2 ms·
The form factor of the RPi 5 is the same as previous generations. You can run them fine without active cooling unless you want it to run at sustained max perfor
by elcritch 3y ago
The form factor of the RPi 5 is the same as previous generations. You can run them fine without active cooling unless you want it to run at sustained max performance, in which case the original Pi’s wouldn’t work anyways.
The biggest benefit of RPis is their good Linux driver support and ecosystem. Something cheap Alibaba Android tablets don’t provide.
And there’s still plenty of RPi4’s and 3’s available.
- blagie 3y agoMost people tend to engineer for maximum TDP on thermals, and maximum power draw on power supply. It's good design practice, since it depends on what causes the "max performance." You don't want a $100 light switch, running in an enclosed space, risking a house fire from a bug in code code. You also don't want a lot of embedded devices crashing hard if a bug makes them draw more power than a small battery or power adapter can source (even momentarily). All these problems have solutions, but the central point is the instant I need to explain "thermal design power" to an eight-grader in an afterschool club for them to get their project working, (as they're struggling to figure out what a current versus a voltage is, or what 'ls' does), or why they should pick a 3A over a 5, the Pi has lost most of its raison e'etre.
- earthling8118 3y agoWell it doesn't seem that the RPi5 hits the mark according to that logic either. From what I can tell their changes are still not merged into the kernel so you're beholden to their custom version of Linux