Is an Intel N100 or N150 a better value than a Raspberry Pi?

Are the two boards even in the same category or class?

I use RPi for little hobby projects

- RPi Pico for being the payload that flies around the world in a PicoBalloon

- Decoding NOAA weather imagery and storing it in my Google Drive

- Full time AIS message decoder and tracker

- Full time ADS-B and MLAT receiver

- Runs my RetroPie setup

- Runs my OctoPrint setup

I wouldn’t replace much of that with an Intel NUC style computer

Except for the Pico (which is very different from the full RPi), you could do all that with a mini-PC.

There are certainly usecases, especially using the RPi's low-level IO, where that's not possible, but as you yourself have shown, people do often get into situations where they are competitors.

The more standardized hardware if the rpi tends to make a lot of stuff much easier.

Intel N150 + GPIO in credit card size form factor, https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/06/24/aaeon-up-twl-and-up-...

> I wouldn’t replace much of that with an Intel NUC style computer

Can you explain why?

I'm not the GP, but for my ads-b decoder, it runs on a Pi Zero 2W, which at the time cost under $15 and draws very little power. It's convenient having the computer right next to the antenna to avoid thinking about cables. Runs for a couple days on 100Wh of backup battery.

(I personally find a ton of value out of the Pico and the zero, and less out of the main main, higher powered raspberry Pi line)

> I wouldn’t replace much of that with an Intel NUC style computer

Why is that? Because you think the N100 isn't capable enough or for some other reason? Because N100 definitely can outperform a raspberry pi

But a pi pico is definitely a totally different thing. I don't think anyone here is talking about replacing a microcontroller with a PC

For the weather imagery one or any ham radio, it has to live outside which RPi is more suited such as RPi 3B

I just can’t see putting the NUC in my attic for example with my ADSB receiver

Is linux support as good?

Is Linux support for Intel N150 (x86) as good as Linux support for RPi (Arm SoC N of M)?

Generalist x86 is usually better supported than specialist Arm, but newer drivers (e.g. NICs) may take time to mature.

There's more to the CPU on a SoC.

I run Arch on a Radxa X4 and it’s fine, no driver issues even with the WiFi chipset.

A miniPC is just a PC though, with UEFI and ACPI, how are they not standard?

Probably shouldn't have your decoder in the attic anyway, as they aren't well suppressed in terms of EM interference which will seep into the antenna. Particularly a cheap AC-DC wall wart, they're basically broad-spectrum noise-jammers.

I shunt the USB output of the SSR dongles onto Ethernet and pipe that to the PC downstairs.

Huh? It’s ADSB 1090 MHz on a short run of coax to a FlightAware SDR USB dongle. It’s an urban environment so I don’t expect much but I receive plenty of aircraft over 300 nm. Any further away and I would have loss due to inherent limitations of the coax. I could go with like LMR400 but I am not going to spend that kind of money or add like a LNA. This is a setup people commonly use