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Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#281
post #202
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No all GCSE so 14+ students. The issue is usually that they freeze or crash under "desktop use" all the time and people pull the power out and back in again to reset them. This flexes the HDMI and USB connectors which eventually break or the cables give out. During the reboot cycle is when the SD card gets borked, or randomly suddenly. It's really a terrible computing experience compared to using a simple off the she…

These are classic symptoms of underpowered PIs. 99% of USB power supplies are not fit for a PI :(

So that raises the question: Why do they keep making Pis with USB power? One could argue that it's because USB power supplies are cheap and ubiquitous, but that's not really true if only 1% of power supplies are actually capable of properly powering a Pi.

They could use a different power connector that doesn't cause this confusion, or they could design Pis to use less power and therefore work properly with more USB power supplies.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just watched a few videos on your channel and love it. Really great stuff. I love this Pi 400 and think in the new year I will pick one up for my son. We have a Pi 4 that we use a lot and he loves but like you say in your video it is a bit annoying with this little box off the side with a bunch of cables coming out of it. Not terrible by any means just annoying so I really love the form factor of it all being in the…

>simple RPi branded monitor with a Pi built in Oh, I'd definitely be up for that!!

I’d rather have a miniPC-sized Raspberry Pi computer like an Intel NUC or Mac Mini* mounted on the back of a monitor instead of an all-in-one. Monitors have a much longer useful life so all-in-ones (e.g. iMac) eventually become paperweights or e-waste.

If they go the all-in-one route they should include an external HDMI port and a switch to choose between it and the internal Raspberry Pi.

*: But upgradeable and repairable.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#283

I was lucky to get a pre-release version to test, and I decided to tear it down before I started trying it out. I posted this blog post with detailed pictures of the insides, and some more details and performance benchmarks: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/raspberry-pi-400-tear... There are also a couple videos linked in the post, if you're more visually-inclined. Fun fact: the Pi 400 (and Compute Module 4) bo…

Just watched a few videos on your channel and love it. Really great stuff. I love this Pi 400 and think in the new year I will pick one up for my son. We have a Pi 4 that we use a lot and he loves but like you say in your video it is a bit annoying with this little box off the side with a bunch of cables coming out of it. Not terrible by any means just annoying so I really love the form factor of it all being in the…

agree the keyboard-in-one is great -

also fyi the pi-top project has a DIY 'all in one' for the PI:

https://www.pi-top.com/products/pi-top-ceed

and a DIY laptop:

https://www.pi-top.com/products/pi-top-3

only claim pi-3 compatibility at the moment, not sure if it would still work with 4, probably need some adapters or so

(maybe other projects like this, not sure)

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#284
The original vision of the rPi was to stimulate education in the way that the original 8-bit microcomputers did. Those machines were pretty much this exact form-factor, a keyboard with a computer stuck underneath.

I really like how this is the same thing, and cheaper than the ZX Spectrum ever was.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demanding facts and methodology eh? You don’t seem to understand benchmarks.

Or any meaningful benchmarks that can run on both a C64 and a modern computer.

Every benchmark means something. The problem is you make a benchmark to measure the thing you are curious about. If that then indicates a result that makes something you like look bad, then you feel it is an unfair benchmark. Or if you were curious about some other kind of performance, then it is a bad benchmark.

Every benchmark is meaningless or unfair to somebody.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#286
post #147

As an engineer/founder from India who dreams of access to the Internet for everyone on this planet, these are the efforts that make me smile. I am in the process of sorting out my financial situation - tough founder luck. But I am happy to order a few of these (and monitors) and rent a small garage to give local kids a free computer lab to learn. (Kolkata, India)

Is it really an affordable situation with the current pricing of the RPI to setup a computer cafe for the kids who don't have access to the computers and internet ?

Access to Internet, thankfully and recently, has become super affordable by my own standards to give away. I have a 100Mbps fiber from Airtel (I have US/Europe calls all the time) at around USD 15 (INR 900) / month. I could easily get another for the cafe.

Rent for a small garage would be about USD 35 / month. Electricity would not cross USD 50 / month.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#287

I would buy immediately if it also had a display and a battery to make a laptop (and a cooler so I wouldn't have to worry when I start a long compilation routine on it). Looks great otherwise.

The display seems to me to be a bigger problem than the battery. Small, 3 Amp capable USB batteries are common and cheap ($10-$20 on Amazon). Displays are expensive (and need their own power source), but people can at least use TVs like they did with those 1980s PCs.

I sort of suspect that if this is really successful, they might come out with a laptop version. That'd be nice.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#288

As an engineer/founder from India who dreams of access to the Internet for everyone on this planet, these are the efforts that make me smile. I am in the process of sorting out my financial situation - tough founder luck. But I am happy to order a few of these (and monitors) and rent a small garage to give local kids a free computer lab to learn. (Kolkata, India)

E-waste is a massive problem nowadays. Why not assemble the lab out of "old" computers? They might take a bit more electricity to run, but, at least in the US, you can get truckloads of computers that were destined for the scrapyard, for free. One local school here threw away 50+ small dell quad-core i5's in their quest to make sure they spend their money wisely. I've assembled a small lab, with many computers, laser…

I agree with you and I want to look into that too. But I am not sure it would be easy to order such computers, in working conditions, as easily as this RPi. If the logistic hassle is too much, it might not take off at all.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#289

I was lucky to get a pre-release version to test, and I decided to tear it down before I started trying it out. I posted this blog post with detailed pictures of the insides, and some more details and performance benchmarks: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/raspberry-pi-400-tear... There are also a couple videos linked in the post, if you're more visually-inclined. Fun fact: the Pi 400 (and Compute Module 4) bo…

Curious if you have any specs on the ribbon cable that connects the keyboard. It looks like it must carry more than USB?

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#290
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the keyboard? It looks, uh, cheap, so I'm curious if typing on it is an ok experience.

The Pi Keyboard was decent. I would expect this to be the same just with the Pi integrated.

This is literally the exact same keyboard surface and mechanism as the Pi Keyboard, so it's good, not amazing.

I can type fine on it, though I still prefer an Apple Magic Keyboard (latest version) for daily typing since the body of it is slightly more solid.

I'm not a mechanical keyboard fan, though I know many would like that kind of keyboard here, and it would be more fitting for the nostalgia!

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