily to fix them. When the stuff without serial stops responding, it's no fun at all. :P VGA is so flexible. You don't just get VGA, but with a cheap adapter, you also have HDMI and whaever else you need.
I'd pick depending on whether I needed GPIO or not. A PC is better if you don't need GPIO. The difference in power consumption is pretty minimal. I mean sure the PC uses twice as much but both use very little. Even with expensive power it's under $100 a year if you run either one 24x7.
I was expecting laughable results, but that RPi 5 sure showed me! I'm impressed! My N100-DC build runs Proxmox with two OpenMediaVault VMs (both were in different servers), a Linux Lite VM, a Linux Mint (XFCE) VM, and a Peppermint OS VM. CPU averages at around 25% when VMs are idle with background tasks. I have a dual SFP+ NIC and PCI-e to multiple SATA adapter. 2 WD Red hard drives and 3 Seagate Exos hard drives. Only 1 NVMe (for VMs) and 2 2.5" SSDs. My N100 motherboard uses desktop power supplies, so I'm able to have that many storage drives (Corsair Gold Plus PSU -- I think the RM 550 MX?). My server runs at about 55 watts on average! Love the N100. Windows VMs run terrible, though.
Very interesting. I would still go for an N100, which can be had at a price closer to a complete Pi set-up but it did OK for the tasks shown. Would have been interesting to have thrown in an RK3588 for comparison too.
Apparently "Minisforum" is going to release a N100 based Pocket Mini PC in similar form-factor to Pi, and going to be priced under $100. It's name is "S100-N100 Super Mini PC" and was showcased in CES 2024 and is suppose to launch in a few months. Though the negative might be that it has soldered LPDDR5 memory and UFS 2.1 storage.
@@rafiy7150 SSD memory should not be soldered. It should be possible to replace it at some point when it wears out. I could live with soldered LPDDR5 memory as long as you get a device with at least 16 MiB of RAM.
Thank you Chris! Loved the comparisons..... While the N100 is more than capable, the Pi has a special place in my heart as it's UK made (in Wales, like the Dragon 32), and ARM has a connection to the Acorn days.
The Pis brought me back to Linux in general (was there already years ago) that helps in my work life. So it has a special place here too. Will always buy the newest one they bring out just to give them my support. I also used a few other SBCs in the meantime (Odroid, Pine, Orange), but the Pi will always be number one, even others might be better in some regards. The Pi 5 is a nice update. I think they should give the GPU part a bit more oomph in the next iteration to make it perfect.
Another reason to choose N100 over rpi5 is the software compatibility. x86 systems are more compatable and the optimizations are often better. Hardware encoding on x86 systems are also better, and I do need that for real-time transcoding with jellyfin. I had my N100 mini-PC as a server for 2 months already. It has been running fine without hiccups, unlike the rpi4 it replaced, which sometimes have trouble rebooting. Also, it might be cheaper depending on the availability. My N100 server cost about the same as the rpi5 with a SSD anyway.
I just bought the NanoPC T6 8GB 64GB to only run that one camera, I read most of the stuff downloading 141GB, and I think you use Debian, but it says' Ubuntu in such and such a way, because their machine must look or make it easier. So, it was true, it was the only RK3588 with native MIPI & SSD, and has (oldy) throw back from olden times.
I always thought Windows ARM had laughable software compatibility. But when I briefly tried out Linux ARM via Lenovo Chromebook Duet, I realized things were no different between the two.
Thank you Chris, good information, as we've come to expect from you. I did notice that many of the mini PCs on A'zon have reviews where users suspect they came with a pirated version of windows that cease to function after a short time. Something to note if one isn't going to install their own OS.
I've been waiting for this video! I started souring a bit on the pi during the pandemic when the RPi foundation started prioritizing commercial customers over the makers and tinkers who brought the boards to popularity. That pushed me to thin clients and mini pcs, and I'm not sure I'll ever go back. The Pi5 is a great device, but I started migrating to the n100s a few months ago instead of a pi4 and the performance has been amazing. There are a million ways to do GPIO, so the pi advantage is almost always gone. About the only time I see myself using a pi is for some pre-built image that expects it.
There was a period a couple of years ago where I had to use a 4gb Raspberry Pi 4 as my only computer because my main laptop was being repaired and that took a long time. Granted, I was only doing web browsing and RUclips playback, but it still shows how capable a Raspberry PI is. The fact that you can now edit video almost flawlessly on an £80 computer with proxy clips just goes to show how far low-cost ARM computing has developed over the past few years.
Worst thing that can happen to people like you is having experienced proper PC. Sorry but what you wrote is more in lieu of misinformation, most people will be crazy to even try having this cheapo boards as a main computer, current best performing RPI is having less performance in basic tasks then 10 year old PC with cheapest currently available ssd in it.
@@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez I do prefer the PI electricity bills, though I generally agree with you. The PI4 couldn't quite cut it for me as a desktop but this review of the PI5 was encouraging.
I was one of the viewers who asked Chris why he hadn't used a Pi5:instead of the N100... it's great to see this video!! They came out so close in the end. I replaced my MythTV box with a RPi5 and after sorting through some difficulties it's settled down well and now saving a lot of power. The RPi 5 is a great little SBC. The only criticisms I have of it are how they've relied on Wayland for speed when many Linux distro apps are still very much xserver based.
How the heck did you get MythTV to setup? I have a Hauppage HD 4-tuner card, three previous generations of Happage cards, and have been trying to get MythTV to work for years with nothing but failure! It has only ever found one tuner -- an Avermedia that was complete crap, kept overheating -- and the interface is a freaking nightmare!
I'm typing this on an RPi 5. I absolutely love it. As an upgrade from the 4 it is great. I have quite a few other Pis and it is already convenient that I can plug cameras and other devices from one into the other and compile the same code without issues on all of them. I have a fairly powerful desktop so I'm not trying to use the Pi for everything. It's primarily my daughter's computer. Witha really nice keyboard and a decent monitor it is a joy to use.
Thanks to your N100 review I bought one to make a Proxmox server. I'm using the ASUS conventional power connector version with a pico psu as it comes with a couple of pcie slots (and I had pico psu and old laptop psu laying around). Really happy with the choice as I could put 32GB of RAM in it. It's interesting to see how close the PI5 is but the RAM and IO limitations of it would have ruled it out for my purposes. I have 32 Gigs of RAM and 3 network cards. All thanks to your n100 review - thanks. I'm now looking to get my PI4s running as clients to the HomeAssistant running on the proxmox server. The proxmox server also runs OpenWRT, Pi Hole and a NAS Keep it up!
I was always fascinated with the idea of using a Raspberry Pi as a desktop machine ever since I got my first Pi 3 for Christmas as a kid. As the years go by, it's amazing to see the gap close further between standard desktops and these single board computers! I remember having to use my Raspberry Pi 4 as my main machine last year after the GPU in my desktop died, and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience! Web browsing, document writing, video watching, even a little bit of Java Minecraft (Albeit with a slight overclock and on older versions lol), I could almost replace my main machine with it. Very excited to see the progress these little machines have made!
Chris, you are always a reference. You underline the human side of things. Many can make a review, pour out numbers, comparisons... But everyday use is another thing. Thank you.
Nice comparison. Thanks. I quite like my setup with a Pi 4 or 5 set up next to my usual pc. I use the Pi for python programming and it's a handy place to test out programs before committing them to the main pc. I appreciate the low power requirement in this set up, it doesn't feel as wasteful as having two pcs running. It helps keep all dev work in one place. Also the Pi is much easier too set up for python. Python on windows can be a pain esp if your GIS (my main work) uses a different version of python. I was pleasantly surprised at the Pi's performance running portion programs and also running QGIS aswell. Another bonus is ease of maintenance (just keep a spare micro ssd), windows, for me, is just getting more and more difficult to maintain, resource hungry and expensive. After many issues recently on laptops and desktops I've got tired of the whole windows cycle and am experimenting with migrating to linux as a main OS. I'll give Ubuntu a shot now, thanks for the idea - I was using zorin on the pc (Very nicely finished OS) but the are a few things that don't quite suit a development environment or the way that i work. Cheers for the vid.
Fascinating and insightful as ever :) I'd make one note however, in the boot test into ubuntu, it's worth considering the BIOS POST time, by the actual first console message on screen from the linux boot, it looked like the N100 didn't actually start to "boot" - i.e. run the disk os mbr init vector - until about 4 seconds later (about 16sec) than the Pi (at 12 sec) - so part of the boot is that the N100 has a more substantial power on sequence, rather than the operating system/hardware per se being slower to boot.. of course, it's valid when comparing actual "waiting time" to boot, but it's not from that output, necessarily a valid timing of the o/s boot speed, but the nature of the larger POST sequence [and arguably slower switching circuitry in the physical power input differences] ... as I say, not a complaint of your process, but something to consider when comparing. edit to add : it's probably worth turning of the fancy modern bios splash screens and let both machines POST with their output, like in them olden days watching all the memory get checked :)
A very nice comparison! I still think you made the right choice to build your N100 PC though, given the greater versatility of an x86 PC running Linux. And, having also experienced tinnitus myself for the last year or so, I'm a "fan" of your N100 PC's fanless design, though my tinnitus seems to be a bit different from yours. However I think it's quite possible that, given a few more years' time, more of us may chose to use an ARM based SBC for our daily work.
