Everything You Need to Know about the Raspberry Pi 4 | Hacker News Reader

Everything You Need to Know about the Raspberry Pi 4

picockpit.com

16 pointsdoomemax11 comments

When I was looking for a Raspberry Pi, I kept an eye on https://rpilocator.com/ ; it's still useful to gauge supply. It's not zero, but it's not widespread in all regions, either.

I miss the more technical and cool stuff like watchdog: https://diode.io/blog/running-forever-with-the-raspberry-pi-...

Boot from USB, move GPU memory to increase ordinary memory, the USB-C can both consume power and work as USB Hub at the same time…

This last thing with USB-hub is cool together with iPad Pro (usb-c). Connect one wire and use it as development machine on the go.

Had no idea there was a hardware watchdog built into Pi 4s. It’s only a shame there isn’t an updog as well…

For home server related stuff I would not go with a Raspberry any more. I would recommend some used/refurbished x86 hardware.

Fujitsu Q556, Lenovo ThinkCentre M700/M710q/M715q/M910q/..., or something else that does use a >=6000 gen Intel or a comparable AMD chip. >=4000 gen if you get it very cheap. If you compute requirements are low you can even go with a Atom for <40€/$.

There are often offers that sell these machines for <100€/$ all inclusive, sometimes <80€/$ (at least here in Germany). You get:

- much more CPU power (with the 6100t 3 to 5 times more for example. https://www.cpu-monkey.com/de/compare_cpu-raspberry_pi_4_b_b...)

- more GPU power (transcoding for streaming possible)

- no Micro-SD write issues -> proper SSD, easy to add another one

- in most cases 8GB RAM or more (also very cheap to extend)

- no issues with ARM docker images (sad but sometimes still the case)

If you need lower power consumption, HDMI-CEC, GPIO pins or a low form factor, the Raspberry is still 100% the solution you are looking for. Otherwise you might be happier with the options above.

I currently use an old Asus T100TA X86 tablet with Ubuntu patched onto it because I still had it laying around. Works great and does use very little power.

Sadly the issue with this is that you can offset both the cost and the carbon impact in just few years. (I say sadly because of course I'd much rather people would reuse than put working hardware to trash)

My T100TA has the processing power of an Raspberry Pi 4 and only consumes <10W. It's mobile Hardware in the end and thus already optimized.

If you want to save power get a used Atom (like the one in my T100TA). The are also very cheap. A Dell Wyse 3040 (2GB RAM fixed) for example consumes 4W idling and < 10W under max load. CPU Power is a bit better then the Raspberry Pi 4. And it's only 40€/$

Buying appropriately sized, used hardware will have a better footprint.

That 'carbon impact' is negligible - if even worth thinking about - compared to the environmental impact (which, remember, is totally unrelated to 'carbon impact') of creating that hardware in the first place. If you have something lying around which can be used and it does not come with an onerous power bill, jet-engine fans, vacuum tubes in a fridge-sized cabinet (although that would certainly have some charm) or unobtainable parts by all means use it instead of a new SBC. I use a number of old mobile devices in this way where I would otherwise have employed SBCs. They come with their own UPS, a complete sensor set, cameras, microphones, several wireless interfacing possibilities and some of them even have a screen. Power consumption is minimal and they tend to work fine on whatever USB charger you connect them to where some SBCs are quite picky when it comes to their power supplies. Mobile devices are lacking when it comes to interfaces, they tend to have a single USB connector which doubles as a power input and as such is already occupied so if you need those GPIO pins or USB3 connectors get yourself an SBC without fretting over any 'carbon impact'.

Article says, "The Raspberry Pi 4 is the ultimate microprocessor." No, not really. There are many alternative SBCs available that either outperform the Raspberry or will meet specific use cases better than the general purpose Pi 4. One example, in terms of raw power, is the Orange Pi 5. Phoronix reports "Across 169 different benchmarks I ran with the Orange Pi 5, this single board computer came out to delivering 2.85x the performance of the Raspberry Pi 400 overall." No surprise, the Orange Pi's RK3588s 8-core CPU is far more powerful than the Pi's BCM2711 quad core CPU -- even on single threaded apps.

I started out with a Ras Pi 3 years ago and it was excellent as a first time starter board. The online community support and online resources are excellent. But now I use alternative boards like OrangePi or FriendlyElec as I prefer Armbian over the Raspberry Pi operating system.

The thing there is that the Pi offers excellent hardware and software support. My attempts to use alternatives (and I got started with Odroid very early on, some eight years ago) were all flaky - even though Armbian is a good hint that things will work, sometimes they just don’t.

Good article. I own an R.Pi 4 and an R.Pi 400 (keyboard case). Both run Debian from an external NVMe enclosure.

The hardware is a delight to use. The OS is Debian -- 'nuff said. Excellent community interactions and support.

The supply chain was dead for a while (pandemic). Now people who just want a small form-factor device can buy Gigabyte Brix and used Intel NUCs, in some cases with dual ethernet ports.

But if you are looking for a capable, inexpensive ARM-based system with Linux-first hardware support and a real community, the R.Pi 4 (and 400) are hard to beat. Hardkernel Odroid devices are great hardware but long-term support has been dubious.

Hot take: Raspberries are outdated, except for maybe a few niche cases.

- Need a micro SoC? Go for a Zero or better, cheaper competitors (some do have decent support).

- Need a low-wattage server? Go for all in one x86 boards (N100, I4105-I6105), the blossoming mini pc scene, or second hand laptop (internals).

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