The Natural Philosopher wrote
Andy Burns wrote
jgharston wrote
BartC wrote

Once you've added a monitor, keyboard, mouse, memory (and a PSU?), it won't be far from the cost of a netbook.

But the whole point is that most people *already* *have* a spare keyboard, mouse

spare USB keyboard+mouse quite likely I suppose

and about 20 quid if not.

Not even that with the cheapest off ebay.

monitor 'cos we never got around to throwing them away.

Having an unused HDMI capable monitor is less likely, but a TV with HDMI or composite input quite likely, perhaps an
old monitor with DVI input which would work with a suitable cable

I wouldn't use a monitor anyway - since its got a fully capable X
server and networking on it, not hard to control it from an existing
PC.. it would be, like a router, a useful 'smart box' to do stuff at
much lower power on a 24x7 basis. Like my existing server. Only it
has no disk apart from a flash drive so its not useful as a storage box.

It does have USB tho.

along with half a dozen plug-in PSUs.

The Pi can be powered by microUSB (think most new mobile chargers
except apple) or by "raw" 5V supply soldered to the I/O connector

If you've ever had a camera, PDA, MP3, wotnot that uses SD cards,
you're likely to have some older/smaller cards kicking around.

With suitable cable I suppose xbox/ps3 gamepads can be connected too.