Thanks Chris for this very interesting and practical review. I disregarded RP for servers as they were unavailable, SD cards didn’t have the reliability of a NVME SSD, power supply was very critical and cooling was an issue, so I chose a N100 box. However, you have shown that RP still have something to say
You are incredible in the way you present the information, break it down and explain every step of what and why you are doing it. Great work and I just started subscribing after seeing your work over at least the last year. Thank you and keep on doing what you do!
Add my thanks for producing this comparison. It was very well done. I too was surprised by how close the Pi 5 was to N100. Connectivity remains a weak point for the Pi family and this is only the second Pi that has a proper storage interface. (CM4 could support a PCIe 1.0 x1 NVME SSD.) I can see SATA cables in your build and and the Pi 5 can support either NVME or SATA via PCIe but not both at the same time. To date I have not seen any adapters for the Pi 5 PCIe connector that support either SATA or a standard NVME slot, though I expect that will come.
Great comparison! Just for the fun of it I tried some of the tests you performed on my 2017 MacBook Pro that I run Linux on with a Gnome desktop, and which should have a similar enough environment to stock Ubuntu for the purpose of these tests. Curiously while the lava test in gimp finished in about 3 seconds similar to your mini PC, the sysbench with the same parameters performed significantly worse clocking in at about 5.5 seconds. This shows me that a synthetic test can't always reflect real life performance and it can even swing both ways if we compare my laptop to what you measured on the Raspberry Pi 5.
Had been waiting since your recommending this a week or so ago. The more of these videos I see, the more I think it's like watching motorbike reviews. Some people want everything in the world for the price of a budget machine, and some can accept the "horses for courses" way of thinking. I would say that this horse - the Raspberry Pi - would run nicely on my course, as it were, if I had to buy a cheap replacement for my 2011 macbook pro which runs Mint 21 XFCE and is used as a simple Internet computer and for making documents for work. Thanks a lot.
Cool video. I’ve been covering a similar topic however I used the youyeetoox1 sbc which is 99-109 in price and has similar specs. Also something to consider is the x86 compatibility. We r getting better performance on a board not as strong as the raspi 5 and orange pi5 but in most cases it performs better with emulation because emulators are native to x86 and better driver support
one other advantage of the Pi5 over your N100 is the size.... you can travel with a Pi5 more easy than your N100.... but very good video Christopher .... I use my Pi5 as a portable computer (travel anywhere) all as I need is a HDMI TV / monitor to plug in to and away I go ....
Just one small note on the video playback test. The RPI5 dropped 3 frames initially and was then solid for the rest of the clip by which time it had processed over 700 frames. The N100 may have started with no dropped frames but by the time reached 700 frames it had also dropped one. So they were effectively both flawless. One had a hiccup at the start and the other had a hiccup after it had warmed up a bit. Both constituted less than 0.5% dropped frames in the first few seconds and showed no signs that they were due to drop many if any thereafter. Essentially, as always, you pay your money and you take your choice. Value For Money in the end seems to equalise between them. But, if you wish your expenditure to be as low as possible then the RPI5 is the choice and the resulting performance will be mostly indistinguishable on lighter tasks and still decent on more demanding processes. There is basically nothing the RPI5 can't do to an acceptable standard. It should also be noted that the RPI5 can be overclocked to speeds of 3.0mhz. It would be interesting to know how the performance improves on these tests if you overclock it. Of course, you should also do likewise on the N100.
Hey Chris! I like the side by side comparisons. It gives one something valid to consider before buying new computing hardware. Two other things come to mind when comparing these two systems: availability and to a smaller degree, temperature. I have only been able to purchase a 4G PI 5 in the last two weeks. As soon as they are in stock somewhere (US), they are sold out. Whereas with the N100 family, they are all over the place. In any event, I would probably opt for the N100, as it will also run easily Windows, allowing me more options for operating systems. Even with proper heat sinks, I know the PI's tend to run warmer with more intense computing, but what about the N100's? It would be interesting to see. Just as an aside, today on Amazon I found a GMKtec branded N100 Mini PC with 8G DDR4, 256 M.2 SSD, and Windows 11 Pro for $159! That includes a nice mini case and power supply. I'm sure I could also easily setup a Linux distro on it. Hard to beat. Anyway, thanks for another great video Chris.
The difference is huge actually. Those Intel chips are disrupting Pi. Might be the only market for them left after ARM chips eat their lunch in the desktop as well lol
@@ShaferHartARM will never eat the true x86 market until they got the software translation software right. Most software runs the world is on x86. Unless someone actively, aggressively make that translation. But if that's the case, why not RISC V?
@@iokwong1871 There is Box86 and Box64 to translate x86 to ARM. The author is even working on translating to RISC-V, but it still has to catch up with the ARM versions.
@@LivingLinux Those are user space emulation. Which makes things work but poorly performance wise. You would need something like what Apple did for their ARM base CPU. So that tells as two things A.) This is possible, and is quite good for the transition. B.) Given all the branches mark and everything, ARM aren't that much better performance wise compared to x86. But might help on the energy consumption front. I mean I guess no one will buy next gen ARM base systems so they can have the performance of yesteryears x86 base systems.
Lovely jubbly, Chris! 👍❤ Both systems are wonderful; indeed it's an incredible time to be alive for computing wonders! Happy Sunday! Kindest regards, neighbours and friends.
Just finished watching it. Thanks! Shame no test done on games - but I guess that's not the point of the video. The Iris gfx on the N100 would destroy the Pi5. Plus the N100 supports AV1 HW decoding - the Pi does not.
This was a very interesting video (as usual!). Thank you, Chris. Whilst I'm someone that is very interested in the idea of running an RPi as a desktop daily driver (I use a Pi 3B+ for a home server and also have a Pi 4 I use from time to time), I draw the opposite conclusion of most here in that it seems to me RPi still have quite some way to go before they develop an SBC that can be a true general-purpose daily driver - and that's despite the undeniably significant performance increases of the Pi 5. For me, the IO isn't so much of an issue (you can hook up two monitors to the Pi 5 and ignoring the two USB 2 ports for the usual peripherals, you still have two USB 3 ports for memory sticks, external SSDs, cameras, USB headset, etc. - though the loss of the 3.5 mm audio jack is regrettable). Instead, it strikes me that despite the minimal performance differences in some select tests, the CPU/GPU of the Pi 5 just isn't quite enough. For example, the GIMP effect render took 168% longer on the Pi 5 than the N100 and the Kdenlive video render was 56% longer. But the biggest eye opener was that the Pi 5 still drops some frames on a 1080p YT video. One wonders how that would scale for general-purpose home office use. For example, say you're writing a document in LO Writer (which is open in the background). You have Firefox running in the background with several tabs open with sites you're consulting (a Wikipedia article, a few news articles and a forum). Also running in the background is Chromium with a couple of tabs for YT videos paused. A PDF reader is also running in the background with a 200-odd page document open you're dipping in and out of. You're in the middle of editing a photo to insert into your document, so GIMP is open with a typical DSLR JPEG. Finally, Thunderbird is running in the background as you want to keep an eye on your e-mail. I'm not convinced the experience on the Pi 5 would anywhere near as smooth or as comfortable as the N100. Would it even be usable on the Pi 5, particularly after a few hours? (I appreciate that the more immediate issue may be RAM, but at least the N100 could be upgraded to a 16GB stick).
I had picked up a pi4 8gb to use for a lite server/pihole (without much research) but decided to test how it would perform for just watching videos near my workbench. and I was very disappointed to learn it really could not keep up with 1080p streams at all (even hardwired with gigabit) cooled as the browser as only thing running on the system. I was considering getting a pi5 for this purpose instead and having the 4 as just the fileserver/pihole, but this video has convinced me otherwise. I already have a 16 gb stick of ram I could use, and the n100 seems much more capable for basically the same price (and much more availibility).
Would have liked to have seen a more stressful video playback scenario. I think your standard testing is fine for chips that really need to stretch their legs to get 1080x30 playback or for testing for general video drivers on SBCs, but something like the Pi 5 and N100 is already known to be able to do 1080p at 30. I wonder if there would have been more of a performance differential if the playback was 60 framer per second, or even 4k. Great video as always.
Hi Chris, thank you for the RPi5 vs N100. Really interesting results showing both have their pro's and con's. Depending of the usage, they are both interesting.
