Raspberry Pi

[hmmblah]

Anyone manage to pick one up yet? I finally received mine after ordering in June. It's the upgraded model as well with 512MB of ram.

This is what came in the package. On the left is the case and on the right is the Pi itself in a plastic box:

Everything out of the boxes. Black case on the left, Pi in the middle, and a quick start guide on the right. Until you see it in person it's just amazing how small it is:

Closeup of the top of the board:

Bottom of the board. As you can see the SD slot is on the bottom:

Here is the bottom of the case. I am very surprised at the build quality. For $10 it's very solid and is a high quality plastic. I wasn't expecting much at all so pleasantly surprised.

Here are a the sides of the case to see the ports. 2x USB 2.0 and a 10/100 RJ45 ethernet port:

Audio and video out:

SD slot and micro USB for power:

HDMI:

Top of the case. I love the branding:

Here is the unit booting up. It does not come with an SD card, but I had a 4GB SDHC card lying around.

Desktop:

Browsing the web:

This is a very cool and inexpensive toy. I haven't played around much, have loaded Raspbmc now, but haven't used it yet. I may try a distro built around old game emulation as well. Total shipped with the case was right around $50.

If you have one, what are you using it for?

Edit: And no, Ray, I haven't tried folding on it yet!

 

[rossi94]

I thought about purchasing one as HTPC, just for youtube and movies from a external drive.

 

[yassarikhan786]

What's the performance like? Do you experience any lag with things like web browsing? For $50, it seems pretty darn awesome.

 

[hmmblah]

Yes, lots of lag. You can browse the web, but it's not a pleasant experience. Raspbmc is quite slow as well. It's not a fluid experience. I think the hardware is plenty powerful enough to get a good experience, I just think the software isn't there yet. It is getting better every day though. For $50 it's worth the investment, but very hard to get one in a timely matter.

 

[rossi94]

KK, seen some with 2 x 1,8 cortex 9 mayby these are stong enough to work as htpc.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Yes, lots of lag. You can browse the web, but it's not a pleasant experience. RaspXMBC is quite slow as well. It's not a fluid experience. I think the hardware is plenty powerful enough to get a good experience, I just think the software isn't there yet. It is getting better every day though. For $50 it's worth the investment, but very hard to get one in a timely matter.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking of getting one for my parents as they are finally starting to use computers.

 

[hmmblah]

KK, seen some with 2 x 1,8 cortex 9 mayby these are stong enough to work as htpc.

I haven't tried yet, but it's capable of 1080p playback. Many people use them as an HTPC. I have Raspbmc loaded, but haven't tried streaming anything yet. You can check out the project here.

 

[rossi94]

Thank you

 

[hmmblah]

Did some more playing around the last few days. Raspbmc is awesome! I didn't use any of the live functionality as I don't have cable or any OTA HD, but I did add some video apps to the interface. The best of youtube app was great. I used the default of 720p video and went to the pranks section. I looped prank youtube videos over and over for about an hour until I turned it off.

I downloaded the remote app on my iPhone and was able to completely control the device using my phone. For the most part the interface was completely fluid. I did try connecting my iPad via Airplay, but it caused the device to completely hard lock.

If I had good (any) OTA HD in my area, I'd be tempted to get a tuner and use the RPI as a DVR. For under $50, color me impressed.

 

[ruairi.C]

I remember when htey came out people said it couldn't run win7 cos of the arm processor, people said it may be able to run windows8. Has theree been any update on this?

 

[hmmblah]

I think Windows RT supports a newer arm architecture than what the RPI uses. I'm not saying it won't work because I have really no idea, but I don't see it as likely.

 

[iBeInspire]

I would love one of these little guys as a HTPC, what kind of movies can they playback? I assume blu-ray level is out of the question, but how well do they actually perform?

And Can I put a LN2 pot on one? -Jk-

 

[hmmblah]

They can supposedly play 1080p content fine. I've only tried playing 720p, but that was no problem. I should rip a blu-ray disc and try streaming it...

 

[iBeInspire]

They can supposedly play 1080p content fine. I've only tried playing 720p, but that was no problem. I should rip a blu-ray disc and try streaming it...

Wow, Really? I've currently got a PS3 doing the streaming at my house, but the interface is clunky and it's just a general pain to use.
Seems like this could be a nice little upgrade...

 

[hmmblah]

I use a PS3 right now as well. All I have ripped to my server is normal DVDs though. I'll try to get a blu-ray ripped tomorrow and compare streaming between the PS3 and RPI/raspbmc and let you know.

Other than the clunky menu, I hate the noise of the PS3. It's fairly quiet I guess, but the humming gets to me!

 

[Brooksie]

Got mine today as well after ordering in June, will have a tinker with it on the weekend. I'll have to find a SD card reader as I ordered a blank one and I don't have one in the new PC.

Will be using mine for a media centre.