5 ms·

am I crazy for thinking that the 16GB Pi 5 is just there to absorb money from people who purchase the most expensive version of things? Like really nobody needs

by rtpg 6mo ago

am I crazy for thinking that the 16GB Pi 5 is just there to absorb money from people who purchase the most expensive version of things? Like really nobody needs that much RAM on a Pi?

throwaway85825 6mo ago
Most Pis are sold for embedded customers, some of which no doubt can use 16gb.
teaearlgraycold 6mo ago
It’s an incredibly lopsided machine. The Pi 5 is decently powerful, but you really really should not be attempting to use one as a desktop replacement. While theoretically possible you are so much better off with a $50 used SFF PC.
- mghackerlady 6mo ago
  I bought the pi 500+, it fit my requirement of being built into the keyboard
parl_match 6mo ago
Yes, you are crazy for thinking that. The extra ram is useful for small LLMs and also running lots of dock containers. The very low power consumption makes it ideal for a low end home server. I use the 16GB SKU to host a bunch of containers and some light debugging tools, and the power usage that sips at idle will probably pay for the whole board over my previous home server, within about 5 years.
- megous 6mo ago
  You can just as well not run docker. 1GiB machine can run a lot of server software, if RAM is not wasted on having duplicate OSes on one machine.
  - zozbot234 6mo ago
    Docker is about containerization/sandboxing, you don't need to duplicate the OS. You can run your app as the init process for the sandbox with nothing else running in the background.
    - megous 6mo ago
      That makes docker entirely useless if you use it just for sandboxing. Systemd services can do all that just fine, without all the complexity of docker.
  - JollySharp0 6mo ago
    Containers are not Virtual Machines. 1GB cannot run a lot of server software. If stuff is written in .NET, Java or JavaScript. Hosting a non-trivial web app can use several hundred megabytes of memory.
    - gnabgib 6mo ago
      Only Java qualifies under your arbitrary rules, and even then I imagine it's trying to catch up to .NET (after all.. blu-ray players execute Java).. which can run on embedded systems https://nanoframework.net/ https://nanoframework.net/
      - JollySharp0 6mo ago
        I listed some popular languages that web applications I happened to run dockerised are using. They are not arbitrary. If you run normal web applications they often take many hundreds of megabytes if they are built with some popular languages that I happened to list off the top of my head. That is a fact. Comparing that to cut down frameworks with many limitations meant for embedded devices isn't a valid comparison.
        gnabgib 6mo ago
        1GB is plenty for almost every case I've seen, 10-20x the need. Yes if you're running a repeated full OS underneath (hello VMs) then it'll waste more. I run (regular) .NET (8) in <50mb, Javascript in <50mb, PHP in <50mb. C, Perl, Go in <20mb. Unless you're talking about disk space.. runtimes take space.
walrus01 6mo ago
No you are not crazy. It's silly to try to use a raspberry pi 5 16GB (or equivalent priced product) as a desktop workstation with a GUI on it when much better actual x86-64 based workstations exist. Ones with real amounts of PCI-E lanes of I/O, NVME SSD interfaces on motherboard, multiple SATA3 interfaces on motherboard, etc. In very small form factors same as you'd see in any $bigcorp office cubicle.
- zx8080 6mo ago
  > as you'd see in any $bigcorp office cubicle. Which bigcorp does use cubicles?
JollySharp0 6mo ago
I am running a bunch of stuff on my 8GB Pi and I've run out of memory to put more stuff on. I use it as a low power server running a bunch of Docker containers. Some of these require at least 200mb and some use 2G of memory. I was going to buy a small nuc and load it up on memory but I've acquired an old Mac Mini with 16GB of ram, which will do.
hsbauauvhabzb 6mo ago
Browsers treat RAM as infinite, if you want to for whatever reason open LinkedIn, you might wanna get a bigger model. I’d personally rather buy more ram than I need rather than deal with the cost of fixing / working around the issue in future
mghackerlady 6mo ago
I bought a Pi 500+ (basically a 16gb Pi 5 in a keyboard with a built in NVME hat) to use as a family computer, otherwise I agree. Unless you're planning on using it as an actual desktop there's no real reason for that much ram

by rtpg 6mo ago

am I crazy for thinking that the 16GB Pi 5 is just there to absorb money from people who purchase the most expensive version of things? Like really nobody needs that much RAM on a Pi?