Not only is this good for education and learning, but its all coming from a techy-guy or whatever you want to call it perspective, its also entertaining, i could watch your videos and not get bored! And on top of that, you reply and keep in touch and up to date with your community, this feels like home. Do not change, thank you for everything!
Wow, good comparision. I just got two n100 system. One is less than 10x10x5 cm with 3 hdmi, 2 lan, 3 usb3 with 16GB lpddr5 and 512GB m.2 sata for 110 usd: "t8 plus". The other one is "router" machine with an 1kg passive metal case, 4x i226v lan, 2 hdmi, gpio, 4 usb2, 2 usb3, 2 serial, m.2, minipcie, m.2 wifi slots - barbone for 126 usd (and I added 16GB ddr5 sodimm and an m.2 nvme drive). Plus sales tax. They are running great.
Thanks for a great comparison video. First from the top view I thought the N100 PC was a shuttle PC and it seem similar. I got a couple of Pi 4 a few years ago to play around with. I do want to get a Pi 5 from Amazon but seem that it is still selling at a premium from MSRP. Probably won't be able to replace my desktop but would be able to play great on retro games.
been messing around with Manjaro on my pi400, guess that's why this one was suggested. it's working surprisingly well. These ARM devices are real treasures.
I remember back in the day going to PC World and telling the guy I just needed a small desktop to check my emails and maybe write the odd letter. He immediately took me to the £2000+ PCs and said "Well, these will work but you might need more memory.."
Thanks Chris for an interesting comparison test, I'm surprised that the Pi 5 is only slightly behind the N100. For my use case I would definitely go for the N100-dc, it would be a great energy saver & totally silent, I should imagine it'd beat my old intel i3-2100 with 8gb of ram setup. I hope that you're taking care & looking after yourself, kind regards Alan :)
RPi5 is not "slightly behind". It is very very behind, but the test is not representative. Even if you crank it up to max clock, it still would not even come close to N100 in real world tasks. Just try youtube 4k av1 or vp9, RPi5 will die instantly, N100 would not even care. How else would they sell you underpowered overpriced computer that you don't even need? I'm really sorry for being rude, but passing those obviously BS test results like it's all right, it's a bit unprofessional
@@ДмитрийМ-с9ч I agree that comparing those two computers might not be fair for Pi5. Raspberry is still a computer that is smaller than a palm of the hand and powerful enough to do 95% of the daily tasks of x86 machines. Apple proven last years that ARM architecture can be even pushed way above x86. I love to see that with each iteration Raspberry is at least twice as powerful as previous one. Hands down for N100 for power, but for DIY and makers Raspberry is still first choice. I use it as a heart of my Retropie arcade gaming cabinet. I use all its GPIO extensions. With version 5 it will play easily PSVita, Gamecube and Wii. Maybe with N100 based PC it would be more powerfull but at the same time less fun with tinkering.
This was such a cool review, thank-you, included all the important things like power consumption! I'm upgrading my NAS/media server on ubuntu and am quite excited about the new N100 platform. I'm sure at some point my curiosity is going to draw me to a pi at some point! Also, yes, I found you from Tom's, although I'm already a fan!
For me this (and recent personal experience) proved that if one's main system is offline for any reason then it is very possible to spin up a rpi5 as a very competent temporary replacement. With regards to power consumption, in a macro sense it helps to reduce consumption where possible, however the N100 with 31w at load is still very reasonable for a desktop PC.
You can buy a N5105/N100 mini PC for roughly the same price as a Pi+hat+drive. It's much more capable, so I'm not sure why anyone would buy a Pi unless you are really pressed for space.
Very informative video but I still prefer RPi… 1) Size, especially when flying or driving. I have plenty of free space in my standard airline approved computer bag. 2) Electrical requirements, I’ve run my pi on a 20000 mah power bank for over 5 hours continuous. 3) I can connect to a larger HDMI screen when at home, driving or hotel when using my 5” display version. 4) Running a RPi 4, I have 2tb nvme via USB and 1tb micro SD for swapping data between units. 5) Security (theft), I leave the unit in vehicle and pocket my drive. Yes, losing a unit is unpleasant (so far, been lucky) BUT my data is ALWAYS with me. It’s the perfect mobile solution in spite of being slower.
Great video Chris. I wonder if they'll introduce hardware encoding in the next Pi iteration they seem to be slowly shifting towards a more desktop like system.
I wonder too! :) They argued at the time release that it did not matter, and the encoding could just take place on a CPU core. And as I showed in another video, it is possible to use a Pi for 1080p video calling.
Didn't they have hardware encoding on the Pi3 and Pi4? I think they removed it for the Pi5. Big reason Jellyfin strongly recommends you don't use the Pi5 period. I doubt they will bring hardware encoding back after dumping it for the 5
Its nice to see that both can be a pretty functional desktop system. In my mind the real advantage of a pi isn't general desktop use but control some hardware with the built in io. You could do the same with an N100 but it would need additional hardware. I really like the pi zero as it has the I/O is even smaller, lower power, and only $15! The pi zero is a terrible desktop, but it can be a great server/embedded device if it is fast enough for your use case. The trick is that it is still really hard to get a Pi Zero 2W although you can get the older pi zero w for the same $15.
Having P1B, 3B and 4. I moved to China based N100. I have struggle too much on PI4 lack of power on USB with back power problem, voltage drop and etc even using original power supply. Moving to N100 without waiting for P5 release was great move.
Late to the party, I know. I am both simultaneously amazed at advancements on SBCs and kind of horrified at the thought these may be the wave of the future and push out replaceability and standardization of PC parts. All these new portable GPUs being made really seem to be making small-form factor PCs an affordable option with a lot of flexibility. I love and tinker around with both, so ideally, I'd like to see both options survive, but we'll just have to see what the future holds I guess! Thank you for the performance comparison.
You're correct. Raspberry has always been pricier than other options. However, you also have to consider the hype and community support. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact.
My first computer in 1978 was a TRS-80, B&W monitor, 4kb RAM, and 8088 CPU. Cost me $600. But this historic computer changed my life and led me into my lifetime career as an IT Network Systems Administrator. Now retired at 72, I'm still fascinated with technology and never miss an episode of (Explaining Computers) and my home computer Lab is full of Pi's and various other computers most found on eBay. I picked up a tiny Dell Wyse 5070 thin client for $45. It has a very fast Pentium J5005 Silver CPU, 8gb RAM and I put in a 128gb m.2 SSD. Installed Linux Mint OS on it. The unit draws less than 10 watts under full load and easily runs high resolution videos on RUclips. It idles at 4 watts and supports dual monitors. It has now become my main workstation and my power hungry 200 watt HP Z-400 now sits unused except for high end video or audio editing. Thank you Chris for all your productions. Most appreciated. 👍😊
What shocked me is that typical consumer laptops, even with screen on, typically seem to idle on less power than a Pi 5. I'm sure most use cases don't need a Pi to be that power efficient, but it is surprising.
A very pertinent comparison of two computer systems; thank you for this presentation! I have the impression that with its fifth version, the Raspberry Pi has reached a new plateau in terms of performance and connectivity. Of course, it will always be relevant to check whether this little gizmo can really be used as a basic computer, and it clearly can! (I was recently following the experience of a hospital centre in West Africa where medical records are managed exclusively on Pi400s. Efficient, portable, energy-efficient and very affordable. What more could you ask for!) But we should also point out that for the great tinkerers out there, each new iteration of RPi opens up new avenues that very few SCBs allow you to explore. In short, thank you again for this highly instructive video.
Delightful video! Your production efforts and abilities are stellar! I'm not in the market for a tiny PC but I watched the whole thing because it was interesting to see this comparison of current low-power computing offerings. Thanks Chris!
I recently got a new mini-PC with a Intel N97 chip which is a little bit faster than the N100 and N95 chips. It has a TDP of 12w. Very nice chip but I was thermal throttled 'coz of the smaller case I have. I use my Raspberry Pi5 as a server running a headless Debian install with CasaOS on top as a docker dashboard and it works great! 😁
Thanks Chris for a very informative video on X-86 and ARM competitors! I am planning on getting a Raspberry Pi V to replace the Raspberry Pi IV in my RasPad 3! However, your Intel setup looks very tempting…😮! I would have set the Intel system on top of the V to show how it can crush the Pi…that’s why you better do the SBC reviews…😂! Have a great week!
Nice comparison. I'm expecting my Pi5 any day now at which time I will set it up as a daily driver for a bit and see how that all works out. Given what you've shown in this video I don't think I will be disappointed.
I would like if you changed your N100 Daily Driver to Windows 10 or 11 since I am not the biggest Linux fan, my PC and laptop run on Windows 11 since it's just simple compared to Linux since in Windows you rarely need to use command promt exept fixxing some internet issues.@@ExplainingComputers
It's it annoys me when someone uses Linux on a PC that should be able to run Windows 10 or 11 just fine and I like Windows since it's so easy to use.@@deanstyles2567
Unfortunately, there is a smaller gap with price between the Pi 5 and small x86_64 systems these days -- the video processing makes it worth paying a bit more, depending on the application. It is still pretty amazing what you can do with a Pi 5 though.
