Using Raspberry Pi 4 as a daily driver

lieronet said:
I use 64bit bullseye on rpi400, silent and cool, but recently after the newest kernel update It got hot. from 35°C when idle to 45-48°C . Nothing jumps in Htop, no recent apps installed. Has anybody a clue why? I love that setup, stopped using my laptop at home, for browsing and some productivity.
Click to expand...
Below 50C is nothing to worry about. I don't have any idea what has caused to increase temperature though. I moved from Manjaro to RPIOS last week (again), and didn't notice any significant different between temperature as I expected. I used Manjaro KDE Plasma before, so I expected to see a decrement of few degrees of Celsius.
However, I don't think Raspberry Pi circuit has a very accurate thermometer, I believe it gives an average temperature, so, if it is below 50 degrees, there's no need to worry.
 


While using mine as a "daily driver", I noticed quite a bit of heat coming out of the top. I am using the Premium White case from Canakit with the added heat sinks, and the 5 volt fan in the top. The fan mounts under a hole shaped like a raspberry, instead of being round. The problem is that this tiny fan moves very little air, and the hole covers most of the blade area, so it is not very efficient at cooling the computer. I traced the inside area of the fan shroud on the inside of the top, removed the fan, and cut out a round hole which exposes all of the blade area. ( a 1 1/8 inch Greenlee chassis punch is just about the right size) Now it cools much more efficiently, and I may just try overclocking it again.:)

Happy Trails,
Paul
 
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The case that gets the hottest for me is the M2.Sata from Argon.
That is why I only put a 4GB board in there, saying that it still never
got to 50c or started the fan, I set the fan to start at lower speeds to
test it, and it works, it kicks in at start up too for a test then stops.

The most remarkable case I have found are those Flirc passively
cooled ones, I have seen tests online and they are right up there12
with very good fan cooled cases, I have Two Flirc cases.
I have also seen where people put heat sinks and fans in cases
and the heat sinks caused more heat, must have something to do with
ventilation.

As far as daily driver goes, I could easily get away with a Pi4, the most
limiting factor for me is a good enclosure that also has a 12 inch screen.
I have researched and found a few 10 inch units that you place the Pi
inside, the problem was they ran too hot, so not going down that road.
I think the added heat from the daughter boards and the internal SSD
capability combined to keep temperatures in the zone best avoided.

But that is my next project, to find a case that runs cool with a built in screen
and all the goodies inside, board, battery, SSD or two.

Raspberry Pi boards already do the most important task I have,
they backup my files, something a lot of people take for granted
until they have no files due to a drive or device failure.
 
Here would be my next Pi case, if I was not going mobile and
looking for a screen & case combined.
Make sure its the Mk2 version., it runs cool and adds full size
HDMI ports, has space for a 2.5 inch SATA or an NVME ssd drive.
 
craigevil said:
Telegram is in the Debian repos:
policy telegram-desktop
telegram-desktop:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 3.6.1+ds-1
Version table:
3.6.1+ds-1 500
500 https://deb.debian.org/debian unstable/main arm64 Packages
Click to expand...
I installed Manjaro on an SD card for a Pi4 4GB model,
it for some reason is very fast, as fast if not faster than some
of the OS e's I installed on internal SSD on a Pi case.
I still prefer the simpllicity and ease of use of the of the official
64bit Raspberry OS, the simple dialog box for the audio mixer
makes it easy for a non techie to get sound from the likes of a DAW
to wherever they want, including a USB connected audio interface.
 
Yeah, the nice thing about using it daily, other than the fact that it is MUCH more quiet than "the lab", is that I can look at downloaded electronic component data sheet PDF files, or sensor data sheets, on the left monitor while trouble shooting a project, and listen to a you tube music video on the right monitor at the same time.:cool: It's the best of both worlds, mate!

Happy Trails,
Paul
 
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Deleted member 140690 said:
That is why I only put a 4GB board in there, saying that it still never
got to 50c or started the fan, I set the fan to start at lower speeds to
test it, and it works, it kicks in at start up too for a test then stops.

The most remarkable case I have found are those Flirc passively
cooled ones, I have seen tests online and they are right up there12
with very good fan cooled cases, I have Two Flirc cases.
I have also seen where people put heat sinks and fans in cases
and the heat sinks caused more heat, must have something to do with
ventilation.

