Can a Raspberry Pi 4 be used as a Desktop PC - Full test and review
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2019
- Hey All! In this video I take a look to see if the Rasperry Pi 4 can be used as a daily desktop PC.
Shout-out to:
A4 Andre on Twitch: / a4andre
Mr. Belb on Twitch: / mrbelb
Commands/Links:
Temperature monitor: watch vcgencmd measure_temp
Raspbian: www.raspberrypi.org/downloads...
Activity monitor: htop
RPi fan: amzn.to/32zc7Je
Full disclosure: BuyAPi.ca offered me a discount on my purchase as they knew I'd be reviewing it.
Available in USA here:
www.pishop.us/product/raspber...
Available in Canada here:
www.buyapi.ca/product/raspber...
Description:
Full desktop computer kit - just connect to HDMI display(s)
Specification
Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop kit is supplied with:
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, 4GB
Raspberry Pi Keyboard & Mouse
2 × micro HDMI to Standard HDMI (A/M) 1m Cables
Raspberry Pi 15.3W USB-C Power Supply
Raspberry Pi 4 Case
Official Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide (English language)
16GB NOOBS with Raspbian microSD card
DISCLAIMER: This description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
#RPi4 #RaspberryPi #RPi #Tech #Raspbian #Computers #DesktopPC #Linux 
Наука
Commands/Links:
Temperature monitor: watch vcgencmd measure_temp
Raspbian: www.raspberrypi.org/downloads...
Activity monitor: htop
RPi fan: amzn.to/32zc7Je
cant u just submerge the PI in mineral or vegetable oil for cooling, we did it to al old alfa adaptor that was cutting out from heat, works like a charm
this video is almost too nerdy for me. i dont know if i should keep watching this or watch something cool like doom eternal walkthrough
funnny how everyone's definiion of desktop PC is a browser that can play RUclips.
Most non power users don't care about gaming or editing anything super big that would require rendering of video or anything like that, chances are they are not going to be running any complicated programs or compiling code, so most really don't need much. Power users, at least half would be happy with the sbc, but gamers and editors/producers, are not going to enjoy this much.
I seen a pi can run Minecraft java, but that doesn't even matter, I can host a 50 player server running 4gb ddr3 ram in Minecraft 😂
Maybe not in 2019 but in 2020 it surely is :) But seriously, when you buy a PC/laptop and the seller says, yes, it can do all stuff you need, except err... youtube videos. Ok, no youtube, but it's not huge man come on. And it could be expected without good working HW acceleration. At least not Firefox on Raspbian. Yes, 4th generation of the most popular SBC and in it's best supported OS graphic acceleration is still a shady business..
(Cough cough)
@@geocam2 I believe you are correct.. I am watching this video on my Pi right now. :-)
to define something as "life" is about breath, consume energy, and produce. but that's not what we call "living" huh?
it's the simplest thing that you can do with a pc, so a good starting point.
There's a certain irony to watching this on my current main computer, a Pi 4.
OMG SAME the frame rate is perfect i added an extra 8gb SWAP to make it faster i am using 32-bit kali linux and it works perfectly plus i am booting off a 128GB sd card
hakder gaming what’s a SWAP
Sorry if it seemed dumb but I am new to pi’s
@@StealthSols Its a special partition for extending RAM. Same thing as windows pagefile.
@@Startpolice yes i actually did just overclock the CPU to 1.75 Ghz or more overclock the GPU to 600 Mhz and swap some extra ram and make sure you are booting off a decent sized sd card (128GB) and you will have a perfect desktop experience!!! however i do use kali linux not raspian so it may be a bit different
@@hakdergaming what about 3d modelling softwares,maya,zbrush etc?
This is the video I was looking for! Great job, it really shows everyday usage scenarios, with useful info like the temperatures.
Just purchased a Pi4, and appreciate your testing it out for us. Thanks so much!
Thousands of videos showing how to set up the Pi but this is the first to show it in action. Well done.
Great RPi 4 review! It helped me very much to eval for my project before purchasing. Keep it up, regards!
Professionally done. Subscribed with pleasure!
Great Videos. I am new to the Rasp Pi hardware and software and these videos have been so much help. Great job
I'm just about to buy a pi4. This video addressed many of my concerns. Great content. Thanks
Thanks for watching!