The best thing about ARM is that it is not Intel. I have Intel PCs and laptops already. They are for work. ARM is for fun, which is why N100 is no good to me.
power consuption and costs should also be a factor for any computer that runs more than 4h/day with a mix of heavy usage and iddle time. For an office usage, the n100 is definatelly the way to go but in a server setting, not so sure.
The results were much closer than expected, both would be useable for general computing tasks. The N100 though slightly more expensive offers a performance improvement that makes the value vs. performance factor about equal. Thank you again for an interesting and informative video.
Amazed by Pi performance, I did not expected such parity on booting and sysbench. Sadly in my country, Mexico, and I dare to say all latin-america it is dramatically cheaper an N100 system than a RPi. A RPi 5 combo with official PSU, heatsink and microHDMI adapter is around 150 USD with no case,HAT or SSD and an N100 miniPC 12GB RAM+512 GB SSD+PSU is around 140 USD.
Would only consider a Pi now for something I was running 24/7. Something like a Pi Hole or for a security camera setup. As you can pick up an ex-office PC now for cheap if you are looking for a desktop setup.
Your videos are always clear and precise to the point. More like undergoing a certified course. While my age group friends are using (at the max)excel sheets, through yours and others valuable videos I can understand & use SBC for streaming and work on chrome OS etc. Thanks for your efforts.
I am pleasantly surprise by the Pi5, especially since I just ordered one!. I think one consideration is ease of use I would suggest that the Pi5 likely has better support, better drivers, better community.
STILL waiting for the Ras Pi 5s here in OHIO! - Luckily?!? - I' m a VERY Patient Old Man, Sir! LOL 🙂 Cheers! - Judson & Buddy! - Have a GREAT WEEK, My Fellow Nerds! lol 🙂
The tests came out as expected. There's not a tremendous difference except in three areas -- flexibility, connectivity, and availability. The N100 wins in those areas. The N100 will run much more software than the PI. It has significantly better connectivity. And MOST importantly, it is available. (Here in the US, the Pi 5 is out of stock most of the time.) Still, the Pi 5 is slightly cheaper and uses less power. If I needed a new system, I'd go for the N100. But I can see why others would choose the Pi 5. Great video.
Just a reminder that your closing quip in your "Raspberry Pi Weather Station" video from 3 years ago suggested that one might be able to "control the weather" with a Pi5! 🤣
well it was totally outclassed though? the N100 is almost double as fast in real tests compared to the Pi 5 and those were just cpu tests. the graphics will probably be in a completely different league. i hope raspberry pi will use a more modern chip next time around.
@@SweatyFeetGirlWas it really? Video editing and heavy image editing are not every day tasks for most non-youtubers, so for the things many people do the RPi 5 would do fine, editing documents, web browsing, watching YT at 1080p and you don't really need higher resolution on a laptop screen, so a RPi 5 based laptop would be fine for many people.
@@SweatyFeetGirl As mentioned in the video, no one is buying an N100 for video editing. It was great to have the photo and video editing tests for completeness but the sysbench test was probably the most useful performance comparison out of the three and the results were not that different.
The point is, the performance difference will show over time. it's like buying a low end phone and high end phone. both run fine in the beginning but after a few years, you will notice the vast performance difference@@not_ever
@@SweatyFeetGirl That again, depends on your use case. I use single board computers for use cases that remain static over time. The performance does not degrade over time unless the hardware shows sign of wear and tear. If you are using a single board computer for dynamic use cases then yes, you may be better with a higher spec machine that will be more future proof.
I choose N100, a little bit more power hungry but you can use like a normal PC compare to Raspberry. Im using Melee Quieter 4c with n100 and IM super happy. WIndows 11 works very well after downloading all drivers from the Site ( WIndows Couldn't find almost anything with the updates). Tried a linux works perfectly and I'm staying with linux mint and this Mini PC.
The n100 systems on Amazon r clearly the best choice in my opinion. U can cat a full mini pc with 16gb ram and 512gb ssd for arround 180 buckets. Performance and software support is also way better
If you are building something where SIZE is a major factor (cyberdeck), that N100 board looks... Big. There may be smaller versions - but the Pi5 is winning in this video, and a CM version would be even smaller. All that saved space can then be used for a bigger battery, that lasts longer due to reduced power draw.
My Intel-based Up Squared from 2017 was already a very decent nano PC. I'm still using it daily under mostly Windows 10 (but dualboot with Ubuntu). At the time, the Raspberry was not really competition as desktop.
Wasn't the point of the pi to make the price accessible for people worldwide? The price seems to be getting away from them.
It's a full fledged computed for $70. That is pretty damn good with the inflation the US is seeing.
@johnmichaels4330 Agreed
@@johnmichaels4330kinda not? You can find n100 mini pcs for 130 complete with ssd, case... Wouldn't buy pi in this scenario.
@@pandazpaa which is the same price as a pi5.... and we have gpio pins
@@johnmichaels4330 different use cases then. I respect that
Edit: still, imo the pi lost it's track on pricing.
It is crazy to think that both the N100 and the Pi 5 are in a similar class to some older quad core chips like the Ryzen 2200G or intel's quad core ivy bridge chips like the popular i7 3770, whilst both drawing extremely low power. We have come a long way
I am reading this running an old i7-3770K. The TDP is "only" 77W on the CPU but with a poorly ventilated case the fans spin upp to 80% as soon as I do anything remotely taxing and the core temps runs over 100C pretty easily. CPU tech has come a long way in ten years but I should probably also move my motherboard into another case I have sitting here, and put on some new thermal paste while doing so :)
AMD had 3000G Athlon CPUs with a TDP of 35W they were great for HTPCs with their onboard Radeon Vega 3 graphics and could play 4K videos. A pity they stopped making that line
dude they are in noway near the same class, maybe if you want to claim that based purely on core count. im no engineer but even the pi4 struggles performance wise to tons of stuff the "same class" 3770 has no problem running. doubling the pi4 performance still doesnt bring it close to the 3770
@@dtmt502for 45W and much cheaper used you can get an i7-3770T which performs like a 3770 and fits in the same motherboards so some ewaste Dell, HP or Lenovo will gladly take them.
The N100 often outperforms the low wattage 6th-10th gen Core CPUs. It's crazy that a Raspberry Pi 5 consequently approaches them too.
Every time there is another Raspberry Pi revision the gap relative to similar kinds of products gets closer. Great to see!
Ant the power usage goes up...
Tom's Hardware Guide picked you up!! Congrats!
I am very surprised that the Pi5 held up so well.
I make music so, I would pay the extra $$ for connectivity and compatibility.
I am impressed with YOUR performance, CHRIS !
Thanks, I'd not seen this. For others: www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-5-squares-off-against-a-scrawny-intel-cpu
Another great video. The Pi did very well, but if I had to choose I would go for your N100. I particularly like the extra connectivity afforded by the VGA connector and the serial port. Weird, I know, but that’s me!
the VGA connector? Do you still use a floppy drive 1,44 mb? ;)
@@ldkbudda4176 😀 I haven’t used one in a while, but I still have a USB one in my laptop bag, just in case. It’s a relic from my days as a field service tech.
It even has a PS/2 connector so it can be used with a Model M
Having an actual serial port that's properly configured is amazing when you want to run a a system without a monitor. I've got a couple of home servers and some network equipment with serial on them, and they've spoiled me. When they fail, I can get into them fairly easily to fix them. When the stuff without serial stops responding, it's no fun at all. :P
VGA is so flexible. You don't just get VGA, but with a cheap adapter, you also have HDMI and whaever else you need.
I'd pick depending on whether I needed GPIO or not. A PC is better if you don't need GPIO. The difference in power consumption is pretty minimal. I mean sure the PC uses twice as much but both use very little. Even with expensive power it's under $100 a year if you run either one 24x7.
I was expecting laughable results, but that RPi 5 sure showed me! I'm impressed!
My N100-DC build runs Proxmox with two OpenMediaVault VMs (both were in different servers), a Linux Lite VM, a Linux Mint (XFCE) VM, and a Peppermint OS VM. CPU averages at around 25% when VMs are idle with background tasks. I have a dual SFP+ NIC and PCI-e to multiple SATA adapter. 2 WD Red hard drives and 3 Seagate Exos hard drives. Only 1 NVMe (for VMs) and 2 2.5" SSDs. My N100 motherboard uses desktop power supplies, so I'm able to have that many storage drives (Corsair Gold Plus PSU -- I think the RM 550 MX?).
My server runs at about 55 watts on average! Love the N100. Windows VMs run terrible, though.
