Comment by Youden

I have no idea what US prices are like but I put in a reasonable amount of effort and at least right now here in Europe, N100 and RK3588 prices are pretty similar for comparable packages (RAM, case, power etc.). One other thing to note is that the N100 is DDR4 while the RK3588 uses DDR5.

I never ran into that bug but I came to the Orange Pi 5 Plus in 2025, so there's a chance the issues were all worked out by the time I started using it.

Looking at a couple of reviews, the Orange Pi 5 Plus drew ~4W idle [0] while an N100 system drew ~10W [1].

1W over a year is 8.76kWh, which here costs ~$2. If those numbers hold (and I'm not saying they do necessarily but for the sake of argument) and with an estimated lifespan of 5 years, you might be looking at a TCO of $140 hardware + $40 power = $180 for an Orange Pi 5 vs. $140 hardware + $100 power = $240 for an N100. That would put an N100 at 33% more expensive. Even if it draws just 6W compared to 4W, that's $200 vs. $180, 11% more expensive.

I'm not saying the Orange Pi 5 Plus is clearly better but I don't think it's as simple as one might think.

[0]: https://magazinmehatronika.com/en/orange-pi-5-plus-review/

[1]: https://www.servethehome.com/fanless-intel-n100-firewall-and...