Over the past few months, I had a bit of spare cash in hand, so I thought it was time for an upgrade. But which upgrade path should I take? I agonized over this decision for a very long time. Should I pick up a used 1U server? Should I build a new PC with all these new Ryzen options? Or should I just upgrade my current desktop? In the end, I ended up with the most economical solution of all: the humble Raspberry Pi 4. I built it together with a fan, heatsinks, and a fan to remove more heat. It is powered by the official USB-C charger. That is all. Here is a picture of it in all its glory. I swear I will take a better picture of it one day.
You are still reading? Well I was planning to have a lab of my own for all kinds of applications, you see. I was also blinded by the plethora of stuff to experiment with. But I got greedy. Looking at the terabytes of LRDIMMs you can fit into a 2U hyperscale server does things to your mind. Never mind the fact that it was all just a pipe dream. I would never have the cash the buy all that RAM nor the applications to fully utilize said RAM. Same goes for all the CPU cores too. Do I *REALLY* need a 44-thread CPU running a few hundred watts on idle? Nah.
What about upgrading my CPU then? Turns out my CPU is so old there are no upgrade options that can justify forking any amount of money for it. I'd rather just build a new PC with the money. But then, even a new build with Ryzen 3600 still costs a pretty penny. Also, I would have to find a space somewhere to fit another micro-ATX case with all its cables and heat ventilation concerns.
Which brings me back to the little Raspberry Pi 4. 4 cores, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and gigabit Ethernet. After giving myself a wake up call, I realized nothing fit my needs quite like this open-source oriented SBC. Yes, it isn't 'FSF certified' free, but given the reputation the Raspberry Pi Foundation has built over the years, I am more than happy to support their cause. I look forward to migrating my experiments to this new addition to the family.
“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”
- Bilbo Baggins