Raspberry Pi as family computer?

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Hello,
I currently use some sort of "smart TV" as a family computer and it's a horrible experience. I want to replace it with a proper computer, and I've been looking into a Rasberry Pi. The computer would really only be used for web browsing (YouTube, Netflix, Spotify...) and watching downloaded movies. My question is, with a sufficiently minimal setup (thinking even going with Gentoo), would a Pi 3B or 3B+ (1GB RAM, 4 core BCM2837 at 1,2 and 1,4 GHz respectively) be enough or should I pay up and get the Pi 4?
 


For the same price you'll spend on setting up a Pi with everything, you can afford a pretty good refurbished device from eBay or NewEgg. That will come with Windows but you can then easily install Linux on it. This will also be more powerful than the Pi.

But, yes, you can use the Pi 4 for this. It should play 4k video fairly well.
 
I have no personal experience with any of the Pi models, but I would want to see it in actual real-life use browsing the web and doing whatever else you might want to do with it before I would want to use one as a "family computer".

You might be able to pickup a used laptop or desktop system for cheap (or free) or, as KGIII said, get a refurb for fairly cheap.

I've had friends say, "Hey, how do I dispose of old computers?" Instead of saying, "Put it in a box and throw it in the dumpster, duh", I say, "Just bring it to me and I'll take care of it for you." ... and what they're throwing away is better than anything I'm currently using! I just love when that happens.
 
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I would want to see it in actual real-life use browsing the web and doing whatever else you might want to do with it before I would want to use one as a "family computer".

The newer Pi versions are quite capable of doing this. You can even do some gaming on them with surprisingly good results with some of the more modern games. You can even add an external GPU for better gaming results - but that's going to cost you quite a bit more. The PI has come a long way.
 
The newer Pi versions are quite capable of doing this. You can even do some gaming on them with surprisingly good results with some of the more modern games. You can even add an external GPU for better gaming results - but that's going to cost you quite a bit more. The PI has come a long way.
I think I read somewhere there's even a 16 GB Pi 5 now. Yeeeehaaa!

I'm toying with getting my feet wet in the Pi world with a Pi Zero W 2 for a project I'm dreaming up (but it won't involve a browser).
 
I think I read somewhere there's even a 16 GB Pi 5 now. Yeeeehaaa!

Yeah, the Pi 5 is quite an improvement in a couple of key areas, like no longer doing things like having the network speeds limited because they were on the USB bus. They're impressive bits of kit these days. The Pi 3 was about the threshold where you could start to reasonably use the device as a computer. That one would still be pretty slow but people did it and did so happily. It's a more reasonable idea now.

If you're interested in the Pi, Jeff Geerling is on YouTube (and on his own site) and is a recognized authority figure with the device (among other things). His dad's pretty smart too! His dad's a radio engineer or something like that. Anyhow, if you want to blow a couple of hours then look him up on YouTube.
 
My advice would be to get a re-use computer, either a desktop with screen and keyboard or a laptop, something from 2010 onwards with a twin core CPU 4-8gb ram will be fine for normal daily computing [mail, surfing, streaming, office work &, etc] not for gaming or high-end graphic rendering, Just avoid Chromebooks and android pads they are usually too underpowered don't know what part of the world you are in, but there are many bargains to be had especially with 4-6 yr old Windows 10 machines that won't upgrade to W11
 
I think that the 400 (are they going to launch a 500?), the one that comes built in in a keyboard, is a fantastic device for a kid to own, break, fix, restore, tinker and experiment with --which is something you can't do with a shared family computer for the sake of the rest of the family members' usage of the same.

For a shared, family computer, I agree with the above. For a "hey kiddo, go wild press all the buttons, run all the commands and learn", a Pi is second to very few options.
 
I currently use some sort of "smart TV" as a family computer
Tell me about it, I have a smart tv, the onboard computer is so slow if I send an e-mail a snail would get there quicker
 
I bought a used desktop for about $230 from Amazon which is generally cheaper than a new Pi. I came with this huge monitor and a cheap keyboard. I added an external hard drive, my own keyboard, and a UPS to keep it going when the lights blink. If you buy a Pi you'll still need a keyboard, a mouse, and a monitor.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
for a family computer i'd really recommend a refurbished business tier desktop - any replacement parts you might need will be readily available and if you shop around you can get a reasonably good deal. alternate to that, one of the higher-end single board computers (Beelink, Fusion5, MeLE, etc), they're basically designed to be ready to go out of box, just slap an OS on there and it's done - and the hardware is typically much better than a raspberrypi. decent monitors/peripherals can be had for very cheaply at any 2nd hand electronics retailer.
 
for a family computer i'd really recommend a refurbished business tier desktop - any replacement parts you might need will be readily available and if you shop around you can get a reasonably good deal. alternate to that, one of the higher-end single board computers (Beelink, Fusion5, MeLE, etc), they're basically designed to be ready to go out of box, just slap an OS on there and it's done - and the hardware is typically much better than a raspberrypi. decent monitors/peripherals can be had for very cheaply at any 2nd hand electronics retailer.
I've heard that the quality of Beelink computers, as per the customer reviews, is really headed downhill. The fan is said to be quite noisy as well.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
It is worth pointing out that many of today's smart TVs can double as a computer monitor by connecting it using the HDMI port.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
pi400 are still $100 for the kit not counting tax and shipping. While the new pi500 with tax and shipping ends up being around $150. You can also just buy the pi400 for around $70. But like everyone else has already mentioned you can get inexpensive used systems that are much better for the same or even less.
 