Very interesting. I would still go for an N100, which can be had at a price closer to a complete Pi set-up but it did OK for the tasks shown. Would have been interesting to have thrown in an RK3588 for comparison too.
Apparently "Minisforum" is going to release a N100 based Pocket Mini PC in similar form-factor to Pi, and going to be priced under $100.
It's name is "S100-N100 Super Mini PC" and was showcased in CES 2024 and is suppose to launch in a few months.
Though the negative might be that it has soldered LPDDR5 memory and UFS 2.1 storage.
I can live with LPDDR on an SBC but the UFS storage is a real dealbreaker.
@@Rushil69420 why is it a dealbreaker? ufs is faster than sata ssd and hdd
@@rafiy7150 SSD memory should not be soldered. It should be possible to replace it at some point when it wears out. I could live with soldered LPDDR5 memory as long as you get a device with at least 16 MiB of RAM.
@@OpenGL4ever i think this would be fine as long as it has a nvme slot or sata slot.
Thank you Chris! Loved the comparisons.....
While the N100 is more than capable, the Pi has a special place in my heart as it's UK made (in Wales, like the Dragon 32), and ARM has a connection to the Acorn days.
Its assembled in Wales which isn't a complex task. All the components its assembled from are made in China.
@@backgammonbacon I know, and that doesn't detract...
Thanks for your support. :)
The Pis brought me back to Linux in general (was there already years ago) that helps in my work life. So it has a special place here too. Will always buy the newest one they bring out just to give them my support. I also used a few other SBCs in the meantime (Odroid, Pine, Orange), but the Pi will always be number one, even others might be better in some regards. The Pi 5 is a nice update. I think they should give the GPU part a bit more oomph in the next iteration to make it perfect.
@@RoboNuggie Unfortunately Britain has become a place where we make very little and merely put together parts from other countries.
Another reason to choose N100 over rpi5 is the software compatibility. x86 systems are more compatable and the optimizations are often better. Hardware encoding on x86 systems are also better, and I do need that for real-time transcoding with jellyfin.
I had my N100 mini-PC as a server for 2 months already. It has been running fine without hiccups, unlike the rpi4 it replaced, which sometimes have trouble rebooting.
Also, it might be cheaper depending on the availability. My N100 server cost about the same as the rpi5 with a SSD anyway.
I just bought the NanoPC T6 8GB 64GB to only run that one camera, I read most of the stuff downloading 141GB, and I think you use Debian, but it says' Ubuntu in such and such a way, because their machine must look or make it easier. So, it was true, it was the only RK3588 with native MIPI & SSD, and has (oldy) throw back from olden times.
not to mention u can throw 32gb ram on the n100
stuck with 8 on pi
@@SHERMA.Pi 5 costing as much as great mini PCs is crazy
I always thought Windows ARM had laughable software compatibility. But when I briefly tried out Linux ARM via Lenovo Chromebook Duet, I realized things were no different between the two.
Great video! You can tinker a little in the Bios to get lower idle power usage out of the N100.
I am impressed the Pi5 was quite close.
Pi5 is not close
@@Monerev BIOS load time and boot time is irrelevant. How often do you boot your system, if used for server purposes?
@@m.keller3226Yes, anything less than 48 hours is acceptable.
Thank you Chris, good information, as we've come to expect from you.
I did notice that many of the mini PCs on A'zon have reviews where users suspect they came with a pirated version of windows that cease to function after a short time. Something to note if one isn't going to install their own OS.
I've been waiting for this video! I started souring a bit on the pi during the pandemic when the RPi foundation started prioritizing commercial customers over the makers and tinkers who brought the boards to popularity. That pushed me to thin clients and mini pcs, and I'm not sure I'll ever go back.
The Pi5 is a great device, but I started migrating to the n100s a few months ago instead of a pi4 and the performance has been amazing. There are a million ways to do GPIO, so the pi advantage is almost always gone. About the only time I see myself using a pi is for some pre-built image that expects it.
There was a period a couple of years ago where I had to use a 4gb Raspberry Pi 4 as my only computer because my main laptop was being repaired and that took a long time. Granted, I was only doing web browsing and RUclips playback, but it still shows how capable a Raspberry PI is. The fact that you can now edit video almost flawlessly on an £80 computer with proxy clips just goes to show how far low-cost ARM computing has developed over the past few years.
Worst thing that can happen to people like you is having experienced proper PC. Sorry but what you wrote is more in lieu of misinformation, most people will be crazy to even try having this cheapo boards as a main computer, current best performing RPI is having less performance in basic tasks then 10 year old PC with cheapest currently available ssd in it.
@@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_RulezI'd rather try it on a pi 4 or 400 than I would a zero 1 or 2.
@@maxxdahl6062 exactly, stockholm syndrome or bad faith marketing.
@@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez I wouldn't ever consider it a "main" machine but it can be a life saver in "in a pinch" emergency situations.
@@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez I do prefer the PI electricity bills, though I generally agree with you. The PI4 couldn't quite cut it for me as a desktop but this review of the PI5 was encouraging.
Thank you, too, for the physical side-by-side comparison.
I was one of the viewers who asked Chris why he hadn't used a Pi5:instead of the N100... it's great to see this video!! They came out so close in the end. I replaced my MythTV box with a RPi5 and after sorting through some difficulties it's settled down well and now saving a lot of power. The RPi 5 is a great little SBC. The only criticisms I have of it are how they've relied on Wayland for speed when many Linux distro apps are still very much xserver based.
X is still there. One simple config switch and it will use x.
But it’s good to move with the times.
@@MeTube3 Not all change is progress!
@@SpeccyMan natural born whingers don’t care if it is progress of not. To them, all change is a reason to be negative. It’s very entertaining.
How the heck did you get MythTV to setup? I have a Hauppage HD 4-tuner card, three previous generations of Happage cards, and have been trying to get MythTV to work for years with nothing but failure! It has only ever found one tuner -- an Avermedia that was complete crap, kept overheating -- and the interface is a freaking nightmare!
@@SpeccyMan but choice usually is.
I'm typing this on an RPi 5. I absolutely love it. As an upgrade from the 4 it is great. I have quite a few other Pis and it is already convenient that I can plug cameras and other devices from one into the other and compile the same code without issues on all of them. I have a fairly powerful desktop so I'm not trying to use the Pi for everything. It's primarily my daughter's computer. Witha really nice keyboard and a decent monitor it is a joy to use.
Thanks to your N100 review I bought one to make a Proxmox server. I'm using the ASUS conventional power connector version with a pico psu as it comes with a couple of pcie slots (and I had pico psu and old laptop psu laying around). Really happy with the choice as I could put 32GB of RAM in it.
It's interesting to see how close the PI5 is but the RAM and IO limitations of it would have ruled it out for my purposes. I have 32 Gigs of RAM and 3 network cards. All thanks to your n100 review - thanks. I'm now looking to get my PI4s running as clients to the HomeAssistant running on the proxmox server. The proxmox server also runs OpenWRT, Pi Hole and a NAS
Keep it up!
What's the model on the ASUS board you're using? I only found models with a single PCIe slot.
@@sinisterpisces Ahh. My bad. ASRock MB Intel N100M. Bought it from amazon
So happy seeing your video in my timeline now. I've been looking at the N100 for a while.
I was always fascinated with the idea of using a Raspberry Pi as a desktop machine ever since I got my first Pi 3 for Christmas as a kid. As the years go by, it's amazing to see the gap close further between standard desktops and these single board computers!
I remember having to use my Raspberry Pi 4 as my main machine last year after the GPU in my desktop died, and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience! Web browsing, document writing, video watching, even a little bit of Java Minecraft (Albeit with a slight overclock and on older versions lol), I could almost replace my main machine with it. Very excited to see the progress these little machines have made!
Chris, you are always a reference.
You underline the human side of things.
Many can make a review, pour out numbers, comparisons... But everyday use is another thing.
Thank you.
For me the biggest gain in choosing a N100 is the AVX instructions. I can run an up-to-date MongoDB, not end-of-life 4.4.
Nice comparison. Thanks. I quite like my setup with a Pi 4 or 5 set up next to my usual pc. I use the Pi for python programming and it's a handy place to test out programs before committing them to the main pc. I appreciate the low power requirement in this set up, it doesn't feel as wasteful as having two pcs running. It helps keep all dev work in one place. Also the Pi is much easier too set up for python. Python on windows can be a pain esp if your GIS (my main work) uses a different version of python. I was pleasantly surprised at the Pi's performance running portion programs and also running QGIS aswell. Another bonus is ease of maintenance (just keep a spare micro ssd), windows, for me, is just getting more and more difficult to maintain, resource hungry and expensive. After many issues recently on laptops and desktops I've got tired of the whole windows cycle and am experimenting with migrating to linux as a main OS. I'll give Ubuntu a shot now, thanks for the idea - I was using zorin on the pc (Very nicely finished OS) but the are a few things that don't quite suit a development environment or the way that i work. Cheers for the vid.
