Raspberry Pi 5 2GB Launches At $50 USD

[rclark]

If I needed another RPI, I'd get the 2GB. Looking at a couple of my RPI-5s, one is using 500 Meg. The other 199Meg. 2GB (or 1GB) would be plenty of RAM. All of mine run headless anyway. I like the RPIs and Pico boards and will continue to use them. Not 'that' expensive.

[schmidtbag]

If I needed another RPI, I'd get the 2GB. Looking at a couple of my RPI-5s, one is using 500 Meg. The other 199Meg. 2GB (or 1GB) would be plenty of RAM. All of mine run headless anyway. I like the RPIs and Pico boards and will continue to use them. Not 'that' expensive.

Well if you're going to run headless, you can get a lot more bang for buck from a wide variety of alternatives. Most of the alternatives are unappealing only because they lack decent GPU support, but everything else works totally fine. There are a variety of boards out there with the RK3588, which has a lot more power and capabilities but isn't that much more expensive. I use one of these (just 4GB) for my home server and I don't see myself replacing it for years.

[L_A_G]

Raspberry sucks, it used to be cheap, now it is expensive...

Its a pretty good example of how people are always going to come up with reasons to complain. When the first ones launched people lamented about how slow they were, being based on what amounted to an SoC built for set-top boxes and the graphics basically being an overgrown video decoder. Well, responding to this they've made them more and more capable (multiple large ARM cores, on-chip gigabit ethernet, PCIe, etc.) which will obviously push up the cost and the power draw.

So people naturally now complain that they draw too much power (four A76's obviously draw more than a single ARM11 core) and cost too much. Even thou that original 2012 $35 with inflation is now about $50 and they've introduced much cheaper embedded variants for times when you don't need the whole hog so to speak.

[rclark]

Most of the alternatives are unappealing only because they lack decent GPU support,...

Maybe, but I like the software support. The PI OS just works. Tapping into the GPIO is easy. Hats are available to do different things, 'English' documentation is great, etc... One of my RPI-5s is running my PDP 11/70 (1/3 scale) front panel which requires an RPI and works seamlessly. Of course, I also use it as my PI-Hole, redis server, and other things. No, I'll stick with RPIs. Comfortable with them and do what I want them to do.

[You-]

Well if you're going to run headless, you can get a lot more bang for buck from a wide variety of alternatives. Most of the alternatives are unappealing only because they lack decent GPU support, but everything else works totally fine. There are a variety of boards out there with the RK3588, which has a lot more power and capabilities but isn't that much more expensive. I use one of these (just 4GB) for my home server and I don't see myself replacing it for years.

The rk3588 based stuff should be finally in a good upstream place by the end of the year. We just need the HDMI support to make it useable for desktop tinkerers. (for non-desktop tinkerers they muight not even need that).

But in comparison, Raspberry pi also doesnt do great with upstreaming. i dont think the Pi4 wifi stack is upstream yet

[schmidtbag]

Maybe, but I like the software support. The PI OS just works. Tapping into the GPIO is easy. Hats are available to do different things, 'English' documentation is great, etc... One of my RPI-5s is running my PDP 11/70 (1/3 scale) front panel which requires an RPI and works seamlessly. Of course, I also use it as my PI-Hole, redis server, and other things. No, I'll stick with RPIs. Comfortable with them and do what I want them to do.

I've used a wide variety of ARM platforms with minimal fuss; if there's an armbian image, you can feel pretty confident it'll work well. I've never really had any issues with GPIO on any of the platforms I've tried, and some of them are even meant to be RPi compatible.

To each their own I guess, but I honestly think you're missing out.

[sdack]

Its a pretty good example of how people are always going to come up with reasons to complain. When the first ones launched people lamented about how slow they were, being based on what amounted to an SoC built for set-top boxes and the graphics basically being an overgrown video decoder. Well, responding to this they've made them more and more capable (multiple large ARM cores, on-chip gigabit ethernet, PCIe, etc.) which will obviously push up the cost and the power draw.

So people naturally now complain that they draw too much power (four A76's obviously draw more than a single ARM11 core) and cost too much. Even thou that original 2012 $35 with inflation is now about $50 and they've introduced much cheaper embedded variants for times when you don't need the whole hog so to speak.

These are not the same people! The people who said it does not have enough power simply did not buy R-Pi. Those who did buy them were the ones who were happy with it. They are simply trying to expand their market share with the R-Pi 5, but the R-Pi 5 may on paper look like an improvement but in reality is it a hot mess of a design. Those who want more power will continue to only want more. The new downsized version of the R-Pi 5 might finally please those who were already happy with the R-Pi 3 and 4, but if the power draw does not come down and it has to be actively cooled then it remains a messy design for an SBC.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

This seems like one of those cases where you'll get that $10 back by opting for the 4GB model if you decide to sell the thing eventually.

[L_A_G]

These are not the same people! The people who said it does not have enough power simply did not buy R-Pi.

Not based on my experiences. A lot of people bought them, tried them out and concluded that they didn't have the performance for the use cases they envisioned. Another group found the performance sufficient, but would've wanted even more. Technology is always moving forward and the RPi is no exception to this. The people complaining are really just complaining for the sake of complaining when almost all the use cases for the older models are now better served by the Zero and Pico models. Not to mention the fact that the old models they were so enamored with are still available new.

Its literally "AAH! You can't release these new models with more performance than I need! I don't care about cheaper lower performance or older still available models!" and its stupid. It's like complaining when Intel launched the original Pentium that they're too hot and power hungry while 486s and 386 were available in lower end and embedded format for over a decade.

The Pi5 also only needs active cooling at the higher frequencies. If that performance is overkill for you then run it at a lower frequency and it'll happily run with passive cooling.

[SinisterPisces]

Hope we'll eventually see revisions of the 4 GB and 8 GB boards that use the new stepping, with lower MSRPs.