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The Raspberry Pi 4 is a capable, inexpensive, and flexible computer that you can get right to work with. So are many other competitive computers namely Chromebooks. The killer application for the Raspberry pi is flexible and explorable. This is the fun of the Raspberry Pi 4. Stem for kids, Full Internet capabilities for adults and work, and a side chance to explore FOSS software on Linux if Redmond and Cupertine Software companies are starting to bug you. Oh, and you can do this set up for $50 to $125. Less if you have a micro HDMI to HDMI cable, a keyboard, and mouse, a MicroSD card,2 decent sized USB storage device, “32GB Fat32 formated” and up. It is assumed that you have an HDMI capable TV or Monitor and another computer to copy files onto the aforementioned storage.
For a small tangent and feel free to skip this paragraph. If you have another project in mind you can sacrifice some flexibility and get the raspberry pi zero with wifi for about 15 bucks. Add in an SD card and you are done. But those who go this route almost always started with the bigger setup above and are buying this pi zero as your second hobby computer. Single-use projects are many for the Pi. Security cameras, do it yourself go pros, A NAS server, an automated Led notifier, and house or garden automation are just a few. But for this article, we are focused on a desktop replacement.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 with an aluminum heatsink and fan case. I have a keyboard and mouse. I have a computer monitor. I have a male micro HDMI cord to a regular male HDMI. A wallplug 3 amp 5.1 volt to type C power supply.
I have a surge protector to power monitors, external hard drives, Hdmi Switches, Web Cams, etc. The most the computer will power is a jumpdrive or two, my SSD, keyboard and mouse, headphones out of the audio jack and the HDMI port. The HDMI is the default sound output, but I am using an HDMI switch for my monitor and that blocks the sound apparently. I wish markdown had a disgusted emoji.
Undervolting your pi will cause all sorts of difficult to diagnose problems and much frustration. I tried to plug in two USB hard drives at once. 5 hours of things running like crap. And I had been through similar problems on the Pi version 3 and It still didn’t dawn on me what the issue was. Learn from my mistake. 5 hours of your time is $50 to $500. That is enough to buy a more expensive solution so let us just read the documentation here for 10 mins to find the don’ts. A sufficient power supply and a powered no backflow USB hub solve a multitude of problems. Or just be careful what you plug in and power as much stuff as you can off of other devices. A hard drive case with its own power source for example.
Let us see, my keyboard came with the Pi Computer kit, I would value keyboard and mouse at 14 dollars. The less powerful the keyboard the better. Don’t let RGB kill your Pi minimalist experience. A monitor is 100 dollars on sale. An HDMI cable for $7.99 is at amazon. Surge protector from Walmart is $15. I got mine on clearance for $8.
Heat is an issue with the latest version 4 Pi so a good case is worth it at $12.99. This is like my case, but a good upgrade would be one that has a built-in hat for an SSD. I bought an internal drive and bought a USB c to USB C housing for it. Now if you want to pay $40 for this totally awesome NES Pi case with a Nintendo cartage (holds your harddrive). Or pay $ 26 for a stealth unobtrusive case like this. That last case has a couple of asterisks so read the fine print, of wifi, and of the configuration of pi 4 B only.
We are going to be multibooting this pi so a single 32 GB card isn’t going to work for me. I chose the fastest hard drive and a case. That’s $23.99 for the SSD encloser and $62 for the m.2 (hardware format) NVMe (protocol) 500GB (capacity) SSD (solid-state memory Hard Drive).
A slower and cheaper combo, case $13 and harddrive $53 could work. That is a SATA (protocol) m.2 2280 (hardware form factor) case and a SATA m.2 2280 500GB SSD.
Or the venerable 2.5in laptop Sata hardrive $53 that you have lying around, and a cable $7.99 to connect it.
Keep in mind that the last 3 paragraphs are not evergreen. Links, prices, and availability change rapidly. A quick reference on youtube might be just the thing.
