By the time I parted everything out, I actually saved a few bucks buying the whole thing together.. for someone who has never played with Linux, Pi, or anything else, it made it not so scary. Until this, I had zero exposure to any of this technology. I first bought an Arduino a few years ago, cheap on Amazon. It was a Chinese knock off, but again, having never used it before, no programing background, and not sure I was going to stick with it, it was a great way to get started.. Now that I have some experience under my belt, my next purchase will most likely be just the Pi for my next project.. whatever that may be..