You can get new Mini PCs for not much more than a Pi 5, especially if you want an 8GB model, case etc. $150-$200 will get you an okay bottom barrel Intel PC with support for stuff like SATA and M.2 SSDs which are more annoying to have on the Pi.
And $150 is overstating it. Look up ‘n3350 all in one’. Lots of models and retailers selling these atm. Intel must be selling these cpus for a few cents given the price for these complete systems with storage ram, case and power supply is ~$65 even when not on sale.
Not exactly salvage, but more like buying in volume from government entities trying to liquidate either actual surplus or fairly new but legally required retired machines. The feds go through the GSA, state and local do their own thing for the most part. It's not unusual to see agencies attempt to sell multiple palettes of computers or just about anything you can imagine for next to nothing. Example: https://www.gsaauctions.gov/auctions/preview/288722
I personally disliked dealing with federal agencies, but entities as local as a school district can easily have a palette of relatively new machines, sans hard drive, and are far more flexible in payment and how you choose to get it to you. For a brief period I used to rent a truck and do weekly runs from Brooklyn mostly to Maryland and Virginia and Pennsylvania and get back to my one bedroom with 90-120 computers. At the palette level prices can get down to the $10-$20 each machine level (probably higher now due to inflation), hard drives aren't really that expensive either. The biggest headache was shipping but the process is likely far more streamlined today. Of course, it probably would've been even cheaper if I didn't operate out of a tiny 1 BR in Brooklyn and can actually own a vehicle and have reliable parking It's not exactly my tax dollars at work, but effectively it is a sort of subsidized sale at the taxpayer's expense, Intel isn't really selling anything for pennies on the dollar, but pretty much every municipality and county government will, at least at some point.
I honestly don’t get it at all considering the sheer volume of these on the market right now. Is there any chance intel would run off an old low cost design that doesn’t compete with the high end just to keep the 14nm fabs busy? It seems like there’s too many on the market for salvage alone to explain it.
