One of the promoting factors of the Raspberry Pi 5 (launched in October 2023) is that it was quick sufficient and had sufficient reminiscence to be a reputable general-purpose desktop PC, if not an particularly quick one. For Pi-as-desktop fanatics, the corporate has a few new pre-holiday bulletins. The largest is the Raspberry Pi 500, which inserts the parts of an 8GB Pi 5 right into a small keyboard-shaped case for $90.
It’s a follow-up to the unique Raspberry Pi 400, and like that system, it takes the parts from the common Pi 5 board and places them on a unique PCB with all the ports positioned in a single row throughout the again of the system. It contains one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, a microSD slot, two micro HDMI ports, the 40-pin GPIO header, and a gigabit Ethernet port.
In addition to the standalone $90 system, the Pi 500 can even be bought as a part of a Desktop Kit with a mouse, energy provide, HDMI cable, and printed Beginner’s Guide booklet for $120.
Raspberry Pi
From the entrance, the Pi 500 simply appears to be like like a considerably chunky desktop keyboard.
Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi
The Pi 500 has many of the identical ports because the Pi 5.
Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi
But the PCB, partially seen right here, has been redesigned so all of the ports are lined up in a single row throughout the again.
Raspberry Pi
The Pi 500 has many of the identical ports because the Pi 5.
Raspberry Pi
But the PCB, partially seen right here, has been redesigned so all of the ports are lined up in a single row throughout the again.
Raspberry Pi
If there is a main draw back to the Pi 500 as a desktop PC, it is that there is not a simple means so as to add an M.2 slot for sooner storage since current M.2 HATs for the common Pi 5 cannot be linked to a Pi 500. Pi fanatic and YouTuber Jeff Geerling’s teardown of the system reveals that there is area on the Pi 500 board that appears to be particularly put aside for an M.2 slot and NVMe SSDs, however the slot is not populated, and easily soldering one down is not sufficient to allow M.2 assist. It could are available a later and/or costlier model of the Pi 500. Out of the field, you may be restricted to microSD media or storage linked to one of many USB ports.
