I think this is probably something for Thomas, but it's a general question. I'm totally confused (old too which doesn't help) as to which board to get for different jobs. I have an RPi B (256) running. Dietpi as a DLNA and samba sever. Slow but effective. An RPi 3 for general work and tinkering since it's supported quite well and a Orange PI PC which is how I got here... Wow, what a great piece of work you have all done.
Igor and Thomas I salute you both! Your knowledge and explanations make me sit in awe. Last time I soldered something in anger it was a quad CMOS NAND and it wasn't cheap either!
So, is there a general (noobs) guide to which boards are good for "X" purpose?
Server, General PC, retro games machine, etc...
One thing I'm trying to achieve is a truly silent and very, very low power desktop for my research/writing. (I suspect an x86 machine is required to do the DTP and graphics.) The PI3 is teasingly close but not quite there.
As a general-purpose (fixed to the rear of a monitor) machine I also really could use accelerated video and reliable sound.
Cost IS a consideration of course but there are so many boards out there it's becoming a real challenge to figure out the good from the awful! Thank goodness we have Armbian to make things at least usable!