The Odroid N2 is much better.I bought a "Atomic Pie" as well. Once you get past the quirky uefi only bios it actually does work much better than any Arm chip.
I'm using a 4gb version I added a passive cooler and overclocked to 2ghz after upgrading the firmware and youtube works fine on chromium. totally usable as a desktop replacement
Lee Crocker how to overclock it?
@@roblga1251 Look online
use vivaldi is much better and faster than chromium
fun but not ideal.
... for me.
You forgot to add to add "totally usable as a desktop replacement FOR ME".
And then, to make it meaningful, say what you use your desktop for.
Great video thank you Mr. Sujano !
thanks, mate, I am looking forward to testing it!
Thanks for sharing your tests. Isn't Chromium the only browser on the pi that supports the graphics/video acceleration? i think the graphic stack on the Pi is still not open source - I think vlc just recently got around to it, so maybe some tests with video players might get you better performance. However, I think a used thinkpad in the same price range as pi + sd-card + power supply should still outperform the pi by magnitudes.
i was usin Blender in my old mav book , but whith th new blender upgrade the specs of my lap is getting behind, could raspberry handle Blender , 360 fusion or any other 3d software?
Thank you so much for the review
Hi, I don't have another pc and I wanted to get a raspberry pi to use as a simple desktop, but can I use buster and use it as a desktop without another pc?
Great video as usual. I use my Pi with Lakka and libreelec and had no problems with it. There is a aluminum case with double fans you should try out costs under 20 bucks and cools really good
Good clear informative video, mate, and thanks for not saying "I'm going to go ahead and..." like lots of other RUclipsrs do ;-)
Could I get a Pi to work with my iPad for Retro Gaming? I just watched a video on connecting the iPad Pro with a Pi but haven't seen anyone use it to be a retro gaming tool
Exactly the demo I was looking for, thank you sir! You got a new sub =D At least it does pretty good w/ retro gaming ;)
great testing and explaining
Very informative.
I'm gonna replace my ancient XP pc with a Raspberry Pi 4. I'm not really a gamer, and bandwidth limitations pretty much confine me to 480 or worse, so I'm sure a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4 gigs RAM will be more than enough for my needs.
@Space Monkey I've seen some stress tests with a heatsink/fan setup called the "Ice Tower" that seem to cool it pretty well.
@Space Monkey get a 7€ usb fan
@Space Monkey I own a Raspberry Pi 4 which has heat sink's on the CPU, Memory, USB chip.
My Pi 4 is in a clear plastic case and it's idle temp is 53c. My Pi 4 is running
Raspbian Buster which I use it to browse the internet using Chromium. I have no problem watching 1080p video's on youtube.
At that point the temp jumps up to like 63c but it never reaches 70c. Plan on getting a fan for it anyways to help it keep cooler yet.
@Space Monkey So that would make your ambient temperature like 87°F. No wonder why your Pi 4 is running hot.
Where I live the temp outside is running 30°F to maybe 50°F if we are lucky. If I convert that to celsius it would be -1°C to 10°C.
My Pi 4 is in the coldest part of the house. Due to the fact the direction the room faces. Even though most of the house is 70°F which makes that 20°C for you.
But the room my Pi 4 is located in stays much cooler then the rest of the house. Where is why I keep my computer and stuff in there.
I did the same thing, but the pi isnt in yet.
Did you configure FireFox so it actually uses hardware acceleration?
I set up my raspberry pi 4 in my lab. Ssh and vnc works in my lab for remote access but it didn't work at my home. I did use the correct ip at my home but it timeout. Please suggest a solution.
Thanks for the video . You made my mind up....
can you test obs recording from an external video source like console, pc etc can it be used as an cheap 720p streaming setup for twitch youtube
So quick comment, I am not sure as I have not tried out the pi4 - but - does firefox support oxmplayer for streaming?? seeing that the older pi's that used oxmplayer to stream could use hardware, I was wondering if you knew if firefox indeed support oxmplayer for streaming which should give you a better play at higher resolution.
I use iMac but i'll need an affordable computer option like R-Pi 4 while I save for another computer when this one breaks down, video was great thanks for pointing out helpful info.
Great video. Can I use a Pi4 4GB for stock graph monitoring? I want to have a few (4) graphs open to see price action etc.
Cool video man, subbed! :)
Do you recommend the 8gb model that is out now? Or is the 4gb plenty?