The OS will be installed on your USB media with my method of multiboot. But it still needs a MicroSD card $8 with the files the Raspberry Pi looks for to boot. This is not set in stone but if your reading this it might as well be because I am not covering other advanced boot techniques. Network boot and boot off of USB is out of scope for this blog. To be truthful I have never done it. Berryboot works so well for me.
The SBC (single-board computer) itself. I have the 4GB ram version. There is a 2GB ram and 8GB ram version. There is also the Raspberry Pi 400 computer in a keyboard.
If you have most of this stuff then buying the 55 dollar computer and 12 dollar case and plugging into your tv is the way to go. Wireless mouse and keyboard recommended for big TVs. If you have a monitor at a desk then I think the best value might be that Pi 400 kit for $100.
The absolute cheapest setup and still run that multiboot Berryboot you can rob a keyboard and mouse from your other computer that you copy files from or go to a thrift store, buy the 2gb pi $35,buy the hdmi cord $7.99, buy your memory $8 64GB jumpdrive and 8 dollar MircoSD, and rob your usb c phone cord with a high powered 3Amp wall block. Use the TV. That’s about $55. Plug in (this order) HDMI, SD memory card, keyboard mouse, power. Power goes last.
We are going to have to adjourn for part 2 in another blog. I feel covering the materials is going to have to be Part 1. This is long enough.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is a capable, inexpensive, and flexible computer that you can get right to work with. So are many other competitive computers namely Chromebooks. The killer application for the Raspberry pi is flexible and explorable. This is the fun of the Raspberry Pi 4. Stem for kids, Full Internet capabilities for adults and work, and a side chance to explore FOSS software on Linux if Redmond and Cupertine Software companies are starting to bug you. Oh, and you can do this set up for $50 to $125. Less if you have a micro HDMI to HDMI cable, a keyboard, and mouse, a MicroSD card,2 decent sized USB storage device, “32GB Fat32 formated” and up. It is assumed that you have an HDMI capable TV or Monitor and another computer to copy files onto the aforementioned storage.
For a small tangent and feel free to skip this paragraph. If you have another project in mind you can sacrifice some flexibility and get the raspberry pi zero with wifi for about 15 bucks. Add in an SD card and you are done. But those who go this route almost always started with the bigger setup above and are buying this pi zero as your second hobby computer. Single-use projects are many for the Pi. Security cameras, do it yourself go pros, A NAS server, an automated Led notifier, and house or garden automation are just a few. But for this article, we are focused on a desktop replacement.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 with an aluminum heatsink and fan case. I have a keyboard and mouse. I have a computer monitor. I have a male micro HDMI cord to a regular male HDMI. A wallplug 3 amp 5.1 volt to type C power supply.
I have a surge protector to power monitors, external hard drives, Hdmi Switches, Web Cams, etc. The most the computer will power is a jumpdrive or two, my SSD, keyboard and mouse, headphones out of the audio jack and the HDMI port. The HDMI is the default sound output, but I am using an HDMI switch for my monitor and that blocks the sound apparently. I wish markdown had a disgusted emoji.
Undervolting your pi will cause all sorts of difficult to diagnose problems and much frustration. I tried to plug in two USB hard drives at once. 5 hours of things running like crap. And I had been through similar problems on the Pi version 3 and It still didn’t dawn on me what the issue was. Learn from my mistake. 5 hours of your time is $50 to $500. That is enough to buy a more expensive solution so let us just read the documentation here for 10 mins to find the don’ts. A sufficient power supply and a powered no backflow USB hub solve a multitude of problems. Or just be careful what you plug in and power as much stuff as you can off of other devices. A hard drive case with its own power source for example.
Let us see, my keyboard came with the Pi Computer kit, I would value keyboard and mouse at 14 dollars. The less powerful the keyboard the better. Don’t let RGB kill your Pi minimalist experience. A monitor is 100 dollars on sale. An HDMI cable for $7.99 is at amazon. Surge protector from Walmart is $15. I got mine on clearance for $8.
