“Excellent hardware for the price/power consumption. A great machine that runs 64 bit Ubuntu server. With that and all the software you can install, this makes a perfect 24/7 embedded server that can handle pretty much anything!”
“Positives
1. Remarkably powerful computer-on a board for a competitive price
2. Compact and unobtrusive (different layout means you will need a Pi4-specific case, but plenty available)
3. Addition of Gigabit Ethernet makes a huge difference in network performance
4. Two USB-3 ports means super-fast storage easily added with connected SSD
5. Vast library of projects, software, robotics and addons remain compatible and fun to experiment with
5. Dual 4K monitor capability via pair of microHDMI ports brings serious Home Theatre potential
Negatives
1. Runs much hotter than earlier models and will throttle when it gets warm. No cooling provided - it really needed to have shipped with (optional) heatsinks
2. Prices starting to creep up for more powerful models - by the time you add micro-SD, case, etc, it can get expensive
Sum-Up
The Pi remains one of the most popular hobbyist, single-board computers for a good reason. Powerful, flexible, reasonably easy to set up and use and with lots of available support, are lots of fun, too. You do need good cooling with this one, though.”
“The 8GB RPi 4 is now has enough grunt to be deployed as a hypervisor for virtual machines on shared storage (TrueNAS). I am running a group of five as QEMU / KVM hypervisors to host all my personal services (de-googling my life amongst other things). The reason I wanted to use Pi's is the low power draw and total silence. People often use old enterprise gear for 'home labs' but this is a huge cost in electricity even if you get the gear for a very low price.”
“The Pi 4 (8GB model) is an amazing piece of kit. I'm a web developer, and the Pi is now powerful enough for me to perform the majority of my work on it, meaning my power consumption has dropped significantly. It can get a bit laggy when it's being hammered, and I still have to switch back to my main PC for intensive tasks like photo editing, but for the most part I'm Pi based now... Plus it boots up in seconds and is totally silent!”
