You Might Replace Your PC With An SBC One Day

Key Takeaways

SBCs consume less power than PCs, saving on energy bills with an eco-friendly footprint.
Raspberry Pi 400 was an early attempt, but newer SBCs like Orange Pi 800 offer better specs.
Tech advancements mean more powerful SBCs will likely replace PCs for basic users in the future.

If you’re the average computer user, then to be honest, you don’t actually need a lot of power to go about your day-to-day usage. Web browsing, basic applications, and more don’t need a lot of compute power, and the biggest disadvantage of a single-board computer (SBC) is typically the lack of RAM. There are SBCs with 8GB of RAM though, and enabling swap memory as well will alleviate those pressures further. While I don’t think we’re quite there yet, I genuinely believe that a lot of people could replace their PC with an SBC one day.

My first hands-on experience of RISC-V is with the Milk-V Duo S, and I’m excited

The Milk-V Duo S is a RISC-V SBC that has an Arm CPU in tow, though you can’t make use of it just yet.

An SBC is smaller and consumes less power

Energy consumption is becoming more of a hot topic issue

An SBC, being a single board with few components, will use far less energy than a normal PC. The CPUs tend to be more energy efficient, particularly the likes of Arm chips that are already designed to consume less power in the first place. With less energy consumption comes a lower energy bill, a better carbon footprint, and reduced thermals, too.

Of course, that also means that there’s less overall power from an SBC, which is why anyone who is more than just a passing user of a computer likely won’t enjoy using an SBC. I’ve seen some schools roll out Raspberry Pi-based machines for computers for students for mild browsing and the like, but that’s about the extent of what they can support.

Because they’re smaller as well, they’re much more easily transported. Being able to literally carry your PC in your pocket is incredibly convenient too, which makes bringing it wherever you need it super easy. Want to go abroad and bring your computer with you? An SBC makes that possible.

You can already buy a Raspberry Pi to do this

It might have been a bit early, though

Source: Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi 400 is a PC built into a keyboard, and it cost around $100. It’s Arm-based and features a bunch of ports at the back allowing you to connect a display, a mouse, USB peripherals, and more. It’s priced at $70 for the standalone keyboard or as a ‘ready-to-go kit’ for $100. The kit bundles a mouse, power supply, a microSD card, an HDMI cable, and a beginner’s guide.

This particular device was praised highly for what it was, but that was released in the latter half of 2020. With advancements in Arm that have already happened along with general computing improvements too, I suspect that there may be more of an appetite now for a reasonably priced, powerful SBC that can replace a PC nowadays than there was back then. Plus, 2020 was a year when people didn’t really do a lot of traveling.

As a result, while you can buy the Raspberry Pi 400 now to replace your PC, you probably shouldn’t. It’s still decently powerful for what you get, but there are devices like the Orange Pi 800 that you can pick up now which are more powerful with more storage, the same amount of RAM, and are just as portable, too. You could also pick up an Orange Pi 5 and use the saved money to buy a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

All of this is to say that the options nowadays are significantly more varied than they were back then, and there are a lot of options now that would actually work as genuine computer replacements.

Tech is always improving

If you don’t like what’s available now, you might in the future

A Raspberry Pi 5 with a USB drive attached to it

Given the advances that we’ve seen in tech since 2020, it’s very likely that we’ll see more usable SBCs come to the market. Even now, there are SBCs available that anyone can use. Sure, there are SBCs with new architectures like RISC-V as well that are only aimed at developers and other enthusiasts, but the landscape for basic, more consumer-focused SBCs is growing.

As it stands, I genuinely believe that PCs will move towards being smaller and smaller as the years go on. Even mini PCs like the Mac Mini are so popular partially because of their size, and I can understand the appeal of a small SBC computer if it’s as easily portable as that. Plus, with the cost of them typically being lower, it’s a great and affordable way for anyone to have a PC that fits the bill of being usable, even if it’s not top of the line in any regard.

Because of all of this, I truly believe that SBCs may one day replace the PC in many homes. That’s not to say that enthusiasts will ever make the same replacement, but for the vast majority of people who just need something to browse the internet and do other basic PC functions, I think we’re already quite close to that being a reality.