“The raspberry PI 5 is a much improved version of the Raspberry Pi family. I have the 8GB version and although it expired and would not boot suddenly, Pimoroni, replaced the Pi5.
The designers could have done more to warn and inform software developers regarding the differences in drivers and GPIO so that moving a complete OS was as easy as swapping over the USB, SSD or MicroSd which is still possible with otehr earlier models.
The fan is necessary. I have also a NVMe base with WD 1TB SSD which is a necessary adittion. I run PI OS bookworm desktop with SSH and VNC server active. I also have Docker and Portainer with many containers which are (HAM) Amateur radio - centric. Most of the issues I have are with software developers of docker containers rather than the PI itself. What I would like to see is a socket to add an external WiFi/Bluetooth antenna - the trace is there on the circuit board, then I would be happy with a metallic case.”
“What a beast!
Having had RaspberryPi computers from the very first model (Yes I still have it too!) I've been really impressed with the Pi5. Super quick, makes a great desktop computer and runs my online web projects with ease (https://hflive.m0aws.co.uk/) ... for the money it's an awesome little machine ...”
“The Raspberry Pi 5 is a great improvement on the Pi 4, especially with the new PCIE bus allowing expansion using a fast interconnect suitable for NVMe disks, AI accellerators and such like.
The Pi has always been a great compute engine and now the enhanced speed and capabilities make it more and more useful.”
“Noticeably faster than the Pi 4, and doesn't have the weird USB defect the 4 has, that causes problems with some peripherals such as the PICkit 2 and 3 programming tools. I'd say the power button is a little fiddly to use – you have to hold it down and stuff – but aside from that it's a great little machine.”
“It's the Pi I always wanted. I have bought every single version of the Pi. They are all good enough for limited tasks. NFS server, OSMC, Bittorrent server, whatever.
But the Pi5 is a horse of a different colour. I run a Bitcoin node, and I use the Pi to convert video to HEVC. It is fantastic for video conversion. Limited to software conversion only, no hardware encoding yet, but the Pi takes 2-3 days to convert a 2GB video (usually to around 800MB - 1GB).
I just leave it running 24/7, and it has never let me down. No reboots necessary, I just SSH in every day or so and check if a video is ready to SCP out.
A fantastic device. I am buying another with NVME, plus the Hailo AI module. Really crunch some numbers.”
