Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation
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As soon as you start adding stuff to the Raspberry PI 4 it stops making economic sense as a "workstation".
The 2GB or 4GB version with the cheapest case, power supply and SD-card still makes sense.
But when you add extras to be able to use SSDs and other stuff, you get into the same price range as lower end Intel NUCs and similar mini PCs. Unfortunately the raspberry pi 4 is not as fast and doesn't came with 3 year warranty etc. So it's less value for money.
If you on the other hand want a RPi4 to play around with ARM or to tinker with raspberry pi HATs and other hardware accessories, then of course it's the only choice.
Our go to for these use cases (low cost) has been Intel's J3455.
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@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@Dashrender said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@Obsolesce said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@Obsolesce said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@JaredBusch said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
This case: https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Aluminum-Heatsink-Supports/dp/B07WP8WC3V
Witth the m.2 add on: https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Board-Expansion-ONLY/dp/B08MHYWJCP$25 + $20 = a real sexy workstation case.
m.2 storage connected via USB?
Yes, USB3 is fast enough to do it. It's done a lot. I've got an external of that right here.
Yeah for sure it will work. It's just depending on the type you get (really the only reason I would care to have one), I was thinking the 2k - 3500+ MB/s speeds being limited by the speeds you see with USB3 it's kind of a waste.
On the other hand, if you get a cheapo one, the way it fits together and all is pretty nice.
Likely only works with SSD type M.2 drives, not the super fast ones.
What are "SSD" type? SSD isn't a type of M2. M2 is typically either SATA or NVMe as the interfaces for the SSD. Both of those work on the RP.
I meant SATA, my bad.
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I have been experimenting with the NEO case with the Pi4 for warehouse workers. It has been just ok so far. It lacks a power button and some things have a bit of a dwell time to get rolling. Most of the lag seems to be at app startup, so I am hoping an m.2 will make it "feel" more responsive to users.
Temperatures are acceptable even if overclocked to 2000. I did a torture test and could not get it above 62c. -
@jclambert said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
I have been experimenting with the NEO case with the Pi4 for warehouse workers. It has been just ok so far. It lacks a power button and some things have a bit of a dwell time to get rolling. Most of the lag seems to be at app startup, so I am hoping an m.2 will make it "feel" more responsive to users.
Temperatures are acceptable even if overclocked to 2000. I did a torture test and could not get it above 62c.Interesting about the power button, the little things you don't realize you miss until they are gone. Pulling the power cord just never seems as clean for a simple power off/reboot.
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@Dashrender said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@jclambert said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
I have been experimenting with the NEO case with the Pi4 for warehouse workers. It has been just ok so far. It lacks a power button and some things have a bit of a dwell time to get rolling. Most of the lag seems to be at app startup, so I am hoping an m.2 will make it "feel" more responsive to users.
Temperatures are acceptable even if overclocked to 2000. I did a torture test and could not get it above 62c.Interesting about the power button, the little things you don't realize you miss until they are gone. Pulling the power cord just never seems as clean for a simple power off/reboot.
The case I linked has one for that reason.
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Not used a Pi for a while.
What happens when you issue a halt -p type command? Does it power the Pi off like a normal machine, then pulling the power in/out is then needed to power back up? -
@hobbit666 said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
What happens when you issue a halt -p type command? Does it power the Pi off like a normal machine, then pulling the power in/out is then needed to power back up?
IF you don't have a power button, yes. But you can have a normal power button, too.
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@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@hobbit666 said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
What happens when you issue a halt -p type command? Does it power the Pi off like a normal machine, then pulling the power in/out is then needed to power back up?
IF you don't have a power button, yes. But you can have a normal power button, too.
The one on the Argon case actually sends a shutdown command according to their documentation.
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@JaredBusch Looks to be available today
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Thanks @Scottalanmiller, this is the "review" I was looking for, I want to buy a device for lightweight office use and a windows 10 device seems "overkill" to me for what but especially how often I need to use it, so maybe a raspberry pi 4 8 GB with an argon m2 case without overclock should be fine for me, right?
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@scottalanmiller Looks and sound awesome i will give it try see how it goes.
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@itivan80 said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@scottalanmiller Looks and sound awesome i will give it try see how it goes.
We have several of these now!
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@greyzard said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
Thanks @Scottalanmiller, this is the "review" I was looking for, I want to buy a device for lightweight office use and a windows 10 device seems "overkill" to me for what but especially how often I need to use it, so maybe a raspberry pi 4 8 GB with an argon m2 case without overclock should be fine for me, right?
That should be fine. BUT more likely, the RP400 will be better. $70 and it includes the case. It's only 4GB instead of 8GB, which sucks. But that means that you can run the lighter 32bit OS version that is faster AND it is already overclocked and includes a massive passive heatsink.
When I wrote the original I think the 400 wasn't out yet. Now, it is all that we buy. It's a huge (but simple) improvement on the original 4.
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@scottalanmiller there is only one little problem: we have already bought a keyboard and a mouse with backlight! So, if I can use a raspberry pi 4 8 GB it would be perfect for me, or would you prefer a 4 GB still with the argon m2 case?
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@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
But that means that you can run the lighter 32bit OS version that is faster AND it is already overclocked and includes a massive passive heatsink.
But the web browser plus whatever else is running in addition to the OS will still eat up what's left of the RAM pretty easily I would think. My phone uses more than 4g of ram easily.
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@greyzard said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@scottalanmiller there is only one little problem: we have already bought a keyboard and a mouse with backlight! So, if I can use a raspberry pi 4 8 GB it would be perfect for me, or would you prefer a 4 GB still with the argon m2 case?
I'd use the 8GB if I was using my own case. But why not just use the keyboard elsewhere.
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@obsolesce said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
But that means that you can run the lighter 32bit OS version that is faster AND it is already overclocked and includes a massive passive heatsink.
But the web browser plus whatever else is running in addition to the OS will still eat up what's left of the RAM pretty easily I would think. My phone uses more than 4g of ram easily.
It doesn't. Running a web browser on 4GB really works fine.
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@obsolesce said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
But that means that you can run the lighter 32bit OS version that is faster AND it is already overclocked and includes a massive passive heatsink.
But the web browser plus whatever else is running in addition to the OS will still eat up what's left of the RAM pretty easily I would think. My phone uses more than 4g of ram easily.
Not really. It's actually hard to use up the 4GB RAM on the RPI4 as a normal user. Remember that everything running on it is lean, like LXDE for example.
https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/raspberry-pi-4-8gb-tested
I'd say that if you're happy with the RPI4 performance as a desktop then there's a 95% chance that 4GB RAM will be enough.
If you're a power user then RPI4 is too slow and you'll probably looking at something with at least 16GB RAM anyway.
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@pete-s said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@obsolesce said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Raspberry Pi 4 as IT Workstation:
But that means that you can run the lighter 32bit OS version that is faster AND it is already overclocked and includes a massive passive heatsink.
But the web browser plus whatever else is running in addition to the OS will still eat up what's left of the RAM pretty easily I would think. My phone uses more than 4g of ram easily.
Not really. It's actually hard to use up the 4GB RAM on the RPI4 as a normal user. Remember that everything running on it is lean, like LXDE for example.
https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/raspberry-pi-4-8gb-tested
I'd say that if you're happy with the RPI4 performance as a desktop then there's a 95% chance that 4GB RAM will be enough.
If you're a power user then RPI4 is too slow and you'll probably looking at something with at least 16GB RAM anyway.
This is why I like the RP400. It's the CPU, more than the RAM, that is the bottleneck for use and the RP400 is like 15% faster.
