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I know many of you may be wondering if you should get one of these, and if they can be used to create a cheaper cluster than RPi4s. I try to answer that as well

I know many of you may be wondering if you should get one of these, and if they can be used to create a cheaper cluster than RPi4s. I try to answer that as well as talk about my experience with the RPi Zero and how quick it is with Go and Node.js compared to the older generation. Are you running Zeros now or other models? What would you run on an RPi Zero 2?

rasfincher 5y ago
Thanks for your RPi content Alex. Even though I'm not really active in the space, I still enjoy reading/watching about what's going on.
marktangotango 5y ago
My dream device for clustering is dual core 1Ghz+, 1GB ddr4 (ddr3 in a pinch) and wired Gb ethernet. In bulk (where bulk ~ 100) price $5-10. Some of the allwinner and rockchip based pi clones get close but price is a lot more.
- tomcam 5y ago
  You don’t ask for much ;)
- sitkack 5y ago
  You can hit this now with the CM4 modules, For qty 1 @ $30 you get 2GB and 4 cores, you could put 2 more ethernet ports on the PCIe port for a total of 3. That gets you into the same-ish performance regime. I am all for aggregates of low end compute, but I think something with more processing power and more PCIe lanes would scale better. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC0287/13530945 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC02...
  - GeorgeTirebiter 5y ago
    Availability is a Real Issue, tho. 16-week leadtime on that URL.
    - sitkack 5y ago
      16 weeks will come sooner than you realize. For other parts I need, I am seeing 40-60 week lead times.
monocasa 5y ago
I run rpis in my house with an RTOS I wrote. It'll be nice to dump support of armv6 for space constrained use cases that I used a W.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Neat!
spicybright 5y ago
Just a question on pi clustering in general. Is there an advantage vs buying a single more powerful computer, or a few powerful machines instead of a dozen+ pis?
- iszomer 5y ago
  Isn't this more of question on redundancy, ie: "two is one and one is none"? RPi's aren't technically best known for general purpose usage.
- ohthehugemanate 5y ago
  The big difference is number of cores you have to work with, and to a lesser extent the amount of RAM. For say 800€ you can get probably a 4 core CPU, maybe 8. I guess 8GB RAM? Or you can get 10 raspberry pi 4s for a total of 40 cores and 40GB RAM. What makes more sense for you will depend on your workload and scaling requirements.
- pbalau 5y ago
  Nope, you build a RPI cluster for the sake of it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

rasfincher 5y ago

Thanks for your RPi content Alex. Even though I'm not really active in the space, I still enjoy reading/watching about what's going on.

marktangotango 5y ago

My dream device for clustering is dual core 1Ghz+, 1GB ddr4 (ddr3 in a pinch) and wired Gb ethernet. In bulk (where bulk ~ 100) price $5-10. Some of the allwinner and rockchip based pi clones get close but price is a lot more.

tomcam 5y ago
You don’t ask for much ;)
sitkack 5y ago
You can hit this now with the CM4 modules, For qty 1 @ $30 you get 2GB and 4 cores, you could put 2 more ethernet ports on the PCIe port for a total of 3. That gets you into the same-ish performance regime. I am all for aggregates of low end compute, but I think something with more processing power and more PCIe lanes would scale better. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC0287/13530945 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC02...
- GeorgeTirebiter 5y ago
  Availability is a Real Issue, tho. 16-week leadtime on that URL.
  - sitkack 5y ago
    16 weeks will come sooner than you realize. For other parts I need, I am seeing 40-60 week lead times.

monocasa 5y ago

I run rpis in my house with an RTOS I wrote. It'll be nice to dump support of armv6 for space constrained use cases that I used a W.

jacquesm 5y ago
Neat!

spicybright 5y ago

Just a question on pi clustering in general. Is there an advantage vs buying a single more powerful computer, or a few powerful machines instead of a dozen+ pis?

iszomer 5y ago
Isn't this more of question on redundancy, ie: "two is one and one is none"? RPi's aren't technically best known for general purpose usage.
ohthehugemanate 5y ago
The big difference is number of cores you have to work with, and to a lesser extent the amount of RAM. For say 800€ you can get probably a 4 core CPU, maybe 8. I guess 8GB RAM? Or you can get 10 raspberry pi 4s for a total of 40 cores and 40GB RAM. What makes more sense for you will depend on your workload and scaling requirements.
pbalau 5y ago
Nope, you build a RPI cluster for the sake of it.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]