111–120 of 134 posts
How usable is the PI5 as a desktop PC replacement? The PI4 was too slow to run anything serious.
Some websites are going to perform really badly, like a lot of news websites with lots of ads, but those tend to perform bad on my gaming PC, too, and I just think if a website performs bad on a Pi 5 it's really just not worth visiting.
The word "Mediocre" comes to mind. Still using Micro HDMI, weirdly added unusable nvme ensuring people know its not the final product and if they want nvme they'll be having to pay for a replacement at some point down the line, plus increasing the price by around 30%. Feels very much like they've given up even pretending to try and understand what their customers want. The micro hdmi thing is just incredibly stupid,…
The word "Amazing" comes to my mind. My guess is you wildly overstimate how much people care about what you care about.
Also if you read here, their own announcement blog post, X, Bluesky and Reddit you'll find theres a fair few people sharing my views regarding micro hdmi and the nvme shenanigans.
My guess is you wildly overestimated how much people care what you care about.
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But that's comparing apples (new computer, whether N100 mini PC or RPi 400/500) to oranges (used/refurbished office mini PCs).
Even excusing used hardware you can litterally buy brand new ready to go windows based pc's in that price bracket. Prices from Pimoroni. The price of a Pi 500 is £84.60 for the unit + £11.40 for the PSU + £3.90 for a micro hdmi adaptor (which I'm adding because almost everyone will need one). Giving you a total of £99.90 plus shipping. You'll also probably need more storage as it only comes with the 32gb micro sd (do…
> Any of the Lenovo or Dell mini pc's are cheaper (around £50-£70 depending on the model) on eBay
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Sure, but I'd expect a little lid to access the M.2 slot in the case design. "It's not that kind of product", but maybe it should be: Higher capacity microSD cards are more expensive than NVMe alternatives, which are generally faster.
Not to forget write cycles... Which can be real issue if you actually use system as desktop. In general NVME drives would likely be more reliable in long run. I really would not enjoy storage being corrupted or dead on this kind of device.
Modern SD cards have much more intelligent controllers that perform wear leveling and work with the OS to reduce excessive write cycles.
Not that they're as reliable as modern SSDs, but I'd be willing to bet a modern SD card from a reputable brand is as reliable as SSDs were a while back when they were generally regarded as reliable enough.
Almost every time I've teased the info out of people with failed SD cards on Pi's, either it's either physically damaged, or it's an off-brand, or it's an ancient card.
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16 year old me, back when I was 16, would also have found this amazing. The thing is that today, lots of things cost less than $100 and runs linux. Go on Ebay or Facebook marketplace, and you'll find a near unlimited supply of $100 laptops that will run Linux at least as well as this will, and there you even get a screen. Go to AliExpress and you'll find mini PCs with similar specs to this for around $100, and you'll…
The Raspberry Pi has three huge advantages over those other options: 1) GPIO, letting you do things like learning to flash LEDs or controlling robotic arms and getting ready to use a Pi Zero for robots or such. 2) Cool add-ons, like the Pi Camera or AI modules, and a product family such as compute modules, Pi Zero, etc. A strong third party market of Hats, etc. 3) SUPPORT. Pi 500 is available as part of a kit with th…
- monitor can be powered from the pi 500 at 60% - has built in speakers, plus some hdmi stuff to strip the audio line to a line out on the monitor for headphones/speaker - there's gonna be a 16GB model - add the M2 slot back as a "premium" feature - the existing PCB will fit pretty nicely into a laptop case
plow all this into a laptop-like case with a touchpad and you have a ~$300-400 laptop with workable, real-world performance perfect for impulse purchases, kids, and hobbies. With market differentiators of
- low power - low cost - good software/hardware ecosystem - gpio built-in
They're really only one or two steps away from this. I'd bet by next Christmas.
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I do find HN threads about R-Pi products weigh heavily negative. Yet despite the apparent many major issues that keep getting pointed out R-Pi seems to keep going from strength to strength. Maybe they understand their own customers and their market better than commenters here?
> I do find HN threads about R-Pi products weigh heavily negative. The HN audience at large is still pissed that RPi chose to prioritize large industrial accounts over hobbyists during the Covid chip shortage era, and what few stock arrived at hobbyist distribution channels quickly got mopped up and re-sold by scalpers. A few FOSS hardliners are pissed about binary blobs and a lack of in-depth documentation - which i…
I too was alienated by RPi's supply and scalping situation – combined with their seeming contempt for the hobbyists, teachers, and students who had actively supported the platform.
Another unfortunate aspect is that Pi 5 has a list price of $50 vs. $35 for the 4 and earlier models (and also requires a more expensive power supply.) The price seems to be heading in the wrong direction.
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The Raspberry Pi has three huge advantages over those other options: 1) GPIO, letting you do things like learning to flash LEDs or controlling robotic arms and getting ready to use a Pi Zero for robots or such. 2) Cool add-ons, like the Pi Camera or AI modules, and a product family such as compute modules, Pi Zero, etc. A strong third party market of Hats, etc. 3) SUPPORT. Pi 500 is available as part of a kit with th…
Those things are cool in their own right, but most of those belong within the context of someone looking to make something or learn electronics. Not necessarily something that someone looking to use one as a fully fledged computer is going to appreciate. And the Pi 500 definitely swings in the direction of computer.
IMO the target demographic of the Pi 500 are people who want, first and foremost, a desktop PC, but one that is well suited to hobbyist computing and/or computing education.
Yeah, if you JUST want to run a word processor, browser, etc. one of those N100 PC's might make more sense. If you open up an issue of MagPi magazine and feel inspired, then the Pi 500 might make more sense. And that's what it really comes down to. Is computing, itself, a hobby or interest to you, or not?
A lot of scorn for this latest offering from Pi, but I think perspective is important here. No, most of us here do not have a use for the Pi 500 or it's display, but in part so the world where a lightweight low-consumption device can open some doors for connectivity and learning, this looks like a great solution. We tend to forget that not everyone on the planet has the same resources or needs we do.
I do find HN threads about R-Pi products weigh heavily negative. Yet despite the apparent many major issues that keep getting pointed out R-Pi seems to keep going from strength to strength. Maybe they understand their own customers and their market better than commenters here?
> Maybe
Maybe, maybe not. Certainly not saying they don’t but do you think that’s true about every single company by default?
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I think the thing many are starting to feel that they are not cheap anymore. At least compared to some things like refurb laptops and such. Just recently saw 249€ Lenovo laptop with Ryzen 5 4500U, 16GB RAM and 480GB SSD. Not new, but still, more powerful and having storage too.
Yes, but that is true for basically every consumer product. Cars, electronics, you name it. "You can buy old restored/refurbished thing cheaper than a cheap brand new thing" is hardly a very insightful take. Does that mean that there is no market for "cheap brand new thing"?