Is it possible to add a cooling solution to a pi 4 with pijuice in the highpi case? I will be using this pi to run teamviewer and access my server virtual machine from school.
Thanks for review and testing and its time to buy the newest Raspberry PI.
What kind of monitor is used for Raspberry Pi 4 and how is made the connection with the web (I mean how establish the network connection) ?
Hi. After your video i think about to use a respberry pi as a daily computer! Thanks a lot!
Greetings from Sweden
Have you tried youtube videos in fullscreen? With raspberry pi 3b it was not possible to watch videos fullscreen without stuttering.
Question what sd card are you using for speed improvement and also I seen ppl running it from ssd drive maybe that would improve performance can you do a video on that btw I'm new to the pie community looking forward on getting on great vid merry Christmas to all
Hey
I had a Pi 3b and was using it with no problems on my Samsung smart tv and now I finally made the change to Pi 4 (4gb) and it will not read the signal.
It works perfect on my computerscreen.
How do I make the tv read the signal?
And setting to boost it or make it "talk Samsung"?
Yes I would like to do a particular project of having my garage door notify me when it’s open , to my phone thru home assistant, since I don’t have a computer anymore just a ipad , I was wondering if you could use a pi as a desktop.
is posible install adobe creative cloud in raspberry pi 4?
Can the video run on Google chrome for better performance.
does using two raspberry pi in a cluster make it any better performance
I think the performance model should be the "A" footprint and the budget tinker the "B". If the Pi foundation doesn't evolve then the Odroid N2 or H2 will take a bigger piece of the pie as time goes on. It has come to the point when it is mandatory to at least have some passive cooling on the 4 because it will clock down real easy. The same goes for the 3B+.
2020 outdated, lots of fixes, massive improvements etc
basically pi 4 4gb is totally fixed by updates
Does this allow for video over USB C?
I'd love to see you show a how to of setting up retro pi. I tried it a bit ago and I could not get it to work. Your stuff is great!
Would this work for mining crypto currency with 1 external gpu
Great video man! I subscribed 👍
I just ordered a raspberry pi 4 this morning. Is there places to go that people share the bash scripts? I don't know python and figured I would start by doing small projects that people has written the scripts to get use to using the pi first.
who use shit SD card corrupted manytime and not working fast and sure newer, no thanks, old HDD or SSD have lot better sure start and lot fasten and sure working. make usb boot and thats it all.
Why would you not use chrome? Its specifically tweaked to run on the pi
Can you show how to set up a printer on a raspberry pi 4?
Did you turn on hardware acceleration for the youtube video playback? I know its turned off by default and you have to turn it on manually. This offloads the video encoding to the gpu which is much more capable than the cpu at this task. I know at launch this option was disabled but should have been enabled on the official release of buster.
How can I check this? I just got my pi4 a couple days ago.
go to chromium settings page, Google it
Should I go for a PC or a Raspberry Pi 4 8gb for programming ?
If RUclips is barely running.. then i wonder what is the use case?
Screen tearing, correct me if I am wrong, is a "feature" of Xorg, you could add double buffering, which will add sometimes noticeable delay or use smarter window manager, that will however not solve the issue completely.
good job Sir Mr Sujano you very good english and also very clear explanation God job sir I subscribed your good channel.
With cooling you can overclock it and when you have done that it runs good. 👍
Pretty amazing that an SBC can do this.
how does it play N64 games? The PI 3 struggled
I was wondering how to connect 2 touchscreen monitors(instrument panels) to a Raspberry Pi 4 board, LAN connected, and attach/communicate a PC Desktop running XPlane11. I have 3 screens and no more room in the graphic card. Also it would compromise FPS. How would Raspberry Pi talk to a PC Desktop so I could drag the instruments as 4th and 5th monitors?
raspi not power handle Xplane good, better use 2 pcs good table compters, i have Xplane and 2 similar computer connect together and 6 monitor, many gauge panel etc weather radar and ardiuno board i has made all radio panels lcd display, and arduino switch panel 128 switch max, arduino led panels ewery gauge etc gear up lights etc. encoders etc. raspi want use but no working newer.
i ran dual display 1080while wtaching videos and still had heat issues. i cant see this fully replacing a pc with the thermal problems
The Pi4 runs surprisingly hot!
Mr. Sujano defective software. I icecooled mines
With the Argon one case mine stays about 45c under normal use.
