Raspberry Pi 4 accessories
 

Hello

I am looking at what's required for the Raspberry Pi 4 8GB version support in terms of accessories.
These will be what's documented :

https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...erry-pi-psu-uk
https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...erry-pi-4-case
https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-case-fan

Thoughts?

you do what you want. Especially you can have a "hat" (or more) which makes the official case useless. You may need another power supply too, depending on your needs (like devices attached to the usb port).
I would rather use a passive cooler, without fan: https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articl...ted-and-ranked (just because this is silent and requires no psu).

This is a simple installation for the purposes of documentation, so probably just an apropriate PSU would suffice for the moment. I'll probably put an SSD on a USB->SATA adapter as with the RockPro64.
I don't see any PSUs there beyond 3amps - do you have the URL to a better one?

I wouldn't use usb->sata, but an usb flash drive (and also without sd card). https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/20...s-raspberry-pi
3 amps should be enough for that.

Yes. Official Raspberry Pi 4 PSU is a good, and the best, choice IMHO. Also think about this power cable to accompany it: https://thepihut.com/products/usb-c-cable-with-switch - which is a good idea if you're constantly powering on/off. Saves stretching the power jack/socket by perpetually unplugging it, etc.

No. IMHO this case is not a good choice because it doesn't allow adequate space for a cooler. With the RPi4 you always need to consider cooling solutions. You can achieve it in a few ways depending on your preference/setup. This SARPi guide may give you some ideas: https://sarpi.penthux.net/index.php?p=rpi-cooling. Don't buy this case if you're using the RPi4 for compiling as the cooling solution options become very limited.

1. If you want an adequate but cheap fan/heatsink cooler then: https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...raspberry-pi-4 - this will fit in a lot of cases with the lid on (like this one - https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...raspberry-pi-4) and it's relatively quiet. It'll keep the SoC at approx. 50'C while hammering all the cores on long compile jobs or prolonged desktop use.

2. A case with a fan mount - https://thepihut.com/products/modula...i-4-case-black - with this Cyntech case you can buy an optional 10mm spacer (I highly recommend you buy at least 1 spacer with this case - if you do, also buy the longer screws for it - https://thepihut.com/products/modmyp...crew-pack-58mm) and use a low profile heatsink and 30mm fan for a very effective cooling solution. I have exactly this setup in 2 of my RPi4 devices - 1 is a web/NTP server and the other is a SARPi4 build system [endo]. I use various "Cyntech" brand cases for nearly all my RPis as I find them the most robust and best for my needs - e.g. they are easily wall-mountable with lots of space inside them, for RTCs and other add-on modules.

If you want the ultimate air cooling solution, the Ice Tower: https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...ry-pi-4-cooler or https://thepihut.com/products/ice-to...i-4-cpu-cooler. Otherwise a small fan+heatsink (as above) will suffice. I find just running a 25-30mm fan blowing on the SoC is not enough when hammering all 4 cores on long period compile jobs.

I have found the best USB-SATA adapter for the Raspberry Pi devices is a Startech USB3S2SAT3CB.

Does UASP work with that on the RPI4?

The RPI seems particularly picky in this regard, the dearer ASM1153E chipset working here but cheaper ones like the Jmicron 1576/JMS579 erroring all over the place unless quirks are set, disabling UASP.

Thanks for your help. I've assembled a small parts list now so I can begin merging in Brent's work and get the show on the road.

No problem Stu. All you need to concern yourself with is keeping the SoC cool. The RPi4 isn't as thermally challenging as the RPi3 [B+] but without an adequate cooling solution you're going to hit the thermal limiter more often that you'd like, and that will slow operations down exponentially. Maybe you want to consider doing what I did and run the board outside of a case until you find the best cooling solution, and then consider your options for an enclosure.

The Raspberry Pi can be troublesome and you have to choose the right USB-SATA adapter. I have 5 of them and not all of them work as expected. The Startech adapter I listed above is pretty much perfect.

Yes, UASP is covered. This adapter supports UASP - 'lsusb -t' shows that it's using the 'uas' driver: [ Bus 02.Port 2: Dev 2 ]

I wanted a case that was also a passive cooling device. This worked very well.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15773

I see thepihut.com sells a similar one, if not the same one.

https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...raspberry-pi-4

Thanks, those look interesting. Might be good for media type rpi.

In what way? It housed your pi and/or provided adequate heat dissipation?

If you're like Exega cross compiling slackware current on a rpi, some temperature read outs with a load on the system would be helpful.

glorsplitz, yes, compact housing and adequate heat dissipation. Its product description is accurate.

I've often thought about trying one of these armor enclosures to see how effective they are at cooling. Do you have any stats on temperatures while under load, etc? Would be interesting to compare them to the Ice Tower cooler.

I posted a link with documented measurements (#2). I cannot suggest better site for this.
From the other hand I have a passive cooler similar to the one posted in #11. I use that RPi4 as kodi and works perfectly, can play any [supported] kind of video. Based on the official documentation RPi4 can work well [at least] from 0°C to 70°C.

I have also RPi2 with that low profile heatsink (you mentioned) in the official case and that works well too (but that one is not really overloaded, only transmission daemon and pihole are installed). I bought a power supply with a built-in switch for that, like this: https://www.banggood.com/5V-3A-Type-...p-1627438.html