throwaway85825 6mo ago

Most Pis are sold for embedded customers, some of which no doubt can use 16gb.

teaearlgraycold 6mo ago

It’s an incredibly lopsided machine. The Pi 5 is decently powerful, but you really really should not be attempting to use one as a desktop replacement. While theoretically possible you are so much better off with a $50 used SFF PC.

mghackerlady 6mo ago
I bought the pi 500+, it fit my requirement of being built into the keyboard

parl_match 6mo ago

Yes, you are crazy for thinking that. The extra ram is useful for small LLMs and also running lots of dock containers. The very low power consumption makes it ideal for a low end home server. I use the 16GB SKU to host a bunch of containers and some light debugging tools, and the power usage that sips at idle will probably pay for the whole board over my previous home server, within about 5 years.

megous 6mo ago
You can just as well not run docker. 1GiB machine can run a lot of server software, if RAM is not wasted on having duplicate OSes on one machine.
- zozbot234 6mo ago
  Docker is about containerization/sandboxing, you don't need to duplicate the OS. You can run your app as the init process for the sandbox with nothing else running in the background.
  - megous 6mo ago
    That makes docker entirely useless if you use it just for sandboxing. Systemd services can do all that just fine, without all the complexity of docker.
- JollySharp0 6mo ago
  Containers are not Virtual Machines. 1GB cannot run a lot of server software. If stuff is written in .NET, Java or JavaScript. Hosting a non-trivial web app can use several hundred megabytes of memory.
  - gnabgib 6mo ago
    Only Java qualifies under your arbitrary rules, and even then I imagine it's trying to catch up to .NET (after all.. blu-ray players execute Java).. which can run on embedded systems https://nanoframework.net/ https://nanoframework.net/
    - JollySharp0 6mo ago
      I listed some popular languages that web applications I happened to run dockerised are using. They are not arbitrary. If you run normal web applications they often take many hundreds of megabytes if they are built with some popular languages that I happened to list off the top of my head. That is a fact. Comparing that to cut down frameworks with many limitations meant for embedded devices isn't a valid comparison.
      - gnabgib 6mo ago
        1GB is plenty for almost every case I've seen, 10-20x the need. Yes if you're running a repeated full OS underneath (hello VMs) then it'll waste more. I run (regular) .NET (8) in <50mb, Javascript in <50mb, PHP in <50mb. C, Perl, Go in <20mb. Unless you're talking about disk space.. runtimes take space.

walrus01 6mo ago

No you are not crazy. It's silly to try to use a raspberry pi 5 16GB (or equivalent priced product) as a desktop workstation with a GUI on it when much better actual x86-64 based workstations exist. Ones with real amounts of PCI-E lanes of I/O, NVME SSD interfaces on motherboard, multiple SATA3 interfaces on motherboard, etc. In very small form factors same as you'd see in any $bigcorp office cubicle.

zx8080 6mo ago
> as you'd see in any $bigcorp office cubicle. Which bigcorp does use cubicles?

JollySharp0 6mo ago

I am running a bunch of stuff on my 8GB Pi and I've run out of memory to put more stuff on. I use it as a low power server running a bunch of Docker containers. Some of these require at least 200mb and some use 2G of memory. I was going to buy a small nuc and load it up on memory but I've acquired an old Mac Mini with 16GB of ram, which will do.

hsbauauvhabzb 6mo ago

Browsers treat RAM as infinite, if you want to for whatever reason open LinkedIn, you might wanna get a bigger model. I’d personally rather buy more ram than I need rather than deal with the cost of fixing / working around the issue in future

mghackerlady 6mo ago

I bought a Pi 500+ (basically a 16gb Pi 5 in a keyboard with a built in NVME hat) to use as a family computer, otherwise I agree. Unless you're planning on using it as an actual desktop there's no real reason for that much ram