Fascinating and insightful as ever :)
I'd make one note however, in the boot test into ubuntu, it's worth considering the BIOS POST time, by the actual first console message on screen from the linux boot, it looked like the N100 didn't actually start to "boot" - i.e. run the disk os mbr init vector - until about 4 seconds later (about 16sec) than the Pi (at 12 sec) - so part of the boot is that the N100 has a more substantial power on sequence, rather than the operating system/hardware per se being slower to boot.. of course, it's valid when comparing actual "waiting time" to boot, but it's not from that output, necessarily a valid timing of the o/s boot speed, but the nature of the larger POST sequence [and arguably slower switching circuitry in the physical power input differences] ... as I say, not a complaint of your process, but something to consider when comparing.
edit to add : it's probably worth turning of the fancy modern bios splash screens and let both machines POST with their output, like in them olden days watching all the memory get checked :)
A very nice comparison! I still think you made the right choice to build your N100 PC though, given the greater versatility of an x86 PC running Linux. And, having also experienced tinnitus myself for the last year or so, I'm a "fan" of your N100 PC's fanless design, though my tinnitus seems to be a bit different from yours.
However I think it's quite possible that, given a few more years' time, more of us may chose to use an ARM based SBC for our daily work.
Thanks Chris for this very interesting and practical review. I disregarded RP for servers as they were unavailable, SD cards didn’t have the reliability of a NVME SSD, power supply was very critical and cooling was an issue, so I chose a N100 box. However, you have shown that RP still have something to say
You are incredible in the way you present the information, break it down and explain every step of what and why you are doing it. Great work and I just started subscribing after seeing your work over at least the last year. Thank you and keep on doing what you do!
My pi 5 arrived this week! Exciting times...
Add my thanks for producing this comparison. It was very well done. I too was surprised by how close the Pi 5 was to N100. Connectivity remains a weak point for the Pi family and this is only the second Pi that has a proper storage interface. (CM4 could support a PCIe 1.0 x1 NVME SSD.) I can see SATA cables in your build and and the Pi 5 can support either NVME or SATA via PCIe but not both at the same time. To date I have not seen any adapters for the Pi 5 PCIe connector that support either SATA or a standard NVME slot, though I expect that will come.
Great comparison! Just for the fun of it I tried some of the tests you performed on my 2017 MacBook Pro that I run Linux on with a Gnome desktop, and which should have a similar enough environment to stock Ubuntu for the purpose of these tests. Curiously while the lava test in gimp finished in about 3 seconds similar to your mini PC, the sysbench with the same parameters performed significantly worse clocking in at about 5.5 seconds. This shows me that a synthetic test can't always reflect real life performance and it can even swing both ways if we compare my laptop to what you measured on the Raspberry Pi 5.
Had been waiting since your recommending this a week or so ago.
The more of these videos I see, the more I think it's like watching motorbike reviews.
Some people want everything in the world for the price of a budget machine, and some can accept the "horses for courses" way of thinking.
I would say that this horse - the Raspberry Pi - would run nicely on my course, as it were, if I had to buy a cheap replacement for my 2011 macbook pro which runs Mint 21 XFCE and is used as a simple Internet computer and for making documents for work.
Thanks a lot.
Cool video. I’ve been covering a similar topic however I used the youyeetoox1 sbc which is 99-109 in price and has similar specs. Also something to consider is the x86 compatibility. We r getting better performance on a board not as strong as the raspi 5 and orange pi5 but in most cases it performs better with emulation because emulators are native to x86 and better driver support
I get the impression that the tide is turning on ARM boards for some applications.
You always seem to come out with the perfect video at the perfect time to help me make up my mind on a budget. Thanks Again!
one other advantage of the Pi5 over your N100 is the size.... you can travel with a Pi5 more easy than your N100.... but very good video Christopher .... I use my Pi5 as a portable computer (travel anywhere) all as I need is a HDMI TV / monitor to plug in to and away I go ....
You can buy 12.5x11.2x4.5 cm or 60x60x40 cm full box with n100
Greetings.
That test proved once again how well the Raspberry Pi stacks up to the Intel-based systems.
Just one small note on the video playback test. The RPI5 dropped 3 frames initially and was then solid for the rest of the clip by which time it had processed over 700 frames. The N100 may have started with no dropped frames but by the time reached 700 frames it had also dropped one. So they were effectively both flawless. One had a hiccup at the start and the other had a hiccup after it had warmed up a bit. Both constituted less than 0.5% dropped frames in the first few seconds and showed no signs that they were due to drop many if any thereafter.
Essentially, as always, you pay your money and you take your choice. Value For Money in the end seems to equalise between them. But, if you wish your expenditure to be as low as possible then the RPI5 is the choice and the resulting performance will be mostly indistinguishable on lighter tasks and still decent on more demanding processes. There is basically nothing the RPI5 can't do to an acceptable standard. It should also be noted that the RPI5 can be overclocked to speeds of 3.0mhz. It would be interesting to know how the performance improves on these tests if you overclock it. Of course, you should also do likewise on the N100.
Hey Chris! I like the side by side comparisons. It gives one something valid to consider before buying new computing hardware. Two other things come to mind when comparing these two systems: availability and to a smaller degree, temperature. I have only been able to purchase a 4G PI 5 in the last two weeks. As soon as they are in stock somewhere (US), they are sold out. Whereas with the N100 family, they are all over the place. In any event, I would probably opt for the N100, as it will also run easily Windows, allowing me more options for operating systems. Even with proper heat sinks, I know the PI's tend to run warmer with more intense computing, but what about the N100's? It would be interesting to see. Just as an aside, today on Amazon I found a GMKtec branded N100 Mini PC with 8G DDR4, 256 M.2 SSD, and Windows 11 Pro for $159! That includes a nice mini case and power supply. I'm sure I could also easily setup a Linux distro on it. Hard to beat. Anyway, thanks for another great video Chris.
On Amazon now, GMTek N97 with 12gb DDR5 and 512gb SSD for $165 usd.
We have the 8gb in Houston micro center
That was a lot closer than I expected. The Pi 5 held up really well compared to the N100.
Well, if you dig deeper, the diff is far wider.
The difference is huge actually. Those Intel chips are disrupting Pi. Might be the only market for them left after ARM chips eat their lunch in the desktop as well lol
@@ShaferHartARM will never eat the true x86 market until they got the software translation software right. Most software runs the world is on x86. Unless someone actively, aggressively make that translation. But if that's the case, why not RISC V?
@@iokwong1871 There is Box86 and Box64 to translate x86 to ARM. The author is even working on translating to RISC-V, but it still has to catch up with the ARM versions.
@@LivingLinux Those are user space emulation. Which makes things work but poorly performance wise. You would need something like what Apple did for their ARM base CPU. So that tells as two things A.) This is possible, and is quite good for the transition. B.) Given all the branches mark and everything, ARM aren't that much better performance wise compared to x86. But might help on the energy consumption front.
I mean I guess no one will buy next gen ARM base systems so they can have the performance of yesteryears x86 base systems.
I saw the title of the video and I jumped right on it. Great topic!
I haven't watched it yet but I'm sure it will be yet another great video.
Lovely jubbly, Chris! 👍❤
Both systems are wonderful; indeed it's an incredible time to be alive for computing wonders! Happy Sunday!
Kindest regards, neighbours and friends.
Very interesting, i didn't expect that the results would be so close.
Wow. Been waiting for this for ages. Pi5 vs N100 and also Ubuntu 23.10 (which now has full disk encryption using TPM)
Just finished watching it. Thanks!
Shame no test done on games - but I guess that's not the point of the video. The Iris gfx on the N100 would destroy the Pi5. Plus the N100 supports AV1 HW decoding - the Pi does not.
This was a very interesting video (as usual!). Thank you, Chris. Whilst I'm someone that is very interested in the idea of running an RPi as a desktop daily driver (I use a Pi 3B+ for a home server and also have a Pi 4 I use from time to time), I draw the opposite conclusion of most here in that it seems to me RPi still have quite some way to go before they develop an SBC that can be a true general-purpose daily driver - and that's despite the undeniably significant performance increases of the Pi 5. For me, the IO isn't so much of an issue (you can hook up two monitors to the Pi 5 and ignoring the two USB 2 ports for the usual peripherals, you still have two USB 3 ports for memory sticks, external SSDs, cameras, USB headset, etc. - though the loss of the 3.5 mm audio jack is regrettable). Instead, it strikes me that despite the minimal performance differences in some select tests, the CPU/GPU of the Pi 5 just isn't quite enough. For example, the GIMP effect render took 168% longer on the Pi 5 than the N100 and the Kdenlive video render was 56% longer. But the biggest eye opener was that the Pi 5 still drops some frames on a 1080p YT video. One wonders how that would scale for general-purpose home office use. For example, say you're writing a document in LO Writer (which is open in the background). You have Firefox running in the background with several tabs open with sites you're consulting (a Wikipedia article, a few news articles and a forum). Also running in the background is Chromium with a couple of tabs for YT videos paused. A PDF reader is also running in the background with a 200-odd page document open you're dipping in and out of. You're in the middle of editing a photo to insert into your document, so GIMP is open with a typical DSLR JPEG. Finally, Thunderbird is running in the background as you want to keep an eye on your e-mail. I'm not convinced the experience on the Pi 5 would anywhere near as smooth or as comfortable as the N100. Would it even be usable on the Pi 5, particularly after a few hours?