Never really looked at the pi but i was wondering if it could run prime os or android just fine?
You may have to lighten it up a bit, but yes.
How much ram are you using?
You can use the 4B as a desktop, but don't expect it to be all that peppy. I got my first computer in the mid-'80s, so I recall the days when full-sized computers that you'd pay a couple of thousand for were far less powerful than any RPi. I have mine running 24/7 with SETI@Home running when I'm not using it, which is most of the time. One use I put it to is posting five dictionary words of the day from various online dictionaries to a Facebook group for puns and wordplay. I have two 24" monitors. It's very handy to have the dictionary webpage on one screen with the second screen is used to write the entry. I do it in the middle of the night with my main computer shut down in the living area. The Pi is set up in my bedroom and while working on it is considerably slower than my main computer, it's quicker overall to just turn on the screens, do my entries, then turn the screens off as opposed to going to the main machine, waiting for it to boot, then waiting for Firefox to load the many tabs I have open. Then I have to shut it down again for power savings. Is it a great desktop replacement? I'd say no unless your usage is very light and undemanding. It works, but it brings back '90s-era clunkiness.
Why use Firefox instead of the built in browser that's most likely been optimised for the launch?
Good question! I wanted to test the load installing an application, and I wanted to test out the experience with different browsers. I could have edited out the Firefox bit, but I kept it in to show the difference between optimized and not. I fully expect more applications to be better optimized in time, which would make the Pi even more feasible for a light duty PC.
Because Chromium is still Google-developed even though it's considered "open."
It still has issues with privacy and transparency (blobs)
@@SB-qm5wg That's irrelevant, he only used Firefox because he preferred it but that's not testing the stock browser and therefore skews the performance test. At the very least he could have tested both browsers to see if there was a difference.
@@goto-sr1nx I switched to chromium at 11:58 in the video
can we install a lightweight linux distro on raspberry pi something like peppermint Os or Lubuntu or Bodhi linux?
Raspberry Pi OS uses a modified LXDE
Instead of running HTOP in a console window to monitor CPU usage, and another to monitor the CPU temperature, why not just enable the panel applets so they will appear on the task bar near the clock?
I could have, but I had all that info up there for me. I edited a bunch out where I was monitoring processes
you can also add the cpu temp applet to the desktop so you can see the cpu temperature in real time I also added the cpu usage applet so i can see if the cpu is maxed out. to add the cpu temperature applet right click on the task bar -> add/remove panel items -> add then select "cpu temperature monitor" and "cpu usage monitor" and click add.
What is with text processing and calculations, like real office applications?
My C64 can do that, so the Pi should have no problem. ;-)
Chromium comes installed with h264ify, This creates less CPU load whilst on RUclips
Waterfox Classic also works well on RUclips
Yep. vp07 and vp08 are dogs. vpo9 is better but youtube availability is selective.
Nah, its more like to the nature of firefox and chromium. Firefox rely more on the cpu, while chromium, just like chrome, rely on RAM. Pi4 have better memory management than Pi3. So its better to use chromium.
I have tested Pi3 before with python, so this not really applicable to Pi4. For program that accessing small amount of data, its better to rely on CPU, while accessing data stored on storage (like accessing file) or larger data, its better to rely on RAM. So if you try to open wikipedia on firefox, its faster than chromium as the page doesn't need much data, but with page with animation, video, its faster on chromium, as its stored on ram, which its optimized for. Not as in efficient usage of RAM (as i know chromium is memory hogging), but it prioritize to use RAM for caching rather than CPU cache.
Well, this is just based on my own final essay experiment on Pi3, but I think my conjecture can be tested.
I have a Nextbook which does not let you replace Windows. Maybe you could look into running a Raspberry pi. Maybe replace parts with Raspberry.
good job, thanks
If it can't open a browser and youtube within a timely manner it's not daily driver ready for me
Firefox versus Chromium was an eye-opener!
So basically you could play any game on stadia using a raspberry pi 4, at least on 720p.... what a time to be alive
Pi4 needs heatsinks and fan to keep it under 80C so it does not clock down. please try that
OOT question : I presume that Sujano is not your real name, wondering how did you get the name?
nice channel, just subscribed.
a side note with a little learning curve you can install tmux and get multiple windows in one terminal though the hotkeys can be a pain to learn if your new to it
Not planning on using it as a desktop but I do wanna get one to play games. All the high temperature issue has let me down a bit but I hope it gets sorted out soon.
