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posted by takyon on Monday June 24 2019, @03:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the pie-4-u dept.

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B has been launched, despite months of tricky misdirection implying that it wouldn't be on the market until 2020. The technical specifications include two micro HDMI ports, two USB3 ports, two USB2 ports, dual band Wi-fi, Bluetooth 5, Gigabit Ethernet, and either 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of RAM. Power consumption is noticeably higher than similar earlier models and the power can be supplied over USBC.

From the spec sheet:

  • Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz
  • 1GB ($35), 2GB ($45), or 4GB LPDDR4-2400 SDRAM ($55)
  • 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz IEEE 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • 2 USB 3.0 ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports.
  • Raspberry Pi standard 40 pin GPIO header (fully backwards compatible with previous boards)
  • 2 × micro-HDMI ports (up to 4kp60 supported)
  • 2-lane MIPI DSI display port
  • 2-lane MIPI CSI camera port
  • 4-pole stereo audio and composite video port
  • H.265 (4kp60 decode), H264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode)
  • OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics
  • Micro-SD card slot for loading operating system and data storage
  • 5V DC via USB-C connector (minimum 3A*)
  • 5V DC via GPIO header (minimum 3A*)
  • Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled (requires separate PoE HAT)
  • Operating temperature: 0 – 50 degrees C ambient

takyon: Review at Tom's Hardware. Cons: "Key software doesn't work at launch, Poor high-res video playback". Cases for the previous Pi don't work due to the new micro-HDMI ports. Tom's measured nearly ten times better storage performance using one of the new USB 3.0 ports, and the gigabit Ethernet port can actually reach nearly 1 Gbps (943 Mbps vs. 237 Mbps for the previous model).

Also at The Verge and Ars Technica.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2Original Submission #3

 
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 24 2019, @06:34PM (5 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 24 2019, @06:34PM (#859447) Journal

    The keyboard and mouse are the least necessary items (IMO) in these complete kits. It's $20 in the complete kit or $25 separately [canakit.com].

    The way I see it:

    $55 RasPi 4GB
    $7 Micro-HDMI to HDMI
    $8 Power supply [canakit.com]
    $5 Case [pishop.us]
    $5 Heat sinks [canakit.com] (necessary?)

    That's $80. You get the Starter Kit [canakit.com] at $100. So $20 is for the 32 GB microSD. You can find a 128 GB Class 10 microSD for $17 [slickdeals.net]. Or you might already have a card and not need one.

    So that looks like the move. Spend $75-87 (heat sinks + 2 micro-HDMI cables), get microSD cards as needed or when they go on sale (you might want to store different OSes on different cards or something like that).

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 24 2019, @07:04PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 24 2019, @07:04PM (#859465)

    That's one way.... or, just call it cheap enough and buy as many as you need of whatever you need, plus 2 because they're cheap and you don't want to wait when you figure out a use for another one... optimizing the last 10% out of the cost might be fun, but is it a more valuable use of your time and effort than repeating "you want fries with that?" Especially in a $15/hr minimum wage state.

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    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 24 2019, @07:17PM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 24 2019, @07:17PM (#859469) Journal

      It does not take very long to figure out how to save some money here. The low price is obviously part of the attraction of RasPi, so it's better if we stay closer to that price. And if you are buying multiple units for various projects or to give to friends, family, or whomever, then those savings start to add up.

      Plz think of the poor (Gaaark).

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      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 24 2019, @08:37PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 24 2019, @08:37PM (#859497)

        Definitely, if I were equipping a school with 100 copies - but, here again, the selection of which monitor to pair them with would outweigh all the cost shaving considerations on the PI side.

        They make it easy enough to buy the parts ala carte.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @04:37AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @04:37AM (#865284)

    One of the dumbest things about the Pi is the lack of a power off/on button included. Turning it off is relatively easy, provided you can log in, but in order to turn it back on, you're stuck either power cycling it or getting a 3rd party button.

    It's kind of hard for me to believe that they still can't provide one built into the board. I realize that these are ultra cheap boards, but this is an unnecessary annoyance

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 10 2019, @04:51AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday July 10 2019, @04:51AM (#865286) Journal

      Read the new story. They goofed on the USB-C charge port.

      I'm thinking of getting a FLIRC case [flirc.tv] and an infrared receiver so it can be controlled with a remote (for Kodi). Maybe you could use a remote to turn the thing on and off?

      Anyway, I think a lot of people would have their RasPi 4 "desktop" on 24/7. I hardly ever turn computers off.

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