There is no doubt that the Raspberry Pi 4 is significantly more powerful than its predecessors, and especially in the model that comes with 8 GB of RAM. This fact has caused many users to wonder if it is worth buying a Raspberry Pi 4 to use as a conventional desktop PC , since the monetary investment in doing so will obviously be less. Let’s see it.
The latest version of the Raspberry Pi is based on an ARM Cortex A72 microarchitecture processor, with four cores and quite high operating speeds. The graphics subsystem has also been strengthened compared to previous versions, as it now has almost double the power, a fact that may lead us to wonder if it is a viable option as a desktop PC, even if it is for office tasks and Internet browsing .
What do you need to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as a desktop PC?
Obviously, if you want to use the Raspberry Pi 4 as a desktop PC, the initial investment will not only be for the Raspberry itself, but you will need external peripherals such as the monitor, keyboard and mouse. There is an official desk kit that you can buy but we do not recommend doing it since it has a quite considerable price and it really is a not very ergonomic keyboard and a rather mediocre mouse that are not worth what they cost.
With the exception of the source of official power of 15.3 watts and the protective housing, both recommended accessories, the other officers not worth it. It is also advisable to use a micro SD card with the highest possible capacity, since if you intend to use your Raspberry as a desktop PC you will start to store files of all kinds and you will soon run out of space.
You must also bear in mind that you cannot install Windows operating system on a Raspberry Pi, at least not natively and that it does not cause problems, so the best option is to work with GNU / Linux and the free-use office programs that you can easily find on the net.
Is it worth it as a desktop PC?
The two micro HDMI outputs on the Raspberry Pi 4 make it possible to use it with a dual monitor setup, which is already a huge productivity advantage. In addition, its updated GPU allows it to handle 4K resolution, although it is true that users who have tried to use two monitors of this resolution at the same time have noticed quite a lot of graphic lag, since the limited bandwidth of the interface forces both monitors operate at as low as 30 Hz.
The 4 GB RAM version of this device may be “enough” to work, but without a doubt the best option is the 8 GB one because it will work more comfortably with all kinds of applications and programs that you are going to need to use in your day. day to day, even if it’s just for office applications. With this variant there are no problems with LibreOffice or OpenOffice, viewing videos on YouTube, etc.
The latest stable version of Raspberry Pi OS is still 32-bit, and this limits the memory consumption that each open process can have to 3 GB of RAM. In theory, a single application will never use 4/8 GB of RAM, and many of you will wonder if the Chrome browser thinks the same, as it is famous for devouring RAM memory. You don’t need to worry, because even with Chromium each tab is considered a separate process, so each one would be limited to 3GB of memory.
Now, you must take into account several things if you intend to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as a desktop PC, and it has many limitations. Although it can do most of the things that a normal desktop PC has many limitations, especially because of Linux incompatibility with ARM in some cases. If you ask yourself, you will never be able to replace a PC with this device, since in the end you will be limited by development elements as well as performance.
In other words, yes, you can use a Raspberry Pi 4 as a desktop PC perfectly, even with dual monitor configurations, but as long as you use it for office tasks, Internet browsing and multimedia entertainment. Whether you need to edit video / audio or even play games, it will fall short and a lot.