How many Raspberry Pis do you have and what are they used for?

It runs Plex server fine, i've a 8TB USB HDD rigged up to it and the menus and transitions are swift enough for me at least, there are no stutters/hesitations.

The way I use plex is that it serves various (mainly FireTVs) clients and i'm very careful to avoid transcoding (though it does transcode EAC-3 sound with very little drama to a Nvidia Shield), and the max number of clients it usually has to serve at any one time is 2.

I previously ran Plex on a Gen7 HP Microserver with Xpenology and the Pi is noticably quicker than that in operation, though slightly slower transferring artwork on first run.

Edit to add - I only use my RPi with a wired connection, I've never used the built in WiFi (other than for testing) for my dedicated machines.
 
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Thanks p, I may give one a look again for my parents. The menus used to big down a fair bit and it would hang for periods when adding new media before. Like you I try to avoid transcoding where possible.
 
fish said:
Thanks p, I may give one a look again for my parents. The menus used to big down a fair bit and it would hang for periods when adding new media before. Like you I try to avoid transcoding where possible.
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What version of Pi did you use previously for Plex? Before using it on the 4, I had previously tried it on a 1 and a 2 and it did act as you described. The 4 has been a game changer for lots of things for me as it has the more powerful cpu as well as a the "proper" 1gb/s ethernet port.
 
SpellowHouse said:
I should get one and look in to what they can do.
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Sounds like a cliche, but the limit is you. As long as you accept they are a single board low power machine (and those limitations), and it will never be the best at doing any one thing (but it will be certainly good enough) then the sky is the limit and your patience.

Also most tasks you'd want to carry out someone has already invented that wheel so there is a huge resource out there if you get stuck.
 
I did try a Pi 4 for Plex and it's perfectly fine providing you don't need to transcode. But my brother accesses my library over the internet and so a lot of the higher bit rate stuff I have has to be transcoded for him and it just wasn't fit for purpose.
 
Feek said:
I did try a Pi 4 for Plex and it's perfectly fine providing you don't need to transcode. But my brother accesses my library over the internet and so a lot of the higher bit rate stuff I have has to be transcoded for him and it just wasn't fit for purpose.
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Yes, I should have added that I only use it locally (on my home LAN).
 
Just the Pi4 2GB version in metal passive case and I'm using it for the following without any issues:

Plex server
Jellyfin Server
OSMC Kodi media player
Samba sharing
CCTV backup
Wireguard VPN
 
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SpellowHouse said:
I keep saying I will buy one to mess with, but never get round to it.

I could implement a building control system on one, with almost no effort. I really should.
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I brought a 2GB Pi 4 for £35 back when the prices were sane and I pretty use it for everything such as:

Plex server, Jellyfin server, CCTV, Wireguard VPN, Kodi media player, NAS and everything uses on around 600mb of the 2GB ram :)
 
hdpcgamer said:
They're already taking pre-orders for Pi 5?

I must be living under a rock because I haven't heard anything news regarding the pi 5 lol.
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Announced this morning.

thepihut.com

Raspberry Pi 5

Featuring a 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor running at 2.4GHz, Raspberry Pi 5 delivers a 2-3x increase in CPU performance relative to Raspberry Pi 4! Raspberry Pi 5 also brings with it a huge list of great new features and improvements, making this the best Raspberry Pi yet! Welcome to...
thepihut.com thepihut.com
 
OK, I'm as guilty as the rest of us but let's keep the RPi5 talk in this thread:

Raspberry Pi 5 Announced!

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/introducing-raspberry-pi-5/ I hope they come out with a refresh of the more affordable boards, at this price point for the base model (4GB) is the Raspberry Pi loosing its charm? I would like to see a Raspberry Pi 4/5 A+ with 1GB for £30
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

(I've moved some posts over there)
 
I got 4 rpi's 3 not used pic included which is a shame, and a pi4 8gb being used for my DNS and test server.
not sure why but a little while back the I had to change the usb ports on two of the pi's on the left of the pic because they crumbled and broke, but all fully tested and working now. Well last time I checked anyway.

g392Nzn.jpg
 
I've still got my Pi Model B doing nothing. I set it up as a performance monitor for my PC but never got a case or anything for it. I really should... I may need something bespoke though with the screen as I couldn't find a matching case
 
I didn't do the whole 2B thing, I just jumped to the 4B which is just night and day compaired to the 1B boards, gigabit ethernet was the game-changer for me as it suits my needs.
The first 10,000 boards was a thing but mine is a later one I think, the one in the middle. I did look it up but I've forgotten how early it was now.

Edit: I checked and I have 0002 and the last of the 512 Model B PCB Rev2 000f
 
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dymetrie said:
Currently have a 2b running Rasplex in the living room and a 3b+ with a TVhat in the office. Need to update and expand to enable a plex media player in the bedroom (Sony have pulled the Plex app from their Bravia range) so am looking to switch my Plex clients over to Kodi with the Plex plug in for both TVs. Added bonus is that i can run the living room Kodi/Plex client through Retropie and have a retro game system to school the children :D

Also need to get a pi-hole back up and running and am liking the idea of running two so that there is redundancy (when my 6 year old pulls the plug on one of them 'cos she's a git). is there a way to sync the two instance of pi-hole so you only have to manage one white list/black list?
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Realised that I have been reading this thread without offering any kind of update for four years!

Huge changes in the home, and ownership/usage of Raspberry Pis!

I'm now up to 4 Pis across the house, and upgraded TVs so that Plex is now native (or nearly native) without the need for a Pi.

So I now have:

  • Pi Zero W - Retropie
  • Pi Model 2b - Recently retired from being the secondary PiHole and VPN server (expecting to migrate the RetroPie to this device and free up the Zero W for an as yet unknown project)
  • Pi Model 3b+ - Primary PiHole and Transmission server
  • Pi 400 - Was my partnering device when working (for personal stuff), but has been pushed out by my resurrected Win11 Desktop PC, so this weekend has become the secondary PiHole and VPN server, with plans to make it a Nagios network monitoring server pending
Both the 3b+ and the 400 are running on SSDs which is such a lovely speed gain, even on the 3b+ which only has USB 2.0 ports.

Any suggestions on a fun and exciting project for the Zero W would be welcome :)

I am resisting pre-ordering a 5, as I only want one to have one :D
 
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