Heat is an issue with the latest version 4 Pi so a good case is worth it at $12.99. This is like my case, but a good upgrade would be one that has a built-in hat for an SSD. I bought an internal drive and bought a USB c to USB C housing for it. Now if you want to pay $40 for this totally awesome NES Pi case with a Nintendo cartage (holds your harddrive). Or pay $ 26 for a stealth unobtrusive case like this. That last case has a couple of asterisks so read the fine print, of wifi, and of the configuration of pi 4 B only.
We are going to be multibooting this pi so a single 32 GB card isn’t going to work for me. I chose the fastest hard drive and a case. That’s $23.99 for the SSD encloser and $62 for the m.2 (hardware format) NVMe (protocol) 500GB (capacity) SSD (solid-state memory Hard Drive).
A slower and cheaper combo, case $13 and harddrive $53 could work. That is a SATA (protocol) m.2 2280 (hardware form factor) case and a SATA m.2 2280 500GB SSD.
Or the venerable 2.5in laptop Sata hardrive $53 that you have lying around, and a cable $7.99 to connect it.
Keep in mind that the last 3 paragraphs are not evergreen. Links, prices, and availability change rapidly. A quick reference on youtube might be just the thing.
The OS will be installed on your USB media with my method of multiboot. But it still needs a MicroSD card $8 with the files the Raspberry Pi looks for to boot. This is not set in stone but if your reading this it might as well be because I am not covering other advanced boot techniques. Network boot and boot off of USB is out of scope for this blog. To be truthful I have never done it. Berryboot works so well for me.
The SBC (single-board computer) itself. I have the 4GB ram version. There is a 2GB ram and 8GB ram version. There is also the Raspberry Pi 400 computer in a keyboard.
If you have most of this stuff then buying the 55 dollar computer and 12 dollar case and plugging into your tv is the way to go. Wireless mouse and keyboard recommended for big TVs. If you have a monitor at a desk then I think the best value might be that Pi 400 kit for $100.
The absolute cheapest setup and still run that multiboot Berryboot you can rob a keyboard and mouse from your other computer that you copy files from or go to a thrift store, buy the 2gb pi $35,buy the hdmi cord $7.99, buy your memory $8 64GB jumpdrive and 8 dollar MircoSD, and rob your usb c phone cord with a high powered 3Amp wall block. Use the TV. That’s about $55. Plug in (this order) HDMI, SD memory card, keyboard mouse, power. Power goes last.
We are going to have to adjourn for part 2 in another blog. I feel covering the materials is going to have to be Part 1. This is long enough.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is a capable, inexpensive, and flexible computer that you can get right to work with. So are many other competitive computers namely Chromebooks. The killer application for the Raspberry pi is flexible and explorable. This is the fun of the Raspberry Pi 4. Stem for kids, Full Internet capabilities for adults and work, and a side chance to explore FOSS software on Linux if Redmond and Cupertine Software companies are starting to bug you. Oh, and you can do this set up for $50 to $125. Less if you have a micro HDMI to HDMI cable, a keyboard, and mouse, a MicroSD card,2 decent sized USB storage device, “32GB Fat32 formated” and up. It is assumed that you have an HDMI capable TV or Monitor and another computer to copy files onto the aforementioned storage.
For a small tangent and feel free to skip this paragraph. If you have another project in mind you can sacrifice some flexibility and get the raspberry pi zero with wifi for about 15 bucks. Add in an SD card and you are done. But those who go this route almost always started with the bigger setup above and are buying this pi zero as your second hobby computer. Single-use projects are many for the Pi. Security cameras, do it yourself go pros, A NAS server, an automated Led notifier, and house or garden automation are just a few. But for this article, we are focused on a desktop replacement.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 with an aluminum heatsink and fan case. I have a keyboard and mouse. I have a computer monitor. I have a male micro HDMI cord to a regular male HDMI. A wallplug 3 amp 5.1 volt to type C power supply.