As far as daily driver goes, I could easily get away with a Pi4, the most
limiting factor for me is a good enclosure that also has a 12 inch screen.
I have researched and found a few 10 inch units that you place the Pi
inside, the problem was they ran too hot, so not going down that road.
I think the added heat from the daughter boards and the internal SSD
capability combined to keep temperatures in the zone best avoided.

But that is my next project, to find a case that runs cool with a built in screen
and all the goodies inside, board, battery, SSD or two.

Raspberry Pi boards already do the most important task I have,
they backup my files, something a lot of people take for granted
until they have no files due to a drive or device failure.
Click to expand...
It may be cheaper, and easier to prototype your own case. That way you could put in the options that you want, rather than having to take someone else's choices pot luck.
 
Ok, check this out. It is called a WY-PI, and it is from raspberrypiplastics.com. It, inexpensively, sets your pi4B or pi zero up like a pi400 using a Bluetooth keyboard mounted in the same case. It may make it a bit easier to use the Pi4b as a daily driver:
 

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VP9KS said:
Ok, check this out. It is called a WY-PI, and it is from raspberrypiplastics.com. It, inexpensively, sets your pi4B or pi zero up like a pi400 using a Bluetooth keyboard mounted in the same case. It may make it a bit easier to use the Pi4b as a daily driver:
Click to expand...
Fair prices. What took my mind was their PiPad project. Interesting solution
 
Sudo It said:
Fair prices. What took my mind was their PiPad project. Interesting solution
Click to expand...
Ya know, if you took a wi-pi on vacation, you could use the tv in your hotel room as a monitor, since most now have hdmi Inputs, and the wifi at the hotel, and (bob's your uncle) surf your butt off. Or you could use it to watch videos or movies you brought with you! The sky is the limit.
 
4GB of ram is more than enough on a pi4/400.
Code: 
free
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            3793        1586          69         232        2137        1898
Swap:           4095          21        4074
Total:          7889        1607        4144
 
Has anyone out there ever taken a pi400 on a trip, and used it at a hotel, with the hotel tv as a monitor?
 
Sudo It said:
Final review after two days using RP4B 8GB Model:
Works fine. But clearly not ready to replace normal dekstop permenantly. Even though it has 8Ggigs of RAM, sometimes it struggles when doing multitasking (can't blame it. don't think anyone would buy a raspberry pi to do multitasking)
Manjaro KDE Plasma 64bit ARM is installed and it works perfectly fine on RP4. Nothing to complain about.
Click to expand...
Well, I was running the Boinc software for seti at home on my 4gb version, and it would do 4 work units at the same time, one on each core. The fan ran at full speed all the time, but it worked just fine. Not quite as quickly as the intel quad core in the lab mind you, but respectable.
Happy Trails
Paul
 
I will read this section and sure i will find the same issues i saw. I faced overheating problem, I use heatsink and OEM case.
RPi and SBCs have become too expensive.
Not being able to use SATA is a big problem. Some Chinese boards like Banana Pi have a SATA on board. but according to the "Explaining Computers" youtube channel, they usually don't work.
I got RPi4 when it was new and much cheaper and tested, I saw some disturbing bugs on every OS, however it got better over time.
RPi4 , i say it can't become a daily driver since eventually you will end up with some software that only runs on x86. (such as anything related to Wine and ...)
And you MUST have a daddy linux PC around to flash the Micro SDs and regular backups.
However RPi has an advantage which it's portable aside from some bugs that appeared in different OS-es it far more reliable and usable than any laptop, smartphone, iOS Apple toys, android TV and same goes with the high end SBCs such as Ordroid, banana pi, ASUS tinker board, etc. They are also doing a great job.

You must be a patient linux user or you will end up selling your Pi.
And in the end there's a debate that with the current prices, sometimes the old socket 775 PC may be a better choice.
If I am to create a server and I have 'old 775's lying around then I go with the old PC.
when it was <40 $ you SHOULD acquire one. but now I can't recommend it to anyone.

If you are gifted with some computer knowledge and linux, then it's for you. It's made for you.
and it does not get old and outdated the way most of the gadgets in the market do. an old version, e.g. RPi2 is replaced by new models. but still does what it was built to do. This can not be said about many gadgets that exist these days.
 
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