Credit Card Sized Raspberry Pi 4 at $35-119 for Desktop Performance

The Raspberry Pi 4 offers ground-breaking increases in processor speed, multimedia performance, memory, and connectivity compared to the prior-generation boards, while retaining backwards compatibility and similar power consumption. The Raspberry Pi 4 provides desktop performance comparable to entry-level x86 PC systems. The Raspberry Pi 4 comes in three on-board RAM options for even further performance benefits: 1GB, 2GB and 4GB.

This product’s key features include a high-performance 64-bit quad-core processor, dual-display output via two Micro HDMI ports, up to 4K resolution, hardware video decoding at up to 4Kp60, up to 4GB of RAM, dual-band 2.4/5.0 GHz wireless LAN, Bluetooth 5.0, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and PoE capability.

The $119 version comes with 4GB of memory and a Sandisk 32GB MicroSD, cables, keyboard and mouse.

Raspberry Pi 4
Official USB-C Power Supply
Set of 3 Aluminum Heat Sinks
CanaKit Quick-Start Guide
SanDisk 32GB MicroSD w/NOOBS
Official Case
USB Card Reader
Micro HDMI Cable
Official Keyboard w/Hub
Official Mouse

Raspberry Pi 4 Specifications

Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz
1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4-2400 SDRAM (depending on model)
2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz IEEE 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
Gigabit Ethernet
2 USB 3.0 ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports.
Raspberry Pi standard 40 pin GPIO header (fully backwards compatible with previous boards)
2 × micro-HDMI ports (up to 4kp60 supported)
2-lane MIPI DSI display port
2-lane MIPI CSI camera port
4-pole stereo audio and composite video port
H.265 (4kp60 decode), H264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode)
OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics
Micro-SD card slot for loading operating system and data storage
5V DC via USB-C connector (minimum 3A*)
5V DC via GPIO header (minimum 3A*)
Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled (requires separate PoE HAT)
Operating temperature: 0 – 50 degrees C ambient
* A good quality 2.5A power supply can be used if downstream USB peripherals consume less than 500mA in total.

15 thoughts on “Credit Card Sized Raspberry Pi 4 at $35-119 for Desktop Performance”

  1. Lower speed, lower votage memory seems like a good strategy. Fast memory should not make much of a performance difference, if the CPU is not really that powerful. The CPU itself is likely the bottleneck to performance. With lower voltage, temps should go down.

  2. I have 8gigs atm (have more but i cant run it NEED MORE COOLINg THANKS TO THE small Motherboard) trust me its the absolute smallest.

  3. I think there are lots of accessories available, like I/O boards. Sounds like a great project.

  4. This would also make a good always on home/security server for home automation, and monitoring cameras.

  5. With the same performance?

    I’m actually using a Teensy for the balancing control. (It’s going to be a 2 wheel balancing robot.) The Raspberry Pi will handle everything else; Sensors, manipulators, behavioral control.

    But, like I said, given that I’m putting a decent amount of processing power in it, I figure it can double as my son’s computer, with the robot features just being another application.

  6. Sounds like just the thing for the robot I want to build with my son; We were talking about making it with keyboard and display ports, so that it could also be his computer.

  7. Very impressive for that size, energy and price.
    The only real shortcoming is RAM. I think 8 GB is really the minimum for modern PCs. But this would be fantastic for lots of stuff.

  8. I do an ASUS Zenbook pro with 32g and 2TB of SSD. Quad core of course. My roots are windows, so I do widows 10 with WSL. Ubuntu on that right now. Octave for the fun stuff, then K8s and a bunch of experimental stuff I wrote.

  9. That’s missing the heat sinks.

    I have a pi3 that I bought back when I was playing with IoT stuff and Azure. I also have the little mxchip sensor card, which is interesting in and of itself. The Pi3 works just fine as a linux desktop BTW. I put Crome on it and cromecast to my phillips 42″ HD monitor on the wall.

    The P4 sounds upgraded. In the price range listed, I guess I’ll pick one up soon (after REF and SVL, business getting in the way of fun again), and then report back sometime in August.

  10. I made a alexa assistant out of a b-3. It is fast but I am hoping this one (PI 4B) is noticeably faster. I just ordered it so I will find out.

  11. Nice. I use a 3b+ as my desktop at home; I deal with the graphics limitations because I’m more a reader than a youtube watcher. I’ll upgrade to this soon. I like the little Linux computer… it’s adequate. I have a dual quad laptop for when I want to run physics codes, which isn’t often lately.

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