I have a surge protector to power monitors, external hard drives, Hdmi Switches, Web Cams, etc. The most the computer will power is a jumpdrive or two, my SSD, keyboard and mouse, headphones out of the audio jack and the HDMI port. The HDMI is the default sound output, but I am using an HDMI switch for my monitor and that blocks the sound apparently. I wish markdown had a disgusted emoji.
Undervolting your pi will cause all sorts of difficult to diagnose problems and much frustration. I tried to plug in two USB hard drives at once. 5 hours of things running like crap. And I had been through similar problems on the Pi version 3 and It still didn’t dawn on me what the issue was. Learn from my mistake. 5 hours of your time is $50 to $500. That is enough to buy a more expensive solution so let us just read the documentation here for 10 mins to find the don’ts. A sufficient power supply and a powered no backflow USB hub solve a multitude of problems. Or just be careful what you plug in and power as much stuff as you can off of other devices. A hard drive case with its own power source for example.
Let us see, my keyboard came with the Pi Computer kit, I would value keyboard and mouse at 14 dollars. The less powerful the keyboard the better. Don’t let RGB kill your Pi minimalist experience. A monitor is 100 dollars on sale. An HDMI cable for $7.99 is at amazon. Surge protector from Walmart is $15. I got mine on clearance for $8.
Heat is an issue with the latest version 4 Pi so a good case is worth it at $12.99. This is like my case, but a good upgrade would be one that has a built-in hat for an SSD. I bought an internal drive and bought a USB c to USB C housing for it. Now if you want to pay $40 for this totally awesome NES Pi case with a Nintendo cartage (holds your harddrive). Or pay $ 26 for a stealth unobtrusive case like this. That last case has a couple of asterisks so read the fine print, of wifi, and of the configuration of pi 4 B only.
We are going to be multibooting this pi so a single 32 GB card isn’t going to work for me. I chose the fastest hard drive and a case. That’s $23.99 for the SSD encloser and $62 for the m.2 (hardware format) NVMe (protocol) 500GB (capacity) SSD (solid-state memory Hard Drive).
A slower and cheaper combo, case $13 and harddrive $53 could work. That is a SATA (protocol) m.2 2280 (hardware form factor) case and a SATA m.2 2280 500GB SSD.
Or the venerable 2.5in laptop Sata hardrive $53 that you have lying around, and a cable $7.99 to connect it.
Keep in mind that the last 3 paragraphs are not evergreen. Links, prices, and availability change rapidly. A quick reference on youtube might be just the thing.
The OS will be installed on your USB media with my method of multiboot. But it still needs a MicroSD card $8 with the files the Raspberry Pi looks for to boot. This is not set in stone but if your reading this it might as well be because I am not covering other advanced boot techniques. Network boot and boot off of USB is out of scope for this blog. To be truthful I have never done it. Berryboot works so well for me.
The SBC (single-board computer) itself. I have the 4GB ram version. There is a 2GB ram and 8GB ram version. There is also the Raspberry Pi 400 computer in a keyboard.
If you have most of this stuff then buying the 55 dollar computer and 12 dollar case and plugging into your tv is the way to go. Wireless mouse and keyboard recommended for big TVs. If you have a monitor at a desk then I think the best value might be that Pi 400 kit for $100.
The absolute cheapest setup and still run that multiboot Berryboot you can rob a keyboard and mouse from your other computer that you copy files from or go to a thrift store, buy the 2gb pi $35,buy the hdmi cord $7.99, buy your memory $8 64GB jumpdrive and 8 dollar MircoSD, and rob your usb c phone cord with a high powered 3Amp wall block. Use the TV. That’s about $55. Plug in (this order) HDMI, SD memory card, keyboard mouse, power. Power goes last.
We are going to have to adjourn for part 2 in another blog. I feel covering the materials is going to have to be Part 1. This is long enough.