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Raspberry Pi 500+

raspberrypi.com

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Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#41

Post by XorNot »

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #16

What's the point of this? Where does it fit, who is it aimed at apart from Explaining Computers and good old Jeff Geerling (hiya Jeff!). Maybe if it has been designed into a retro style case or something? As it stands it's very hard to see who would want this.

This one has been on my radar as a first computer for my son for a while - just lock out the wifi and set it up with a "boot to basic" image maybe?

Certainly something which could grow to support some Arduino work.

EDIT: Admittedly this would be a no brainer if there was an off-the-shelf Atari ST style thing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST purely for the sheer mass providing some protection.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#43

Post by regularfry »

LiamPowell wrote: post #22

All the marketing for this advertises it as a desktop computer. What's the appeal of this compared to a cheaper and more powerful N150 NUC, or a used mini PC if it's for personal use where you just need one? A N150 has about twice the CPU performance, hardware video decoding that isn't crippled, and much more software built for its architecture among other things.

The appeal is the form factor, really. A decent amount of compute (not amazing, but decent) built into a decent mechanical keyboard (jury's out, but I'll believe the sales pitch until shown otherwise) is unusual.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#44

Post by indigo945 »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #17

I'm confused by the use case for this. The keyboard gets a cable running to a monitor. Might need a power cable as well but let's assume usbc covers both. An alternative is a raspberry pi on the vesa mount, or attached to the monitor arm. The cable to a keyboard is now optional, wireless USB being much easier than wireless displayport. Keyboard can now be flat too. When is this a good idea?

The marketing blurb that's linked makes it quite clear that this targets retro hobbyists, who want a modern take on the C64. It's not really meant to be a practical design.

It still is a more practical design than a flat keyboard, which only masochists would use willingly.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#45

Post by j45 »

birdalbrocum wrote: post #39

For 200€, you can get yourself an old Thinkpad, flash it with some coreboot variation, install a GNU/Linux distribution and in process you will learn more things and it is not an RGB keyboard; it is really an "all-in-one PC".

Yes, except the Pi is a throwback to the keyboard as entire computers:

- Commodore Vic 64 - Atari ST

Also, this was popular for kids during the pandemic.

I'd consider these pretty viable for kids setup with an apple ii emulator to start.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#47

Post by boredhedgehog »

LiamPowell wrote: post #22

All the marketing for this advertises it as a desktop computer. What's the appeal of this compared to a cheaper and more powerful N150 NUC, or a used mini PC if it's for personal use where you just need one? A N150 has about twice the CPU performance, hardware video decoding that isn't crippled, and much more software built for its architecture among other things.

It requires a separate keyboard, which means more space usage and more cables. And not sure, but I think the N150 has a fan, so more noise.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#48

Post by bluelightning2k »

This is impressive but really odd.

Isn't the entire point of Raspberry Pi to not be premium with a nice form factor, etc.

And why would I use a mechanical keyboard to drive the type of workload I'd be doing on a Pi.

Seems like they've taken super opposite and incompatible parts of PC use-cases and combined them in a really odd way.

Great industrial design. Which again isn't something I'd want from a Pi. But at the same time we all appreciate.

I kind of like it but do find it baffling.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#49

Post by jsheard »

boredhedgehog wrote: post #47
LiamPowell wrote: post #22

All the marketing for this advertises it as a desktop computer. What's the appeal of this compared to a cheaper and more powerful N150 NUC, or a used mini PC if it's for personal use where you just need one? A N150 has about twice the CPU performance, hardware video decoding that isn't crippled, and much more software built for its architecture among other things.

It requires a separate keyboard, which means more space usage and more cables. And not sure, but I think the N150 has a fan, so more noise.

N150 machines come with or without fans, the chip is cool enough to run passively with a decent heatsink.

e.g. https://www.minix.com.hk/products/minix-z150-0db-fanless-min...

The ones with fans tend to be cheaper and have better sustained performance though.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#50

Post by regularfry »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #17

I'm confused by the use case for this. The keyboard gets a cable running to a monitor. Might need a power cable as well but let's assume usbc covers both. An alternative is a raspberry pi on the vesa mount, or attached to the monitor arm. The cable to a keyboard is now optional, wireless USB being much easier than wireless displayport. Keyboard can now be flat too. When is this a good idea?

So if they had made one change, it would be fantastic as a throw-in-the-backpack computer.

That change would be to support display port alt-mode on a USB-C port, rather than only having mini-HDMI. If they'd done that, you could plug AR glasses like the XReal One straight into it, and not need a separate screen. Your entire compute becomes a keyboard+power, glasses, and wireless mouse. That would be really nice: two cables, total, one for power to the pi and one from the pi to the glasses.

As it is, you need an hdmi to usb-c converter, which also needs to be powered, another couple of cables, and more of a setup faff each time. It sounds minor, but it's a missed opportunity. For me it turns it from "take my money" to "eh... I can do better."

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