Apples and Oranges?

This is not a direct comparison. If you look at the processing power, the mini-ITX is at least 20 times faster at integer math, and who knows how much (more than 200 times) faster in floating point math. The mini-ITX also wins big time with storage and RAM capacity. As with all PCs, the mini-ITX also offers user interfaces such as VGA ports, mouse ports and keyboard ports.

The SBC solution, on the other hand, requires a very modest (read inexpensive) power supply. The SBC also includes drivers suitable for switching small DC loads. In other words, the two items being compared here do not exactly have the same type of features.

The MCU solution, however, is directly comparable to the SBC solution. There is no doubt that the MCU solution is significantly less expensive than the SBC solution.

Read on, we'll analyze how these two items compare in terms of other aspects of embedded system development.