The all new Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard PC

[SiliconWizard]

I have only used the analog audio output on a Raspberry Pi once and that was to check how good/bad it is. (It was about what you can expect from a budget motherboard, which is what a Pi is after all.)

IIRC, the RPi doesn't even have any DAC, so the audio output is actually just PWM. I'd say it's not even on par with what you'd expect from a budget motherboard.

[cdev]

Has anybody attempted virtualization on the higher memory RPI4's?

[rstofer]

IIRC, the RPi doesn't even have any DAC, so the audio output is actually just PWM. I'd say it's not even on par with what you'd expect from a budget motherboard.

In terms of the Pi 400, they don't even bring the audio out.  You either get sound via HDMI or you get it with a USB -> Audio adapter.  I suppose it is possible  to play with PWM but I would personally limit that to piezo devices.

I think some of the folks are not looking at the big picture or might not have it properly framed.  There is no reason to buy a Pi 400 for a desktop UNLESS that 40 pin header and connections to external gadgets is a desirable feature.  It is darn hard to code up an I2C example for a PC but to try for SPI, I2C and UART is a lot of work on a PC that isn't required on any Pi.  It could probably be argued that the Pi 400 form factor isn't the most efficient form factor for creating these signals  but if a Pi 4 is chosen, it would still need an external keyboard.  You simply have to have a keyboard somewhere.  What the Pi 400 delivers is a little more compact footprint in exchange for more limited keys.  It is also a pretty decent desktop.  Not blistering fast but no dog either.

So far, I'm happy with the Pi 400 but I like the Pi 4 as well.

[bd139]

Has anybody attempted virtualization on the higher memory RPI4's?

I don't enjoy punching my own testicles thanks 

[hamster_nz]

When compiling a few 100 lines of C it to 1s on my Laptop, < 0.5s on a Pi 400.

Then when comparing linked lists vs realloc()ing larger larger arrays it was faster too (completely CPU limited)

Pi was also faster running some naïve-but-not-THAT-bad FFT code.

(Yes my laptop is a old dog, and I am running stuff under WSL, but shows the Pi as being reasonably good)

[ebastler]

(Yes my laptop is a old dog, and I am running stuff under WSL, but shows the Pi as being reasonably good)

Thanks for the examples. Could you state the CPU type and clock rate of that old laptop, for a better perspective on the Raspberry performance?

[hamster_nz]

(Yes my laptop is a old dog, and I am running stuff under WSL, but shows the Pi as being reasonably good)

Thanks for the examples. Could you state the CPU type and clock rate of that old laptop, for a better perspective on the Raspberry performance?

AMD A10-9600P RADEON R5, 10 COMPUTE CORES 4C+6G

16GB RAM.

[SiliconWizard]

Does your laptop have an SSD or not?

What I've noticed is that GCC tended to be faster on Linux than on Windows, but here you seem to be using Linux on your laptop too?
(The same code compiles faster with GCC on my laptop, which has an older generation Core i7, on Linux, than on my workstation, which has a much more powerful Core i7, but on Windows.)

[DrG]

Below is proof that this is NOT new, instead being little more than an inexpensive clone.

[alex-sh]

It depends.
I have had an RPi 3 running 24/7 as a home automation server for years. It is small and no fan AND it has got Linux!
Another RPi I used as a desktop computer without any issues. Again it is Linux not Windows 10.
Personally, I have had only positive experience with RPi running Linux. However, I think you may be right about the RPi running Windows. I just do not have any experience with Windows on RPi.

Not quite. The whole RPi platform is fairly unreliable and complex to use outside of the very rocky valley of "sort of works". All it takes is one minor edge case or a problem and they're up shit creek without any support.

I cite an example of this as my daughter's school which has a large crate full of duff Raspberry Pi's which either died, the HDMI connector broke or have trashed SD cards. No one has the time to work out how to fix them or wants to expend the time to fix them because you need another raspberry Pi or another PC to fix the SD card problems. They dropped them for lessons within a month after they worked out that it 1 hour an hour of a 2 hour lab session to get everyone up and running to the point they could do anything, then the rest of the lesson was spent playing whack-a-mole. So they went back to the Lenovo all-in-one PCs running windows 10 with python which are all up and working within 10 minutes and have single sign-on and network home directories so you dont have the logistics issues of what to do with the stuff you've done on it.

A better solution for any home is a recycled PC desktop. THIS is a far better spend:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283400662567

The entire Raspberry Pi 400 idea is fault. It's marketing and nothing more.

[bd139]

On that matter a list of failures:

https://blog.jmdawson.co.uk/i-bought-200-raspberry-pi-model-bs-and-im-going-to-fix-them-part-1/

[GodIsRealUnless DefinedInt]

One of my best mates who works at Telstra just ordered this as a desktop PC replacement. He is part of a growing trend of the work from home pandemic crowd that are looking to Pi 400s as alternatives to setting up work computer systems at home. Needless to say the entire production run of Pi 400 sold out so the Raspberry Pi foundation will order another production run. If it keeps selling it will tell them what they have been waiting for, a clear signal it is a successful new product segment and Pi 500 and Pi 600 and so on will soon follow. If I didn't invest so much in the ultra latest home PC system I would seriously consider jumping onto a Pi 400 too. Its just so hard having build an uber system to think I could use a system with just 4GB Ram again but I probably could do just fine.