Raspberry Pi 5 2GB Launches At $50 USD

[caligula]

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.

RPi is the way to go for most users. It's really hard to set up redis or pi hole without dual 4k or 8k outputs. Preferably 120 Hz HDR with CEC. Pirate boards from Orange Pi won't have any Linux support ever, even after somebody paid for bootlin to do it because those crap pants can't write drivers unlike Eben Upton and RPi trading. Raspberry is over 100% full open source hardware and software and there is 101% full mainline Linux and Mesa support for the latest Vulkan and AVX512 technologies before the launch of new model. Eben Upton is so sweet - not only is his dick huge as hell and tasty - but he likes to reveal all the tech specs and driver code of the coming hardware before the official release. Many users who advertise RPi also get lots of good karma on forums like this.

Rpi is also immune to hardware faults. No model reboots when adding USB devices or if you take photos of the SoC. Their USB is 100% according to USB PD specs and supports all the fast charge standards. Also the gigabit ethernet is not only one gigabit but usually exceeds the spec. Eben Upton even made USB faster by tunneling gigabit ethernet over USB 2. Crazy how handsome and intelligent he is.

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.

8 GB is ok for headless. Nowadays there are small Intel systems with many cores and up to 64 GB of SODIMM support. E.g. see odroid devices and NUC boxes. It's really hard to imagine why anyone would want less than 8 GB when flashing LEDs or running home assistant.

[Phil995511]

No, they still overheat. You have to downclock the chip and/or limit the runtime of your software, which is backwards. And the power draw is so high that one either has to have a power line nearby or triple the battery packs, which is just as ugly. You also cannot use PoE but now need PoE+ when you want to power it over ethernet. Want to use it with a solar panel? Think again. You cannot use it in a closed box, next to other devices, or other tight spaces where there is no airflow. It is just a failed design for an SBC. The chip may be great for a settop box, but nobody really asked for a settop box. People still want an SBC that is easy to work with and versatile, which is what the R-Pi 3 and 4 were. R-Pi 5 at best fills a niche, but it is not an improvement over R-Pi 3 and 4. It brings too many problems for being a quick and simple drop-in replacement for those. R-Pi 5 is far less useful, competes with mini ITX, and I rather get me an AMD mini ITX before I bother with the R-Pi 5.

I have a RPi5 running in a Flirc fanless case for Raspberry Pi 5. I have no complaints, it works perfectly !!! The ED-Pi5 Case-B is recommended for add-on cards...

In normal use as a music server, it heats up to 44°C at an ambient temperature of 27°C.

If I use it to watch 1080p movies (cpu @ +/- 55 %) on my 44-inch screen, everything works perfectly there too.

In the 8 months I've had it, I've never encountered any slowdowns due to high temperatures, nor any other problems.

I am very disappointed by its too high price, by its too slow CPU of only 4 cores which is roughly engraved in 16 nm. But in use it does what it was designed for, without the slightest problem !!!

You seem to be looking for problems where there are none... ;-(

[pong]

No, they still overheat. You have to downclock the chip and/or limit the runtime of your software, which is backwards. And the power draw is so high that one either has to have a power line nearby or triple the battery packs, which is just as ugly. You also cannot use PoE but now need PoE+ when you want to power it over ethernet. Want to use it with a solar panel? Think again. You cannot use it in a closed box, next to other devices, or other tight spaces where there is no airflow. It is just a failed design for an SBC. The chip may be great for a settop box, but nobody really asked for a settop box. People still want an SBC that is easy to work with and versatile, which is what the R-Pi 3 and 4 were. R-Pi 5 at best fills a niche, but it is not an improvement over R-Pi 3 and 4. It brings too many problems for being a quick and simple drop-in replacement for those. R-Pi 5 is far less useful, competes with mini ITX, and I rather get me an AMD mini ITX before I bother with the R-Pi 5.

Overheating by default without active power consumption limiting throttling plus whatever active / significant cooling has apparently become the new normal. Look at the Ryzen AI 9 mobile chips and their reviews, for instance, the designers plop
them into whatever overall system design they want and the peak performance can be quite high but the sustained
performance varies wildly depending on the amount of throttling vs. cooling power dissipation available. TDP 15-54W!

And it's not different with smartphones (more similar to where these SOCs come from) -- look at all the reports of
phones with some kind of SW bug getting too hot to literally safely touch, draining the whole battery in NN minutes, etc.

Most of the power consumption in a CPU / SOC is related to active switching clock rates / usages in the CPU and its
peripherals, RAM, etc. -- proportional to clock rate and amount of enabled "stuff" being clocked.

The ultimate performance limit is often based on thermal limits moreso than anything else. So it's "normal" to see chips that
can easily exceed 100C temperature if you feed them their peak specified voltages and clocks and give them a hard workload.

It'd be NICE if we had energy efficient cool running technology but if we can't have that then I guess it's at least good to have
scalable technology where you CAN clock it higher and get more sustained performance if you're willing to cool it more effectively.

Part of the problem is of course integration, trying to cram almost every aspect of functionality into a die / package a couple square cm in size, if that. Back when things weren't so integrated you'd have a whole card or chassis with lots of distributed few watts here, few watts there, etc. and have hundreds of Watts total over a large area. Now that's mostly all dissipated in a 20mm x 20mm BGA package that's 4 mm from your palm / lap or whatever and an effective heatsink / fan would be way larger / thicker than many people "expect" their whole tablet / phone / laptop to be in total.

So we get a burst of peak performance until T_J_MAX is hit, the clocks fold back to 20% of peak or whatever until it sustains whatever performance keeps it from exceeding 70C or whatever.

[sdack]

I have a RPi5 running in a Flirc fanless case for Raspberry Pi 5. I have no complaints, it works perfectly !!! The ED-Pi5 Case-B is recommended for add-on cards...

In normal use as a music server, it heats up to 44°C at an ambient temperature of 27°C.

If I use it to watch 1080p movies (cpu @ +/- 55 %) on my 44-inch screen, everything works perfectly there too.

A Pi Zero can do all that!! A mobile phone can do this. If this is what you use the R-Pi 5 for then you are plain and simple a noob. Go stand in a corner and be ashamed.

[Phil995511]

Un Pi Zero peut faire tout ça !! Un téléphone portable peut le faire. Si c'est pour cela que vous utilisez le R-Pi 5, alors vous êtes tout simplement un noob. Allez vous mettre dans un coin et ayez honte.

I don't know what your problem is but you should go see a shrink...

[monkeynut]

Ars article seems to support power consumption drop: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024...testing-shows/

Wonder if it's worth Michael picking one up and doing some benches?

[AkulaMD]

Ars article seems to support power consumption drop: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024...testing-shows/

Wonder if it's worth Michael picking one up and doing some benches?

The article was just rephrasing the results from geerling's review.