Hello,
I currently use some sort of "smart TV" as a family computer and it's a horrible experience. I want to replace it with a proper computer, and I've been looking into a Rasberry Pi. The computer would really only be used for web browsing (YouTube, Netflix, Spotify...) and watching downloaded movies. My question is, with a sufficiently minimal setup (thinking even going with Gentoo), would a Pi 3B or 3B+ (1GB RAM, 4 core BCM2837 at 1,2 and 1,4 GHz respectively) be enough or should I pay up and get the Pi 4?
I deal with pi's. DO NOT GET A 3B they are good but old. what you want for your purpose is either a 4b or 5 basically 8 gigs ram. You can then put on Fedora. (arm64 version) It has a direct burn to the sd card and you end up with full fedora without anything taken out like on raspian. I have several running flawlessly this way. Fedora is full version so support for video, audio and everything else is there. Install VLC on it and you have an unbeatable Genuis TV.

now about the smart tv as a computer. not even close. The smart tv is just a tv that has a small pi style board installed and the manufacturer was paid by hulu, amazon, netflix and so on to put their apps on the board. So they are paid by the services then charge you outrageous amount for the tv. You can get a "dumb" tv and plug it into any computer including a pi and get a much better experience than what the mfg would give.

using a pi with the tv is the only way to have a real smart tv. Using a prebuilt smart tv for a computer is like running public bus service with 3 tricycles.
 
You can get a "dumb" tv and plug it into any computer including a pi and get a much better experience than what the mfg would give.
I often have to do this for the Pendlewitch, as our not so smart TV keeps dropping the Wi-Fi and often will just switch off when on catchup streaming.
 
I have one or multiples of every Pi made, from the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 0 up to a new Pi5 and while they are fantastic project computers, I still don't consider them as suitable for a general use desktop. Part of the reason is that, by comparison, my Debian system is a supercomputer and I am used to instant response in whatever I am doing. Unless you really jazz up a Pi with external hardware, the disk access given by the SD card is pitiful. And the graphics response... Well, I am not sure that my old Altair 8800 isn't faster on the display. (/s)

Still, a PI would be a far better system than a TV.

However, as has been pointed out, used and old computers are everywhere and are often offered for pennies. I have seen many companies PAY to have old and perfectly satisfactory systems hauled away. Any would make a better general purpose Linux system than a Pi at this time. (Obviously, this is an opinion.)

I have seen stacks of one or two generation-old boxes in both the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores and at prices that were less than a good keyboard from Amazon. Now that the poor dudes that are on Windows 10 are being forced to move to 11, there will be many fine computers that will be landfilled.

Look around.
 
I have one or multiples of every Pi made, from the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 0 up to a new Pi5 and while they are fantastic project computers, I still don't consider them as suitable for a general use desktop. Part of the reason is that, by comparison, my Debian system is a supercomputer and I am used to instant response in whatever I am doing. Unless you really jazz up a Pi with external hardware, the disk access given by the SD card is pitiful. And the graphics response... Well, I am not sure that my old Altair 8800 isn't faster on the display. (/s)

Still, a PI would be a far better system than a TV.

However, as has been pointed out, used and old computers are everywhere and are often offered for pennies. I have seen many companies PAY to have old and perfectly satisfactory systems hauled away. Any would make a better general purpose Linux system than a Pi at this time. (Obviously, this is an opinion.)

I have seen stacks of one or two generation-old boxes in both the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores and at prices that were less than a good keyboard from Amazon. Now that the poor dudes that are on Windows 10 are being forced to move to 11, there will be many fine computers that will be landfilled.

Look around.
I can agree with you. I have pi3b several pi4b and they all do great for the various purposes they are installed for. I use Fedora on them and the performance is fairly good. I have one in a robot project and it controls things quite fast. Only delay is the delay for the command to go from one computer over the network to the pi.
I am not sure I would use a pi for family computer but it can do it.
Have one guy that purchased a Pi4b from us and uses it at his work as a media computer. He plays movies with it for the crew on the ship he works on.
I have not worked with pi5, how are they compared to the pi4b?
 
I have not worked with pi5, how are they compared to the pi4b?
It has better specs than the pi4, and works ok, but it is still hobbled by using an SD card for the file system. As an example, I have a railroad CTC panel (homebuilt, not a real one) that uses Sqlite heavily in the driving program. This app is very heavy on file usage. On a modern Debian desktop (Ryzen 5600G, NVME) it initalises the DB in about a second. On the Pi5 it takes about 45 seconds. To underline the problem, a Pi4 is not much slower.

Replacing the SD card with an NVME would fix the problem and supposidely the Pi foundation is coming out with an addon hat to allow that to be added. There are already third party hats for that, but I haven't tried any yet.
 

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