Every time a new version of the Raspberry Pi appears, I go nuts for several days, fantasizing about things I could do, like build a robot, an entire smart home or whatever. I read what you can do with the Raspberry Pi 4 in this case, I look for articles, for subreddits, everything.
Then I order the new version. It usually takes 2-3 days to receive it and by that time my excitement is less… excited. Of course, once I receive it, the excitement (or a big part of it) comes back. I unpack it, I mount it in the case, add some heat sinks, then I look for an HDMI cable.
Once I’ve done everything required with the hardware, it’s time for software. I download the latest Raspbian image (Buster, at the time of writing this) and I put it on an SD card. It takes a little bit of terminal tinkering, but it works usually right from the start.
Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for: powering up. It takes around 5-10 minutes to go through all the steps to initialize the new system, including the updates.
And here it is: Rasbian installed on the Raspberry Pi 4. But what’s next? I’m still waiting to find out, frankly. If you have and suggestions, let me know.
The things I noticed about the Raspberry Pi 4 (see official specs here):
- my version has 4GB of RAM, so I thought it would feel faster. It doesn’t
- I got the standard case, the recommended USB-C charger, small heatsinks, but I forgot to get an HDMI cable or adapter
- you don’t have a standard HDMI port, so you need to have a MICRO HDMI to standard HDMI cable or adapter (see difference here). I forgot about it when I ordered the Pi, so I needed to go and buy one before I got the Pi delivered. But I would’ve been really disappointed if I got the device and I couldn’t connect it to the monitor right there and then. Just be careful not to get the MINI HDMI to HDMI, but the micro.
- it heats a lot. I’ve used the Pi for about 15-20 minutes for light browsing (no YouTube or anything similar), I’ve done the updates. It is really hot after that amount of time, even with the heatsinks installed. I will buy the Flirch aluminum case, that acts like a big heatsink and has good reviews. I don’t want a fan because of the noise.
- Retro Pie doesn’t work with Raspberry Pi 4 on Raspbian Buster just yet, unless you do some kind of hacks and I don’t want to. I’ll wait for the working version.
I’ve been using MacOS computers for the last 10 years or so, but I sometimes miss Linux (any version of it). So the Pi will scratch that itch from time to time.