(I appreciate that the more immediate issue may be RAM, but at least the N100 could be upgraded to a 16GB stick).
I had picked up a pi4 8gb to use for a lite server/pihole (without much research) but decided to test how it would perform for just watching videos near my workbench. and I was very disappointed to learn it really could not keep up with 1080p streams at all (even hardwired with gigabit) cooled as the browser as only thing running on the system. I was considering getting a pi5 for this purpose instead and having the 4 as just the fileserver/pihole, but this video has convinced me otherwise. I already have a 16 gb stick of ram I could use, and the n100 seems much more capable for basically the same price (and much more availibility).
Would have liked to have seen a more stressful video playback scenario. I think your standard testing is fine for chips that really need to stretch their legs to get 1080x30 playback or for testing for general video drivers on SBCs, but something like the Pi 5 and N100 is already known to be able to do 1080p at 30. I wonder if there would have been more of a performance differential if the playback was 60 framer per second, or even 4k. Great video as always.
Hi Chris, thank you for the RPi5 vs N100. Really interesting results showing both have their pro's and con's. Depending of the usage, they are both interesting.
I use a mini N100 system maxed out with 16gb ddr4 as a non gaming daily driver. It's impressive for what it is.
Not only is this good for education and learning, but its all coming from a techy-guy or whatever you want to call it perspective, its also entertaining, i could watch your videos and not get bored! And on top of that, you reply and keep in touch and up to date with your community, this feels like home. Do not change, thank you for everything!
Thanks for watching. :)
Wow, good comparision. I just got two n100 system. One is less than 10x10x5 cm with 3 hdmi, 2 lan, 3 usb3 with 16GB lpddr5 and 512GB m.2 sata for 110 usd: "t8 plus". The other one is "router" machine with an 1kg passive metal case, 4x i226v lan, 2 hdmi, gpio, 4 usb2, 2 usb3, 2 serial, m.2, minipcie, m.2 wifi slots - barbone for 126 usd (and I added 16GB ddr5 sodimm and an m.2 nvme drive). Plus sales tax.
They are running great.
Thanks for a great comparison video. First from the top view I thought the N100 PC was a shuttle PC and it seem similar. I got a couple of Pi 4 a few years ago to play around with. I do want to get a Pi 5 from Amazon but seem that it is still selling at a premium from MSRP. Probably won't be able to replace my desktop but would be able to play great on retro games.
Surprising results. Enjoyed the video. Looking forward to your next video!
been messing around with Manjaro on my pi400, guess that's why this one was suggested. it's working surprisingly well. These ARM devices are real treasures.
I remember back in the day going to PC World and telling the guy I just needed a small desktop to check my emails and maybe write the odd letter.
He immediately took me to the £2000+ PCs and said "Well, these will work but you might need more memory.."
Thanks Chris for an interesting comparison test, I'm surprised that the Pi 5 is only slightly behind the N100. For my use case I would definitely go for the N100-dc, it would be a great energy saver & totally silent, I should imagine it'd beat my old intel i3-2100 with 8gb of ram setup. I hope that you're taking care & looking after yourself, kind regards Alan :)
RPi5 is not "slightly behind". It is very very behind, but the test is not representative. Even if you crank it up to max clock, it still would not even come close to N100 in real world tasks. Just try youtube 4k av1 or vp9, RPi5 will die instantly, N100 would not even care. How else would they sell you underpowered overpriced computer that you don't even need? I'm really sorry for being rude, but passing those obviously BS test results like it's all right, it's a bit unprofessional
@@ДмитрийМ-с9ч I agree that comparing those two computers might not be fair for Pi5. Raspberry is still a computer that is smaller than a palm of the hand and powerful enough to do 95% of the daily tasks of x86 machines.
Apple proven last years that ARM architecture can be even pushed way above x86. I love to see that with each iteration Raspberry is at least twice as powerful as previous one.
Hands down for N100 for power, but for DIY and makers Raspberry is still first choice. I use it as a heart of my Retropie arcade gaming cabinet. I use all its GPIO extensions. With version 5 it will play easily PSVita, Gamecube and Wii. Maybe with N100 based PC it would be more powerfull but at the same time less fun with tinkering.
At least Pi 5 is better at 7zip benchmark than i3-1115G4
This was such a cool review, thank-you, included all the important things like power consumption! I'm upgrading my NAS/media server on ubuntu and am quite excited about the new N100 platform. I'm sure at some point my curiosity is going to draw me to a pi at some point! Also, yes, I found you from Tom's, although I'm already a fan!
I've been looking for an N300 mini-itx for home lab. It's good to see some N100s out there. It's another one I haven't had luck finding
For me this (and recent personal experience) proved that if one's main system is offline for any reason then it is very possible to spin up a rpi5 as a very competent temporary replacement. With regards to power consumption, in a macro sense it helps to reduce consumption where possible, however the N100 with 31w at load is still very reasonable for a desktop PC.
You can buy a N5105/N100 mini PC for roughly the same price as a Pi+hat+drive. It's much more capable, so I'm not sure why anyone would buy a Pi unless you are really pressed for space.
Very informative video but I still prefer RPi…
1) Size, especially when flying or driving. I have plenty of free space in my standard airline approved computer bag.
2) Electrical requirements, I’ve run my pi on a 20000 mah power bank for over 5 hours continuous.
3) I can connect to a larger HDMI screen when at home, driving or hotel when using my 5” display version.
4) Running a RPi 4, I have 2tb nvme via USB and 1tb micro SD for swapping data between units.
5) Security (theft), I leave the unit in vehicle and pocket my drive. Yes, losing a unit is unpleasant (so far, been lucky) BUT my data is ALWAYS with me.
It’s the perfect mobile solution in spite of being slower.
Great video Chris. I wonder if they'll introduce hardware encoding in the next Pi iteration they seem to be slowly shifting towards a more desktop like system.
I wonder too! :) They argued at the time release that it did not matter, and the encoding could just take place on a CPU core. And as I showed in another video, it is possible to use a Pi for 1080p video calling.
Didn't they have hardware encoding on the Pi3 and Pi4? I think they removed it for the Pi5. Big reason Jellyfin strongly recommends you don't use the Pi5 period. I doubt they will bring hardware encoding back after dumping it for the 5
Thank you, i always wondered how the PI5 would compare to a N100!
Woah, that small PC looks like a thing that I actually looking for whenever I want to use other than Mac. I never heard about that kind of case.
Its nice to see that both can be a pretty functional desktop system. In my mind the real advantage of a pi isn't general desktop use but control some hardware with the built in io. You could do the same with an N100 but it would need additional hardware. I really like the pi zero as it has the I/O is even smaller, lower power, and only $15! The pi zero is a terrible desktop, but it can be a great server/embedded device if it is fast enough for your use case. The trick is that it is still really hard to get a Pi Zero 2W although you can get the older pi zero w for the same $15.
Having P1B, 3B and 4. I moved to China based N100. I have struggle too much on PI4 lack of power on USB with back power problem, voltage drop and etc even using original power supply. Moving to N100 without waiting for P5 release was great move.
Late to the party, I know. I am both simultaneously amazed at advancements on SBCs and kind of horrified at the thought these may be the wave of the future and push out replaceability and standardization of PC parts. All these new portable GPUs being made really seem to be making small-form factor PCs an affordable option with a lot of flexibility. I love and tinker around with both, so ideally, I'd like to see both options survive, but we'll just have to see what the future holds I guess! Thank you for the performance comparison.
You're correct. Raspberry has always been pricier than other options. However, you also have to consider the hype and community support. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact.
this is awesome; he has the same vibe as the open university lecture that came on the bbc after the normal programming in the 90's
I watched this guy back in 2014 😅 he is still alive omg
I am indeed still here -- having posted a new video every Sunday since December 2015! :)
My first computer in 1978 was a TRS-80, B&W monitor, 4kb RAM, and 8088 CPU. Cost me $600.
But this historic computer changed my life and led me into my lifetime career as an IT Network Systems Administrator. Now retired at 72, I'm still fascinated with technology and never miss an episode of (Explaining Computers) and my home computer Lab is full of Pi's and various other computers most found on eBay.
