Reflecting on 2024, it stands out as a remarkable year for single board computers. The spike in RAM prices, along with storage and other components since late 2025 driven by AI demand, has significantly reduced their price/performance appeal.
We’ve covered the Raspberry Pi SBC price rises, and after multiple hikes, the Raspberry Pi 5 16GB rose from $120 to $305, marking a 154% increase. Recently, I saw the Banana Pi BPI-M4 Zero launched with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash, but the $181 cost for European customers, factoring in VAT and shipping, was steep. Initially highlighted in December 2023, the BPI-M4 Zero 2GB/8GB was priced at $28.90 plus shipping; it’s now $115 before taxes—that’s a 297% surge, or nearly four times its price from over two years ago.
So, I decided to examine the price fluctuations for several SBCs released in 2024, prior to these wild shifts. I’ll select one Arm SBC per major vendor and a couple of x86 SBCs to see if they were similarly affected.
Here are the selections:
– Raspberry Pi 5 (reference) – Released in September 2023 – Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A72 SBC with 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4X-4267, no default storage.
– Banana Pi BPI-M4 Zero – Released in December 2023 – Raspberry Pi Zero-sized SBC with Allwinner H618 quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC, 2GB LPDDR4, 8GB eMMC flash.
– Orange Pi 5 Ultra – Released in December 2024 – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core SBC with 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB LPDDR5, no default storage (except 16MB SPI flash)
– Radxa ROCK 5B+ – Released in July 2024 – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core SBC with 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 24GB, or 32GB LPDDR5, no default storage (except SPI flash)
– Hardkernel ODROID-M2 – Released in August 2024 – Rockchip RK3588S2 octa-core SBC with 8GB or 16GB 64-bit LPDDR5, 64GB eMMC flash
– FriendlyELEC NanoPi Zero2 – Released in September 2024 – Entry-level Rockchip RK3528 SBC with 1GB or 2GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X, no storage by default
– NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit – Released in December 2024 – Robotics/Edge AI SBC with a 6-core Arm Cortex-A78AE CPU, 8GB LPDDR5, no default storage. Note: subsidized hardware for developers.
– Radxa X4 – Released in July 2024 – Entry-level x86 SBC with Intel N100 CPU, 4GB or 8GB LPDDR5, no storage by default (except SPI flash)
– UP Xtreme i14 – Released in June 2024 – Higher end x86 SBC with Intel Core Ultra 5/7 Meteor Lake SoCs, up to 64GB LPDDR5, no storage by default
I’ll use the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB as a reference, so I’ll compare the price increase with 8GB variants of the boards where feasible. Price increases are displayed as both ratios and percentages to suit your preference.
| Board | Memory | Storage | Launch Price | April 2026 Price | Ratio | Percentage | Remark |
|——-|——–|———|————–|——————|——-|————|——–|
| Raspberry Pi 5 | 8GB LPDDR4 | N/A | $80 | $175 | 2.19x | +119% | MSRP |
| Banana Pi BPI-M4 Zero | 2GB LPDDR4 | 8GB eMMC flash | $28.90 | $115 | 3.97x | +297% | AliExpress |
| Orange Pi 5 Ultra | 16GB LPDDR5 | N/A | $125 | $309 | 2.47x | +148% | No stock/price for 8GB model |
| Radxa ROCK 5B+ | 8GB LPDDR5 | N/A | $90 | $129.99 (See remark) | 1.44x | +44.4% | Sold out |
| ODROID-M2 | 8GB LPDDR5 | 64GB eMMC flash | $115 | $195 | 1.69x | +69.5% | Kit with enclosure |
| NanoPi Zero2 | 1GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X | N/A | $18
