Raspberry Pi - $35 Linux computer

Stephanie Peterson · 27 Jun 2019 at 18:24

Yeah but a thin does require a back end to run it, they generally aint cheep.
Will reserve judgement on the 4s desktop capabilities until i have thrashed one senseless, the benches coming out look good so far but retropie will be the head turner if it can be significantly better than before.

Armageus · 27 Jun 2019 at 18:30

Stephanie Peterson said:
Yeah but a thin does require a back end to run it, they generally aint cheep.

Nope as in you can actually install Linux on a thin client, and have a low powered x64 compatible box that draws ~10watts.
https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t520/

Marky · 27 Jun 2019 at 18:35

Feek said:
I didn't think they were bad actually - Yes, there's throttling when it gets up to temperature but it's only very brief until the temperature drops back. I can't imagine many tasks will drive it to a level where it's going to even hit that point. It took over four minutes at high load to start.

/edit - I'll still be adding cooling to mine though simply because of where it's going to be, ie in a sealed box, 33ft up in the air in direct sunlight!

Could I get your opinion on my scenario then, as I know you’ve got some decent experience with these Pis...

I have my current 3B Pi attached to the back of my tv with velcro strips and it is in a little Pi case - I’ll be using it just to run Plex and some other video apps - nothing too taxing, I imagine...

I’ll be putting the 4B in a case similar to my current one and I am keen on the 4GB version - do you feel it would be necessary to splash on some heat sinks for its use? Or would it be overkill? I can’t imagine my scenario would warrant a fan - and to be honest, if it did I would just stick to the 3B.

Lemme know your thoughts

Stephanie Peterson · 27 Jun 2019 at 19:14

I had a mate who did a thin client linux build a few years back, was ok but nothing an aged laptop of similar vintage ran at also on the same SW.

As for the pi4 on the back of the telly, i would just get the biggest H/S i could fit to the chip (some thermal glue or whatever) and call it a day, the extra mass and fins will do fine - several of my pis have had this kind of thing bodged out of old heatsinks and they run great even with upped volts and clocks.

Sin_Chase · 27 Jun 2019 at 19:29

My 4 arrived today, lighting quick from PiHut. Just need a case now!

Feek · 27 Jun 2019 at 20:43

Stephanie Peterson said:
As for the pi4 on the back of the telly, i would just get the biggest H/S i could fit to the chip (some thermal glue or whatever) and call it a day, the extra mass and fins will do fine - several of my pis have had this kind of thing bodged out of old heatsinks and they run great even with upped volts and clocks.

Agree with this, I think you'll be fine. I have no experience of using a Pi for this sort of thing but I'd hope that some passive cooling would do the trick.

bledd · 28 Jun 2019 at 16:37

^I use the Flirc case with all of my Pis besides my 'desk testing Pi'

at ~£15 it's a good no hassle option.

TangoEchoAlpha · 28 Jun 2019 at 17:39

Sin_Chase said:
My 4 arrived today, lighting quick from PiHut. Just need a case now!

Likewise

This is my first ever Pi!

picnic · 29 Jun 2019 at 08:56

I'm sooooo weak, piHut emailed yesterday to say more of the 4GB models were in stock so I bought one

an0nym0us · 29 Jun 2019 at 09:30

picnic said:
I'm sooooo weak, piHut emailed yesterday to say more of the 4GB models were in stock so I bought one

Haha. I've managed to resist the urge thus far. I think if the Ryzen 3000 series hadn't been set to launch next month, I'd have probably bought a 4GB Pi 4.

bledd · 29 Jun 2019 at 11:44

Stretch Vs Buster benchmarks on Pi3b

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=raspbian-10-benchmarks&num=1

Some decent gains for a software upgrade.

DIABLO · 29 Jun 2019 at 20:08

Ran a DD test on 2x USB sticks simultaneously and get 120MB/s which is the same as what i get when i run it on one stick. So unless my testing method is flawed it seems like the Pi would make a good simple NAS.

an0nym0us · 30 Jun 2019 at 10:11

DIABLO said:
Ran a DD test on 2x USB sticks simultaneously and get 120MB/s which is the same as what i get when i run it on one stick. So unless my testing method is flawed it seems like the Pi would make a good simple NAS.

Yeah, it's great that gigabit ethernet and USB 3 have finally been included on the Pi 4.

TangoEchoAlpha · 30 Jun 2019 at 17:06

Waiting for the Pi4 cases to be released - hoping that RetroFlag also update the range for Pi4.

TheMightyTen · 1 Jul 2019 at 10:09

Oh well, I caved and bought a 4Gb model with official power supply, I'll shove it in an open sided acrylic top/bottom protector until more cases become available, I might well go Flirc this time

I know most os/software releases aren't ready for the 4 yet but, you know...... just gotta have

PinkFloyd · 1 Jul 2019 at 18:23

Got my Pi4, this is a warm little beast! Idles in the low 60s, glad I grabbed a heatsink. Feels pretty responsive from the desktop side of things though, browsing the web is all fine. Just clunky video playback on sites like Youtube which seems to be a known thing - hopefully something that can be addressed.

Feek · 1 Jul 2019 at 18:37

From what I've heard, there's likely to be a firmware update which will reduce the idle temperatures and also resolve the USB problem with certain products such as RTL-SDR dongles.

deadite66 · 1 Jul 2019 at 18:43

how they handle the bigger SDRs like Airspy and SDRPlay is what interests me.

Feek · 1 Jul 2019 at 22:05

deadite66 said:
how they handle the bigger SDRs like Airspy and SDRPlay is what interests me.

Mine will actually be used with an Airspy and initial reports are that it can handle the full 20MHz sample rate rather than just 12MHz as the 3B+ does so that's good.

deadite66 · 2 Jul 2019 at 06:42

Feek said:
Mine will actually be used with an Airspy and initial reports are that it can handle the full 20MHz sample rate rather than just 12MHz as the 3B+ does so that's good.

Nice, would mostly use it with rtl_airband so i can run it headless and just ssh into it.
https://github.com/szpajder/RTLSDR-Airband/wiki/Overview