Ever since the raspberry pi 4 had been announced I have killed off any other choice I had to upgrade my homemade NAS. If you read my previous article you’d know that I was about to settle on one of the odroids, or the pine line of single board computers. I had to purchase a cheap case from one of the handful of manufacturers that make rpi4 cases now or have a line of cases that just so happen to work with the new line of Pi’s. Mine just so seems to be the latter but I’m happy with it. It was around eight dollars and has a fan. Pair that with the canakit that I got with heatsinks to place on the chips that get hot and you get a board that struggles just to stay 50 degrees Celsius. To need a fan and heatsinks to stay that hot is a new problem to the rpi line. It’s a safe temperature but I really recommend that you get something with a fan because just heatsinks may not cut it this time(I’ll have links at the bottom for the kit I got and the case I found to go along with it). I immediately grabbed the test buster image for dietpi and plugged it up to my router to see the performance of the gigabit port that I’m so happy to finally have!!! I’m not going to do hardcore testing but will definitely throw real world scenarios at it. I’m installing and setting up Plex server, minidlna, and nfs for my various video servers. The 1.5 ghz quad processor, gigabit Ethernet, ac wireless and USB 3.0 all make for great ingredients for my use of it as a NAS(network attached storage). I’m still waiting on my new HDD to come in. I’m getting a Seagate 3.5 HDD to replace the 2.5 drive I have in my computer. When I have it out I have a 3.0 USB enclosure coming today for the 2.5 HDD, I’ll then use that with the powerful 3.0 USB ports on the pi to have the final piece to my NAS. I haven’t got to test yet but I’ve read the USB write speed is outstanding with the 3.0 addition. The pi has finally made it to the place of replacing your work computer with everything except for the capability of gaming for under 50 dollars. The raspberry pi has always been a very useful utility but it has evolved into such a powerful affordable piece of tech. Order one for your next project, order one to keep in your drawer, order one for a friend. If you want to learn Linux, or are a command line guru this is still a board for you. I got the 2 gb board but it’s available in 1 gb, 2gb, or all the way up to 4gb.
Here is a canakit with an official case. I truly advise getting a canakit because of the power supply you need for the pi is specific on the 4 and the canakit has a very good one
CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Basic Starter Kit with Official Case (2GB RAM)
Full disclosure, my broke self makes money if you click on these Amazon links. I don’t do these articles or reviews for money they are there just for spare change
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