I have an 8gb Raspberry Pi 4 that has been a workhorse for years. I keep it for my not intense but essential networking purposes, NetBoot.xyz, Homepage, etc., because I can run it over PoE (edit: Power over Ethernet), so it is always on as long as my network is up.
It is growing long in the tooth, and I find myself wanting to replace it with something a bit more capable. Looking at the 8gb Pi 5 at $80 plus another $30 for a PoE hat, I wonder if there is something out there that would be a better value for running PoE? Can you convert a micro pc over to PoE? Does anyone have any recommendations for computers that run off PoE or can be converted to PoE?
I can't believe someone downvoted you for asking about the acronym.
I get frustrated when the title, body, and comments all use an acronym, but I can't figure it out from context. Even more frustrating is when the linked article also doesn't explain it.
Power over Ethernet. it essentially combines the power plug with the ethernet cable. super helpful for stuff like network cameras where the nearest wall socket is 50 feet away.
But I doubt one of those is more powerful than a pi. I run a cluster of them with k3s and distributed nvme storage, but that may not be useful for your particular needs.
I have three Raspberry Pi 4 4gb and 1 Pi 4 8gb at my disposal, and I still have moments where the thing I need to do will hiccup, or be slower than usual. The Pi 5 has been said to be two times as fast, which is plenty for me. just with the price all in of over $100, curious if anyone else has a better option/opinion
It honestly reallt depends whether your task is hindered by storage speed (sd card), io speed (lan + usb ports), single core speed or lack of threads/cache.
It would be good to find out what the limiting resource is, to understand the best upgrade path.