Not sure why, but Firefox has been shooting itself in the foot a lot, at least on Ubuntu. I've had to switch to chromium.
The Pi handles RUclips better on Chromium because it is preloaded with an extension called H264ify. This extension switches RUclips to stop using newer formats (like VP9) which are faster to deliver, but take longer and more effort to process on older systems.
I'm watching this on my Pi 3B+ with one copper heat sink but I leave the cover off. RUclips runs fine. Facebook and some other sites have issues with some users uploads, but it makes good redundancy should my Windows 10 PC fail. I also have a second Pi 3B+ with heat sinks and 3D printed case with cooling fan for playing games. They make good computers. What happened to Libre Office? It's on my first Pi, but was not installed on my second one a year later. I quit doing updates on the older one. I can't have my word processor knocked out.
Can I run android studio on it
Had to use it for 2 weeks as my mobo on my main pc died and had to RMA it, it wasn't bad at all I installed on it retropie and played some retro games even lol, but it really requires some tweaks for playing things such as netflix and other stuff on the browser itself.
You don't have to buy a second SD card to install Retropie and awkwardly swap out the SD card each time. Surely it's possible to set up multiple operating systems on one SD card and have some boot manager.
Can you please check out if a 8GB RAM would be heating too much? If so, could you also check whether or not it is possible to add a heat sink and have decent temperature control?
i have raspi4 8gb and eweryday table computer, not good, slowly, hot, i has test many case and fan but alltime normal yutube video or movie try looking has hot, argon or many case test ad too hot alltime, first good cooler have now ice tower slim version and no hot, but no can use daily computer freeze softwares many many time/day need start again, all panel go no icture and then freeze all computer no move mouse etc, but can looking ad use raspi littletime/day. noty allday computer. i use genuine raspian. do same if owerlock or not.
Does Raspberry Pi 4B outputs audio through microHDMI?
Yes.
you can buy a different rasberry pi case for the pi4 that has a built in fan, they sell them through microcenter
I new here I plan on using raspberry as a daily driver with two screen im taking your advise with the fan and two sd card. ty
I've been using mine a a desktop for a couple weeks now and it works for me (I'm even using it to comment)
From the looks of it, its worth it, especially for the money.
It will be great as a lab/garage/machineshop-computer as a controller that you can use to monitor and drive real time applications. Add sensors etc. and put switches on and off.
Yes this is a mighty machine for a low price!
I think a large part of why video playback is so choppy is because they're probably not using the VideoCore VI multimedia processor and GPU.
I just got two pies 4 and 3b+ both are going into weecades and being used in pc form to listen to records and basic computer work. Printing and file transfers
Btw Logitech k400 plus keyboard with track pad works out the box including its hot keys
the reason youtube page is struggling is because of the VP9 codec, which the OS probably doesn't have native hardware support
Impressive.
As someone who plays no computer games and whose Internet is too slow for 720 vid, I would like to have seen how this handled local video (does it have a local video player?) and a few office programs running with a some big files open.
Perhaps that does not even constitute a worthwhile test of this machine.
I wouldn't know... which is why I wanted to see it.
I configured a very nice looking xfce desktop under raspbian on mine, and it would be a pretty usable desktop PC if I could get the youtube to play on 1080p without dropping frames. That part is a deal-breaker for modern desktop use, but other than that, it's quite usable for most office work. Also, Firefox is terribly sluggish compared to Chromium. I don't know why.
I'm using a fan and heatsinks and the CPU temp was about 30°C
Thank you :)
Take the URL and open VLC player and copy the link into there. It will play in full 1080 without stutter.
but then it's a hack, a workaround.
Conclusion: it's not a viable daily driver.
@@AQHackAQ That is the point. It works.
@@WHNorthcote The point is it's not a viable & proper desktop PC replacement
@@AQHackAQ Are you saying that it has to have full PC capability or as a SBC that has a workaround where you can use it as VLC lets you use it? Either way it is a PC. It is a computer that is yours and you are personally responsible, hence PC.
I been on board with Raspberry Pi onto their early years. Still haven't got a Raspberry Pi 4 yet. But yes it's nice to have as many SD/mini-SD cards. I have 6 *SD cards for variety Pi projects. Better then reinstalling on just one SD card.