I picked up a tiny Dell Wyse 5070 thin client for $45. It has a very fast Pentium J5005 Silver CPU, 8gb RAM and I put in a 128gb m.2 SSD. Installed Linux Mint OS on it. The unit draws less than 10 watts under full load and easily runs high resolution videos on RUclips. It idles at 4 watts and supports dual monitors.
It has now become my main workstation and my power hungry 200 watt HP Z-400 now sits unused except for high end video or audio editing.
Thank you Chris for all your productions. Most appreciated. 👍😊
I would have liked a 4k test, as I plan to run Linux with a 4k monitor.
This is impressive for the Pi 5. I got the nvme hat, so i'll install ubuntu now.
What shocked me is that typical consumer laptops, even with screen on, typically seem to idle on less power than a Pi 5. I'm sure most use cases don't need a Pi to be that power efficient, but it is surprising.
A very pertinent comparison of two computer systems; thank you for this presentation! I have the impression that with its fifth version, the Raspberry Pi has reached a new plateau in terms of performance and connectivity. Of course, it will always be relevant to check whether this little gizmo can really be used as a basic computer, and it clearly can! (I was recently following the experience of a hospital centre in West Africa where medical records are managed exclusively on Pi400s. Efficient, portable, energy-efficient and very affordable. What more could you ask for!) But we should also point out that for the great tinkerers out there, each new iteration of RPi opens up new avenues that very few SCBs allow you to explore. In short, thank you again for this highly instructive video.
How were the medical records stored? Hopefully not on the boot SD cards!
@@wereoctopus Well observed! The RPi400s are networked and there's a NAS in the clinic... I'll let you guess what it runs on!
A whole heap of interesting as always!! Great video Mr. Barnatt!! Keep up the great work!
Delightful video! Your production efforts and abilities are stellar! I'm not in the market for a tiny PC but I watched the whole thing because it was interesting to see this comparison of current low-power computing offerings.
Thanks Chris!
I recently got a new mini-PC with a Intel N97 chip which is a little bit faster than the N100 and N95 chips. It has a TDP of 12w. Very nice chip but I was thermal throttled 'coz of the smaller case I have.
I use my Raspberry Pi5 as a server running a headless Debian install with CasaOS on top as a docker dashboard and it works great! 😁
Thanks Chris for a very informative video on X-86 and ARM competitors! I am planning on getting a Raspberry Pi V to replace the Raspberry Pi IV in my RasPad 3! However, your Intel setup looks very tempting…😮!
I would have set the Intel system on top of the V to show how it can crush the Pi…that’s why you better do the SBC reviews…😂!
Have a great week!
Nice comparison. I'm expecting my Pi5 any day now at which time I will set it up as a daily driver for a bit and see how that all works out. Given what you've shown in this video I don't think I will be disappointed.
I imagine you will really like the Pi 5. It has a fluidity in use (Pi OS or Ubuntu) that is hard to get across in a video.
I would like if you changed your N100 Daily Driver to Windows 10 or 11 since I am not the biggest Linux fan, my PC and laptop run on Windows 11 since it's just simple compared to Linux since in Windows you rarely need to use command promt exept fixxing some internet issues.@@ExplainingComputers
@@thenetheriteminecartzactnm Why does it matter to you what OS Chris uses?
It's it annoys me when someone uses Linux on a PC that should be able to run Windows 10 or 11 just fine and I like Windows since it's so easy to use.@@deanstyles2567
Unfortunately, there is a smaller gap with price between the Pi 5 and small x86_64 systems these days -- the video processing makes it worth paying a bit more, depending on the application. It is still pretty amazing what you can do with a Pi 5 though.
Its great to see a more objective Raspberry Pi review.
The best thing about ARM is that it is not Intel. I have Intel PCs and laptops already. They are for work.
ARM is for fun, which is why N100 is no good to me.
Loved your PI5 vs N100 YTube presentation. Is there a link to a
complete 5:18 parts list needed to build one
power consuption and costs should also be a factor for any computer that runs more than 4h/day with a mix of heavy usage and iddle time. For an office usage, the n100 is definatelly the way to go but in a server setting, not so sure.
The results were much closer than expected, both would be useable for general computing tasks. The N100 though slightly more expensive offers a performance improvement that makes the value vs. performance factor about equal. Thank you again for an interesting and informative video.
I'm impressed with how well the Pi 5 did to keep up!
Amazed by Pi performance, I did not expected such parity on booting and sysbench.
Sadly in my country, Mexico, and I dare to say all latin-america it is dramatically cheaper an N100 system than a RPi.
A RPi 5 combo with official PSU, heatsink and microHDMI adapter is around 150 USD with no case,HAT or SSD and an N100 miniPC 12GB RAM+512 GB SSD+PSU is around 140 USD.
Would only consider a Pi now for something I was running 24/7. Something like a Pi Hole or for a security camera setup. As you can pick up an ex-office PC now for cheap if you are looking for a desktop setup.
for pi-hole or camera setup, the raspberry pi zero-W will do the job just fine.
Your videos are always clear and precise to the point. More like undergoing a certified course. While my age group friends are using (at the max)excel sheets, through yours and others valuable videos I can understand & use SBC for streaming and work on chrome OS etc. Thanks for your efforts.
I am pleasantly surprise by the Pi5, especially since I just ordered one!. I think one consideration is ease of use I would suggest that the Pi5 likely has better support, better drivers, better community.
STILL waiting for the Ras Pi 5s here in OHIO! - Luckily?!? - I' m a VERY Patient Old Man, Sir! LOL 🙂
Cheers! - Judson & Buddy! - Have a GREAT WEEK, My Fellow Nerds! lol 🙂
Have a good week yourself! :)
The tests came out as expected. There's not a tremendous difference except in three areas -- flexibility, connectivity, and availability. The N100 wins in those areas. The N100 will run much more software than the PI. It has significantly better connectivity. And MOST importantly, it is available. (Here in the US, the Pi 5 is out of stock most of the time.) Still, the Pi 5 is slightly cheaper and uses less power. If I needed a new system, I'd go for the N100. But I can see why others would choose the Pi 5. Great video.
Please never change, I love your videos.
Professional video with fun,will you compare the Intel i3-N305 which is more powerful than N100?
Just a reminder that your closing quip in your "Raspberry Pi Weather Station" video from 3 years ago suggested that one might be able to "control the weather" with a Pi5! 🤣
Ah yes -- I must get on to that! :)
I thought the Pi 5 would be totally outclassed, but it performs surprisingly well.
well it was totally outclassed though? the N100 is almost double as fast in real tests compared to the Pi 5 and those were just cpu tests. the graphics will probably be in a completely different league. i hope raspberry pi will use a more modern chip next time around.
@@SweatyFeetGirlWas it really? Video editing and heavy image editing are not every day tasks for most non-youtubers, so for the things many people do the RPi 5 would do fine, editing documents, web browsing, watching YT at 1080p and you don't really need higher resolution on a laptop screen, so a RPi 5 based laptop would be fine for many people.
@@SweatyFeetGirl As mentioned in the video, no one is buying an N100 for video editing. It was great to have the photo and video editing tests for completeness but the sysbench test was probably the most useful performance comparison out of the three and the results were not that different.
The point is, the performance difference will show over time. it's like buying a low end phone and high end phone. both run fine in the beginning but after a few years, you will notice the vast performance difference@@not_ever
@@SweatyFeetGirl That again, depends on your use case. I use single board computers for use cases that remain static over time. The performance does not degrade over time unless the hardware shows sign of wear and tear. If you are using a single board computer for dynamic use cases then yes, you may be better with a higher spec machine that will be more future proof.
I choose N100, a little bit more power hungry but you can use like a normal PC compare to Raspberry.
Im using Melee Quieter 4c with n100 and IM super happy. WIndows 11 works very well after downloading all drivers from the Site ( WIndows Couldn't find almost anything with the updates). Tried a linux works perfectly and I'm staying with linux mint and this Mini PC.
The n100 systems on Amazon r clearly the best choice in my opinion. U can cat a full mini pc with 16gb ram and 512gb ssd for arround 180 buckets. Performance and software support is also way better
If you are building something where SIZE is a major factor (cyberdeck), that N100 board looks... Big.
There may be smaller versions - but the Pi5 is winning in this video, and a CM version would be even smaller.
All that saved space can then be used for a bigger battery, that lasts longer due to reduced power draw.
I'm sold on the PI5. I'mcurrently using a PI4 as a daily with no problems at all
The n100 Makes A Great Media Server Since It has Quick Sync! When It Comes To Transcoding Video The Pi Falls Behind!
The always free arm vps with 4 VMs from Oracle just runs that sysbench test at 1.9459s! respect!
My Intel-based Up Squared from 2017 was already a very decent nano PC. I'm still using it daily under mostly Windows 10 (but dualboot with Ubuntu). At the time, the Raspberry was not really competition as desktop.