Interesting differences to the pi 3 io is the dual hdmi out.
I don't use the hdmi out very much on any of my pis so I find this interesting. Are people using these as workstations? Even with stripped down Debian they seem kind of slow even just browsing the web.
There's the Nexdock / Nexdock 2 [0], if to be believed that will be shipping later this year, And some other projects listed here in a Purism thread [1]
Is the opposite of what? Wrong variable was asking for a laptop without compute part to which they could strap a Pi. That’s exactly what the Nexdock is at least.
Looking at the 3 vs. 4, my eye went to the memory options—up to 4GB in the 4, versus 1GB in the 3—the USB 3 ports, and the fact that the 4 just says "Gigabit Ethernet", not "Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0". H.265 hardware decoding's pretty big too. Had made them a subpar choice for Kodi boxes and such for a while.
I... may be getting a few of these. I'd skipped the 3 on account of how the 2 turned out to be kind of a bust for me (have three, none in use...) but the faster IO and higher RAM options makes these one hell of a lot more useful. At 4GB you can kinda use the web, even, as long as you shy away from using more than one or two "web apps" (to include Electron) at a time.
[EDIT] sucked is harsh—it did what it said it would. It sucked if you actually wanted to use the Pi for serious IO of any kind. USB2.0 and Ethernet limited to USB2.0 speeds was no good at all for that.
I'm not sure how common it is to use it as a workstation, but I've seen a lot of instances where a pi is used to power displays in business settings. Think internal things like dashboards, team/company messages, project calendars, etc. As well as external facing things such as menu boards, "Welcome" messages behind front desks, building directories, etc.
Whether a pi is the most appropriate device for that is another matter, but it seems to be a frequent enough use. And being able to power dual screens in these scenarios would be really helpful.
That said, between the marketing messaging and this[1], it seems like they really are pushing it as a potential low-powered workstation. So maybe that is something people do...
It took a few years for me to accept this, but the ongoing commitment to continuing to make available most Raspberry Pis is a pretty compelling argument for many business purposes over using a random old used PC or a more powerful SBC that may not longer be available in a year. The development of specialized OS distributions for some of these tasks only furthers the strength of the choice for going with what could be otherwise under powered hardware.
I have one of the larger ones (3 usb + Ethernet). I received it as a gift and was originally skeptical of the usefulness of the usb ports vs the size tradeoff, but it turns out to be super useful. It stays on my desk with my mouse, keyboard, and printer plugged in, and acts as a pseudo-dock for my laptop. Very nice!
4GB RAM is a lot better than before, but I had hoped for 8GB. If the Raspi had a decent amount of RAM I would seriously consider using one as my main computer.
Your phone probably has a CPU which costs as much (or nearly as much as the Raspi itself). The Raspi CPUs are never the most sophisticated on the market. Odroid used to make SBCs with the same CPUs as flagship Samsung phones, and they cost $150-200 a board.
This looks like an awesome upgrade. These are the biggest highlights to me:
>The Ethernet controller on the main SoC is connected to an external Broadcom PHY over a dedicated RGMII link, providing full throughput. USB is provided via an external VLI controller, connected over a single PCI Express Gen 2 lane, and providing a total of 4Gbps of bandwidth, shared between the four ports.
>we’re using the Mesa “V3D” driver developed by Eric Anholt [...] It also eliminates roughly half of the lines of closed-source code in the platform.
I just bought a 3B+ 2 weeks ago and was running into issues with my server needing a bit more memory. Glad to see the 4GB option and I am going to get one of these and return the old one.
There are often better specs to buy but not with the same support and community - and that is worth a lot! However I'm not thrilled with the apparent price point of the new ones.
The prices I get are €46,83 – €66,96. Which I guess will settle a bit with time but it is a huge step up from any previous Pi.
depends on the RAM and extras. pure pi with 1gb and no power adapter/cable/case is still ~35€. the more expensive options are with either 4gb ram and/or bundles.
47 comments
[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 95.2 ms ] thread(submitted as: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20260863)
I don't use the hdmi out very much on any of my pis so I find this interesting. Are people using these as workstations? Even with stripped down Debian they seem kind of slow even just browsing the web.
(They need not be 4k, of course.)
Our project was to re create a classic game without using the OS, straight up programming on metal. So the HDMI was much needed.
I do not use my laptop's keyboard, mouse or monitor.
Everything is external for me.
A much more powerful rPi means it might be possible to ditch the laptop form factor for good.
The only missing piece of technology for me is a laptop body WITHOUT a compute core ( only screen and a cheap keyboard ).
So that I can attach a rPi at the back.
Linux runs very well on ARM, in relation to Intel. and the power consumption is tiny !
I can run an rPi on portable battery for days !
it would be really cool if I could attach, reattach multiple battery pack onto my laptop.
[0] http://nexdock.com/ [1] https://forums.puri.sm/t/librem-shell-idea-razer-project-lin...
I... may be getting a few of these. I'd skipped the 3 on account of how the 2 turned out to be kind of a bust for me (have three, none in use...) but the faster IO and higher RAM options makes these one hell of a lot more useful. At 4GB you can kinda use the web, even, as long as you shy away from using more than one or two "web apps" (to include Electron) at a time.
[EDIT] sucked is harsh—it did what it said it would. It sucked if you actually wanted to use the Pi for serious IO of any kind. USB2.0 and Ethernet limited to USB2.0 speeds was no good at all for that.
Raspberry Pi 3B: 94Mb/s Raspberry Pi 3B+: 285Mb/s Raspberry Pi 4B: 930Mb/s
https://twitter.com/ben_nuttall/status/1143037993957187584
Yes, you pick an RPi, an cheap but large 720p TV, and you've got an wireless dashboard device for under $200 and couple of hours spent setting it up.
Whether a pi is the most appropriate device for that is another matter, but it seems to be a frequent enough use. And being able to power dual screens in these scenarios would be really helpful.
That said, between the marketing messaging and this[1], it seems like they really are pushing it as a potential low-powered workstation. So maybe that is something people do...
[1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-desktop-...
Imagine the screens technicians at the lube center you get your oil changed at use to lookup your information.
I use ( usb -> ethernet ) for the rPi zero.
You even get ( usb -> ( ethernet, usb, usb , usb ) ) accessory, which is really cool.
>The Ethernet controller on the main SoC is connected to an external Broadcom PHY over a dedicated RGMII link, providing full throughput. USB is provided via an external VLI controller, connected over a single PCI Express Gen 2 lane, and providing a total of 4Gbps of bandwidth, shared between the four ports.
>we’re using the Mesa “V3D” driver developed by Eric Anholt [...] It also eliminates roughly half of the lines of closed-source code in the platform.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/...
> 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz IEEE 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
There are often better specs to buy but not with the same support and community - and that is worth a lot! However I'm not thrilled with the apparent price point of the new ones.
The prices I get are €46,83 – €66,96. Which I guess will settle a bit with time but it is a huge step up from any previous Pi.
Not happy with micro-HDMI though.